Author Guideline

The manuscript should be formatted in single spacing and the lines should not be numbered. The text of your paper should be saved as a .doc file with the author's name and submitted on the website. Manuscripts are expected to document the origin and specificity of reagents used, particularly antibodies and document institutional authorization for conducting research in humans and animals (unless it is a case report), conduct adequate statistical analyses and comprehensively report statistical results in English language. Articles and Reviews could also be accompanied with representative colour photographs or illustrations that summarize the work. This may be selected for display in the index. Any involvement of medical writers/researchers, particularly those employed or supported by the pharmaceutical industry, in the writing of an article must be clearly defined and disclosed in the Authorship and/or the Acknowledgements section as appropriate. This type of involvement must also be disclosed to the Editor-in-Chief in the cover letter.

Submitted manuscripts are assigned to an Associate Editor and/or an Editorial Board member who are responsible for its evaluation. They may get it evaluated by another expert in the field. The Editor-in-Chief’s decision regarding publication is based on the recommendation of the reports of reviewers, which will, at the Editors’ discretion, be transmitted to the corresponding author.

Editorial policy

Journal of Integrative Medicine Case Reports adheres to the highest standards concerning its editorial policies on publication ethics, scientific misconduct, consent and peer review criteria. The journal follows guidance produced by bodies that include the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

We take seriously all possible misconduct. If an Editor, author or reader has concerns that a submitted article describes something that might be considered to constitute misconduct in research and publication they should forward their concerns to the journal.

Peer review process

Articles submitted to Integrative Medicine Case Reports are subject to peer review by at least two experts. The journal operates single-blind peer review whereby the names of the reviewers are hidden from the author.

Integrative Medicine Case Reports is committed to transparency. Every article we publish includes a description of its provenance (commissioned or not commissioned) and whether it was internally or externally peer-reviewed.

Cover Letter

A cover letter should specify:

• Type of submission (Case Report, Research Article, Review, etc.)
• The corresponding author complete with a mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and an email address.
• A statement by the author certifying that all co-authors have seen and agree with the contents of the manuscript.
• Certify that the submission (aside from an abstract) is not under review at any other publication.
• Authorship Contributions
• The name, address, fax number and e-mail address of the person who will deal with correspondence, including verification proofs.
• The total number of pages, figures, tables and equations.
• The total number of words in (i) the whole manuscript; (ii) the Abstract; and (iii) the Introduction.
• A list of four or five keywords not appearing in the title, preceded by “Keywords:”

Discussion

The Discussion could contain the summary of the major findings while avoiding repetition of the statements in Abstract or the Results. Citing literature supporting or defying the findings should be provided. The Discussion should be able to project a major advancement of a scientific concept, method or effect.

Conclusion

The Conclusion should contain the outcome of the results. It always requires a strong concluding remark to leave an impact on the readers.

Authorship

Papers should be submitted for consideration only once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors. The authorship consent proforma for the same may be provided by the editorial office.

The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. Following is the criteria for authorship.

• Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content
• Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
• Approved the version to be published.
• Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or analysis or interpretation of data, Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research does not constitute authorship.

Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

Ethical Standards

All studies using human or animal subjects should include carrying a declaration identifying the Institution or Review Committee which approved the study. For a case report, only informed consent from the patient/ individual is required. Editors reserve the right to reject papers if there is doubt whether appropriate procedures were followed or competing financial interests have not been disclosed.

• Studies with human subjects
• When human subjects are included in the study, manuscript must be accompanied by a statement that the experiments were undertaken with the written consent of each subject, and that the study conforms with institute ethical committee guidelines. Those who do not have access to ethical committees may submit the informed consent as notified above.

Experimental Animals

In the studies involving experimental animals, the methods section must briefly state that adequate care was taken to minimize pain or discomfort and the corresponding ethical committee should also be identified. The species, strain, sex, age, supplier and numbers of animals used should also be specified. If transgenic or knockout animals are used, the established nomenclatures must be used.

Reagents

The control experiments that were conducted to ensure the specificity of the method should be described, along with key references to previous work with this reagent. For antibodies, this documentation includes a precise description of the antigen, the nature of the antibody (species, purification), the supplier, catalogue number, and specificity tests performed.

Competing Interests/ Conflict Of Interest

If there is likely to be economic gain (patents, financial investments, consulting agreements) close bracket resulting from having utilized experimental approaches, instruments, methods or drugs, or having discussed such items in the manuscript, represents a competing interest. Competing interests should be clearly disclosed and described in detail in the Acknowledgements since Journal of Integrative Medicine requires such disclosure. It is in the interest of the author to disclose such interests, and if the author does not declare any competing interest or doesn’t declare the adherence to ethical guidelines (unless it is a case report) it will be assumed that there exists no competing interest or absence of ethical approvals which will be reflected in the paper once it is accepted. In addition, the author can also declare a conflict of interest by suggesting exclusion of at least two reviewers. The article should comply with the International Committee of Medical Journal (ICMJE) Editor’s uniform requirements for the manuscripts.

Source of funding

We require all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. The author has to mention whether their research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors (where a single case report is submitted). Failure to provide this information will be considered a statement of no funding source and will be mentioned as such with publication.

Statistical Methods

A complete description of statistical methods is required. The main statistical results should be described in the Results section. The description of statistical results in the figure legends should be limited to important analysis. The description of the statistical results should include the degrees of freedom.

References

All references must be listed, and all listed references must be cited at least once in the main text. Vancouver style should be followed for all the references.

Journal Club

Graduate students or post-doctoral fellows can write a commentary on a published paper from any reputed journal and describe the findings under the following headings: Background Study design and Implication. Reports of national and international meetings, workshops, conferences and schools are welcome in a narrative style. The maximum limit is 1000 words.

Article Processing Charge (APC)

All articles published in the Integrative Medicine Case Reports are fully open access and freely available and do not need to pay any kind of fee for Publishing .

Research Article

The format of the manuscript should be as follows: Title page, Structured Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Authorship contribution, Acknowledgements, conflict of interest, Source of funding, Abbreviations, References. Headings and subheadings should not end with a full stop.

Abstract

Research articles should have a structured Abstract, which appears before the main body of the text. The Abstract should be written in complete sentences with headings Background, Purpose, Methods, Results and Conclusion (not exceeding 250 words) suitable for publication without the full article text. The use of abbreviations in the abstract should be avoided. Statistical results need not be described in the Abstract.

Introduction

The research article should be typed in Calibri font size 12, single space word format, readable in Word format. The length of the article should not exceed 5000 words and all the illustrations should be in Power point edition. Submissions are limited to a total of 7 figures and digital images are required. There is no limit on the number of tables. References should be limited to 60. The supplementary information, if any, should be provided with tables in word format while all figures must be included in power point.

Methods

The methods section should be written such that another researcher is able to reproduce the research work. Important methodological aspects of your research, should be described, even if such descriptions can also be found in prior publications. Companies from which materials were obtained should be listed with their country.

Results

The Results should contain both positive and negative results supported by valid statistical methods. Discussion should be avoided in this section.

Discussion

The Discussion could contain the summary of the major findings, while avoiding repetition of the statements in Abstract or the Results. Citing literature supporting or defying the findings should be provided. The Discussion should be able to project a major advancement of scientific concept, method or effect.

For Discussion, Conclusion, Limitation, acknowledgement, Authorship contribution, Ethical statement, Conflict of interest, Informed consent form, source of funding, References please See author guidelines.

Review articles are full length articles on topics of particular current interest. Proposals for Review articles are invited by the Editors-in-Chief, and Associate Editors. Journal also encourages independent submission of innovative and comprehensive reviews that provide complete framework of the topic including the historical aspects, progress in the field including controversies and promises. The review should not simply provide an outline of every point published by a paper but rather be structured to address a point in science covered by the Journal.

Review articles should have a structured Abstract, which appears before the main body of the text. The Abstract should be written in complete sentences with headings Background, Summary and key message (not exceeding 250 words) suitable for publication without the full article text. The use of abbreviations in the abstract should be avoided. Statistical results need not be described in the Abstract.

For Discussion, Conclusion, Limitation, acknowledgement, Authorship contribution, Ethical statement, Conflict of interest, Informed consent form, source of funding, References please See author guidelines.

Case Reports may include a single case study or a case series, such as a group of patients. They should be based on an intervention or on an interesting observation of a unique clinical case. Case reports such be a maximum 2500 words, not including references. No subheadings other than ‘Discussion’ are permitted. Figures are limited to a maximum of two, of which there is permitted up to 4 sub-panels per figure. No more than 20 references are permitted. The guidelines for case report such as Introduction, Case presentation, Discussion, Conclusion, Limitation, acknowledgement, Authorship contribution, Ethical statement, Conflict of interest, Informed consent form, source of funding, References.

Abstract

The Case Report should be of unstructured Abstract, which appears before the main body of the text. The Abstract should be written in complete sentences with heading summary of the study (not exceeding 250 words) suitable for publication without the full article text.

Introduction

The Case Report should be typed in Calibri font size 12, single space word format, readable in Word format. The length of the article should not exceed 2500 words,not including referenceNo subheadings other than ‘Discussion’ are permitted. Figures are limited to a maximum of two, of which there is permitted up to 4 sub-panels per figure. No more than 20 references are permitted.

Case presentation

The Case presentation section includes eligibility criteria, methods and results. It should be written such that another researcher is able to reproduce the research work. Important methodological aspects of your research, should be described, even if such descriptions can also be found in prior publications. Companies from which materials were obtained should be listed with their country.The Results should contain both positive and negative results supported by valid statistical methods. Discussion should be avoided in this section.

For Discussion, Conclusion, Limitation, acknowledgement, Authorship contribution, Ethical statement, Conflict of interest, Informed consent form, source of funding, References please See author guidelines.