Submission Preparation Checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
Covering letter
Authors
Presentation and format
Language and grammar
Tables and figures
Author Guidelines
The Editorial Process
Manuscripts are reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to International Journal of Forensic Medical Investigations alone at that point in time and has not been published elsewhere, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere. The Journal expects that one of the authors would be authorized to correspond in all matters related to the manuscript. All manuscripts received should be duly acknowledged and on submission, editors would review all submitted manuscripts initially for suitability for formal review. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or those that lack significant message are rejected before proceeding for formal peer-review. Manuscripts that are unlikely to be of interest to International Journal of Forensic Medical Investigations readers or those that significantly fail plagiarism test are also liable to be rejected at this stage.
Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication in the Journal would be sent to two or more expert reviewers. During submission, the contributor is requested to provide names of two or three qualified reviewers with experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but the reviewers should not be affiliated with the same institutes as the contributor/s. The selection of these reviewers is however at the sole discretion of the editor. The Journal follows a double-blind review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identity. Every 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 comments and suggestions (acceptance/ rejection/ amendments in manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author. If required, the author is requested to provide a point by point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated till reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript.
Manuscripts accepted for publication would be copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format, and the page proofs sent to the corresponding author. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within three days. The whole process of submission of the manuscript to final decision and sending and receiving proofs is completed online. To achieve faster and greater dissemination of knowledge and information, the Journal would publish articles online as ‘Ahead of Print’ immediately on acceptance.
Authorship Criteria
Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to each of the three components mentioned below:
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 of the manuscript. 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
Contribution Details
Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests: Contributors should provide a description of contributions made by each of them towards the manuscript. Description should be divided in following categories, as applicable: concept, 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 along with the article at the editor’s discretion. One or more author should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole from inception to published article and should be designated as 'guarantor'.
All authors must disclose any and all conflicts of interest they may have with publication of the manuscript or 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.
Submission of Manuscripts
All manuscripts must be submitted online through the website https://www.ijfmi.org/. First time users will have to register at this site. Registration is free but mandatory. 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 and publication of manuscripts. A processing fee of $60 is charged for manuscripts that have been accepted. For possible queries, please contact the editorial office by e-mail at editor@ijfmi.org
The submitted manuscripts that are not as per the “Instructions to Authors” would be returned to the authors for technical correction, before they undergo editorial/ peer-review. Generally, the manuscript should be submitted in the form of two separate files:
[1] Title Page/First Page File/covering letter:
This file should provide:
[2] Blinded Article file:
The main text of the article, beginning from Abstract till References (including tables) should be in this file. The file must not contain any mention of the authors' names or initials or the institution at which the study was done or acknowledgements. Page headers/running title can include the title but not the authors' names. Manuscripts not in compliance with the Journal's blinding policy will be returned to the corresponding author. Use rtf/doc files. Do not zip the files. Limit the file size to 1 MB. Do not incorporate images in the file. If file size is large, graphs can be submitted as images separately without incorporating them in the article file to reduce the size of the file. The pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the first page of the blinded article file.
Images
Submit good quality colour images. Each image should be less than 2 MB in size. Size of the image can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images (keep up to 1600 x 1200 pixels or 5-6 inches). Images can be submitted as jpeg files. Do not zip the files. Legends for the figures/images should be included at the end of the article file. Print ready hard copies of the images (one set) or digital images should be sent to the Journal office at the time of submitting revised manuscript. High resolution images (up to 5 MB each) can be sent by email to editor-ijmfi@delsu.edu.ng /images@ijfmi.org.
The contributors'/ copyright transfer form (template provided below):
Click here to download copyright form
A contributors'/ copyright transfer form has to be submitted in original with the signatures of all the contributors within two weeks of submission via email to editor-ijmfi@delsu.edu.ng /copyrights@ijfmi.org as a scanned image.
Preparation of Manuscripts
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 2008). The uniform requirements and specific requirement of the International Journal of Forensic Medical Investigations are summarized below. Before submitting a manuscript, contributors are requested to check for the latest instructions available. The International Journal of Forensic Medical Investigations accepts manuscripts written in British English.
Copies of any permission(s)
It is the responsibility of authors/ contributors to obtain permissions for reproducing any copyrighted material. 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.
Types of Manuscripts
Original articles
These include randomized controlled trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic test, outcome studies, cost effectiveness analyses, case-control series, and surveys with high response rate. The text of original articles amounting to up to 3000 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. It should neither review the subject extensively nor should it have results or conclusions of the study. Usually not more than 1500 words.
Materials and Methods: It should include and describe the following aspects;
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.
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 should be placed in the appendix where it will be accessible but will not interrupt the flow of the text. 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. New hypotheses may be stated if needed, however they should be clearly labeled 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 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. Authors are advised to avoid using abstracts, as references and 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.
Tables: Tables should be self-explanatory and should not duplicate textual material. Tables with more than 10 columns and 25 rows and cross lines 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.
Illustrations (Figures): If a figure has been published elsewhere, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. A credit line should appear in the legend for such figures. Final figures for print production: Send sharp, glossy, un-mounted, color photographic prints, with height of 4 inches and width of 6 inches at the time of submitting the revised manuscript. Print outs of digital photographs are not acceptable. If digital images are the only source of images, ensure that the image has minimum resolution of 300 dpi or 1800 x 1600 pixels in TIFF format. Send the images on a CD. Each figure should have a label pasted (avoid use of liquid gum for pasting) on its back indicating the number of the figure, the running title, top of the figure and the legends of the figure. Do not write the contributor/s' name/s. Do not write on the back of figures, scratch, or mark them by using paper clips. 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.
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. The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size. Upload the images in JPEG format. The file size should be within 1024 kb in size while uploading.
Review Articles
It is expected that individuals who have done substantial work on the subject or are considered experts in the field would write these articles. A short 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 3000 words excluding tables, references and abstract. The manuscript may have about 90 references. The manuscript should have an unstructured Abstract (250 words) representing an accurate summary of the article. The section titles would depend upon the topic reviewed. 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. 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 editor, as and when major development occurs in the field.
Case reports
New, interesting and rare cases can be reported. They should be unique, describing a great diagnostic or therapeutic challenge and providing a learning point for the readers. Cases with clinical significance or implications will be given priority. These communications could be of up to 1000 words (excluding Abstract and references) and should have the following headings: Abstract (unstructured), Key-words, Introduction, Case report, Discussion, Reference, tables and legends in that order with up to 10 references. Case reports could be authored by up to four authors.
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. They should not be preliminary observations that need a later paper for validation. The letter could have up to 500 words and 5 references and not more than four authors may generally author it.
Other
The Editorial Board solicits Editorial, Guest Editorial, Commentary and Opinion.
Articles in Journals
Standard Journal article (for up to six authors): Igbigbi PS, Nwangwa EK, Odokuma EI, Onyesom I, Ojezele MO, Ominde B, Pattern of Distribution of Hemoglobin Genotype in Delta State University, Abraka. Int J Forensic Med Invest. 1996; 90:255–256
Standard Journal article (for more than six authors): List the first six contributors followed by et al.
Igbigbi PS, Nwangwa EK, Odokuma EI, Onyesom I, Ojezele MO, Ominde B et al., Pattern of Distribution of Hemoglobin Genotype in Delta State University, Abraka. Int J Forensic Med Invest. 1996; 90:255–256.
Volume with supplement: Igbigbi PS, Nwangwa EK, Odokuma EI, Onyesom I, Ojezele MO, Ominde B et al., Pattern of Distribution of Hemoglobin Genotype in Delta State University, Abraka. Int J Forensic Med Invest. 1996; Suppl 1:S2.
Books and Other Monographs
Personal author(s): Igbigbi PS. Introductory Neuroanatomy. 3rd ed. Pastaris Prints. 2008.
Editor(s), compiler(s) as author: John LS, Filarial Nematodes In: John LS (editor) Histology Practical Manual ASM press Washington DC 2007: pp 319-356.
Chapter in a book: Tejiri M C. Ascariasis and human nutrition. In Ascariasis and its prevention and control, D. W. T. Emmanuel, M. C. Hendrix and Z. S. Joan (eds.). Taylor and Francis, London, U.K.1989, pp. 87–100.
Electronic Sources as reference
Journal article on the Internet: Parija SC, Khairnar K. Detection of excretory Entamoeba histolytica DNA in the urine, and detection of E. histolytica DNA and lectin antigen in the liver abscess pus for the diagnosis of amoebic liver abscess. BMC Microbiology 2007, 7:41.doi:10.1186/1471-2180-741. Retrieved from http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2180/7/41 20th June, 2000
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 written informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients' names from figures unless they have obtained written informed consent from the patients. When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the article and copy of the consent should be attached with the covering letter.
Sending a revised manuscript
The revised version of the manuscript should be submitted online in a manner similar to that used for submission of the manuscript for the first time. But the “First Page” or “Covering Letter” file will not be required while submitting a revised version. Contributors are however expected to include, the ‘referees’ remarks along with point to point clarification at the beginning in the revised file itself while submitting the revised version. In addition, they are expected to mark the changes as underlined or colored text in the article.
Reprints and proofs
JFMI provides no free printed reprints. Authors can purchase reprints, payment for which should be done at the time of submitting the proofs which would be sent to the corresponding authors by email.
Manuscript submission, processing and publication charges
A non-refundable handling fee of N5,000 ($10) is charged before sending to reviewers. Upon favourable reports from at least two reviewers, a publication fee of N30,000 ($60) is charged per manuscript.
Contributor’s Templates
These ready to use templates are made to help the contributors write as per the requirements of the Journal.
Save the templates on your computer and use them with a word processor program.
Download Template for Original Articles/ABSTRACT Reports. (.DOT file)
Download Template for Case Reports. (.DOT file)
Download Template for Review Articles. (.DOT file)
Download Template for Letter to the Editor. (.DOT file)
Copyright Notice
Copyrights
The entire contents of the International Journal of Forensic Medical Investigation are protected under international copyrights. The Journal, however, holds all irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License
