Author Guidelines

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

 

In general, the manuscript should not have already been published in any journal or other citable form, although it may have been deposited on a preprint server. Authors are required to ensure that no material submitted as part of a manuscript infringes existing copyrights, or the rights of a third party. Manuscripts should be submitted by any one of the authors of the manuscript (preferably the corresponding author) through the online manuscript submission and peer-review system. All manuscripts received are duly acknowledged with a manuscript ID and all correspondence is done through e-mail. Please always refer to the manuscript ID for any further enquiries. In case of any problem through the online submission, submit manuscripts to our mail: editor.wjps@gmail.com preferably by the corresponding author.

 

EDITORIAL PROCEDURES AND PEER-REVIEW

Initial Checks

  • All the submitted manuscripts will be checked by an experienced editor to determine whether the submitted manuscript is properly prepared and whether they follow the ethical policies of the journal and contain all the necessary disclosures.
  • All the submitted manuscripts will be checked for the correctness of the references. The incomplete, inappropriate, or vague/misleading references may lead to desk rejection.
  • All the submitted articles will be checked for the English language at this stage and authors may be asked for language editing by any native or professional English language editor.
  • The submitted articles will be screened for plagiarism using iThenticate (online plagiarism detection software). Please read plagiarism policies for further details.
  • Manuscripts that are not properly prepared will be returned to the authors for revision and resubmission.
  • Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or lack of a significant message, or if not prepared as per journals instructions are rejected without a formal peer-review.

Peer-Review

The manuscript that passes the initial check/desk review, is subjected to double-blinded peer-review. The manuscript will be reviewed by a minimum of two suitable experts (whose identities will remain anonymous to the authors) in the respective subject area. Please refer to our peer-review policies for details.

Editorial Decision and Revision

The reports of all the reviewers will be considered while making the decision on a submitted manuscript. Editor-In-Chief will make the final decision, based on the reviewer’s comments. The journal may consult the different experts and editor(s) in order to reach an appropriate decision. Authors are required to respond to all the reviewers and submit the point-wise clarification for the comments of the reviewers and handling editor. Authors must provide a clear response in their rebuttal letter wherever they disagree with a reviewer or editor.

Appeals

The authors may appeal against the negative decision with suitable arguments if they feel that there is a major misunderstanding over a technical aspect or failure to understand the scientific advance shown by the manuscript. Appeals requesting a second opinion without sufficient justification will not be considered. Please write to the journal via email in order to submit an appeal. Appeals will only be considered from the original submitting author.

Galley Proofs and publication

Manuscripts that are accepted for publication are subjected to copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Page proofs are 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 through the online submission and peer-review system. To achieve faster and greater dissemination of knowledge and information, the journal publishes articles online as ‘Online First’ immediately on acceptance.

PREPRINTS

Journal encourages posting of preprints of primary research manuscripts on preprint servers, authors’ or institutional websites. Preprints may be posted at any time during the peer-review process. Posting of preprints is not considered prior to publication and will not affect consideration at this journal. Please read our preprint policies for details.

 

ARTICLE TYPES

The journal will consider the following article types;

Research Articles: The articles that present the results of the original research study are considered as research articles. These manuscripts should describe how the research project was conducted and provide a thorough analysis of the results of the project. The research articles should include the following in the order given below:

  • Abstract,
  • Keywords
  • Introduction
  • Materials and Methods
  • Results including Tables and/or Figures
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
  • Appendixes [if necessary]
  • Abbreviations used [if necessary]

Systematic reviews may be submitted as research articles

Reviews and mini-reviews: A review article provides an overview of the published literature in a particular subject area. A review article should contain an abstract, keywords, introduction, methods (including data sources, study selection, and data extraction), results and conclusion, acknowledgment, and references.

Short Communication: Short Communications are brief reports that present original and significant research and need to be published quickly. It may focus on a hot topic or may have new findings that are expected to have a significant impact on a current problem. Short communications are expected to have a higher-than-average impact.

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.

Letter to the editor: It should be brief 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.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

The manuscript should be typed, double-spaced on standard A4 sized paper (8.5" x 11") with 1" margins on all sides. Times New Roman font 12 pt should be used. The fonts used in the text, as well as graphics, should be restricted to Times New Roman, Symbol and Zapf Dingbats. 

Title page

The title page should contain a clear, concise, and informative title of the article followed by the names and affiliations of the authors. The affiliation should comprise the department, institution, city, and state (or nation) and should be typed as a footnote to the author's name. The Corresponding Author must indicate his or her complete mailing address, office/cellular phone number, fax number, and email address at the lower left of the Title Page.

Article Structure

Abstract

The abstract should not more than 200 words and should provide brief details about objectives of study, materials and methods, Results and Conclusions. The abstract should not be structured, it should be a single paragraph without subheadings. The abstract must be followed by four-six keywords.

Introduction

This should be brief and indicates the aim of the study and the essential background information. The introduction should clearly state the hypothesis or purpose statement, how and why the purpose or hypothesis was developed and why the author deems it important.

Materials and methods

Please provide concise but complete information about the material and the analytical, statistical, and experimental procedures used. This part should be as clear as possible to enable other scientists to repeat the research presented. The use of subheadings to divide the text is encouraged. Primary headings should be in BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS. Secondary or subheadings should be in Bold sentence case. Third level subheadings should be in Italicized sentence Case. In the case of animal/human experiments or clinical trials, authors must give the details of ethical approval.

Result and Discussion

Data acquired from the research with the appropriate statistical analysis described in the methods section should be included in this section. In this part, the same data/ information given in a table must not be repeated in a figure or vice versa. Tables and Figures should be self-explanatory and it is not acceptable to repeat extensively the numerals from tables into text and give lengthy and unnecessary explanations of the Tables and Figures. The discussion should relate the results to the current understanding of the scientific problems being investigated in the field.

Conclusion

This should clearly explain the main conclusions of the work highlighting its importance and relevance.

References

Journal references

One author: Abada EA. Isolation and characterization of antimicrobial compound from Bacillus coagulans. Anim Cells Syst 2008; 12:41-6.

Two authors: Vu-Duc T, Vernay A. Simultaneous detection and quantitation of O6-monoacetylmorphine, morphine and codeine in urine by gas chromatography with nitrogen specific and/or flame ionization detection. Biomed Chromatogr 1990; 4(2): 65–9.

Three or more authors: Moran GJ et al. Methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus in community-acquired skin infections. Emerg Infect Dis 2005; 11: 928-30.

Article in press: Ladines CA et al. Impaired renal D1-like and D2-like dopamine receptor interaction in the spontaneously hypertensive rat. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 2008 (in press).  

Electronic publication ahead of print: Teeuwen PHE. Doppler-guided intra-operative fluid management during major abdominal surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Clin Pract (accessed 21 November 2007, epub ahead of print).  

Corporate author: The Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. Clinical exercise stress testing. Safety and performance guidelines. Med J Aust 1996; 164: 282-4.

Article not in English: Sokolov S et al. [Studies of neurotropic activity of new compounds isolated from Rhodiola rosea L. Khim Farm Zh 1985; 19: 1367–1371 [in Russian] 

Book references

Book by a single author: Crabtree RH. The Organometallic Chemistry of the Transition Metals, 3rd ed.; Wiley & Sons: New York, 2001.

An edited book: Ford HL, Sclafani RA, Degregori J. Cell Cycle Regulatory Casacade. In: Cell Cycle and Growth Control: Bimolecular Regulation and Cancer, 2nd ed, Stein GS, Pardee AB, Eds; Wiley- Liss: Hoboken, NJ, 2004; pp. 42-67.

An article in an edited book: Sanders PA. Aerosol packaging of pharmaceuticals. In: Banker GS, Rhodes CT, eds. Modern Pharmaceutics. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1979: 591–626.  

Conference Proceedings

Jakeman DL, Withers SGE. In: Carbohydrate Bioengineering: Interdisciplinary Approaches, Proceedings of the 4th Carbohydrate Bioengineering Meeting, Stockholm, Sweden, June 10-13, 2001; Teeri TT, Svensson B, Gilbert HJ, Feizi T, Eds; Royal Society of Chemistry: Cambridge, UK, 2002; pp. 3-8.

Patents

Hoch JA, Huang S. Screening methods for the identification of novel antibiotics. U.S. Patent 6,043,045, March 28, 2000.

Websites

National Library of Medicine. Specialized Information Services: Toxicology and Environmental Health. http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/Tox/ToxMain.html (Accessed May 23, 2004).

Thesis

Mackel H. Capturing the Spectra of Silicon Solar Cells. PhD Thesis, The Australian National University: Canberra, December 2004.

For other types of citation, please see “Uniform Requirement for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Sample References” at www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html

TABLES & FIGURES

Tables and figures should not be embedded in the text but should be included at the end of the manuscript on separate pages. Tables should be created with a word processor and cited consecutively in the text. To ensure the highest print quality, your figures must be submitted in TIF/JPG/JPEG format with a minimum 300 dpi or higher resolutions. Captions/legends will be placed below figures and adjusted to 10 font size.

AUTHORSHIP AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Authorship

All the authors in a manuscript are equally responsible for the technical information communicated to the journal. Thus, it is necessary that all authors must read and approve the final version of the manuscript before submitting it to the journal. All named authors must have made an active contribution to the conception and design and/or analysis and interpretation of the data and/or the drafting of the paper and all must have critically reviewed its content and have approved the final version submitted for publication. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship.

WJPS follows the definition of authorship given by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

  • Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  • Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  • Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Acknowledgments

All acknowledgments should be included at the very end of the paper before the references and may include supporting grants, presentations, and so forth. Contributors who do not qualify as authors should be mentioned under Acknowledgements.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

A conflict of interest may exist when an author or the author’s institution has a financial or other relationship with other people or organizations that may inappropriately influence the author’s work. A conflict can be actual or potential and full disclosure to the journal is the safest course. All submissions to the journal must include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest. The journal may use such information as a basis for the editorial decisions and may publish such disclosures if they are believed to be important to readers while judging the manuscript. A decision may be made by the journal not to publish on the basis of the declared conflict.
FUNDING SOURCES

The authors must declare all sources of funding received for the research submitted to the journal. Authors should give the name of granting agencies and grant numbers, along with a short description of each funder’s role.  Only the funding related to the submitted work should be mentioned and authors are NOT required to provide the complete list of every single grant that supports them.
 

ORIGINALITY AND PLAGIARISM

Authors should ensure the originality of their content while preparing a manuscript draft. In case the authors have used the work and/or words of others this must be appropriately cited or quoted. All the articles submitted to WJPS shall be screened for plagiarism using iThenticate (online plagiarism detection software). In case, plagiarism is detected during the review/editorial process, such manuscript(s) will be rejected immediately. Please read our plagiarism policy for details.

 

REPORTING STANDARDS

Authors of the original research article must present accurate data of work performed during their research. Authors are also expected to discuss the objective of their work and the significance of their results. An article should contain sufficient information and references to ensure the reproducibility of the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements considered unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
DATA ACCESS AND RETENTION

Authors may be asked to provide the raw/supplementary data for a paper that is under editorial review. The authors should be prepared to provide the public access to these data (if practicable) and to retain such data for a reasonable time after the publication.

ETHICAL APPROVALS

Patient Rights: Patients have a right to privacy thus; all the studies should be conducted with informed consent. No identifying information should be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the article. Investigations with human subjects must follow the ethical standards formulated in the Helsinki Declaration of 1964, revised in 2013. All the experiments should be approved by the institutional human experimentation committee or equivalent.

Animal Rights: Animal experiments must follow the ethical standards for the care and use of laboratory animals. The article involved the animal experiments must seek approval(s) from the appropriate Ethical Committee in accordance with the "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" and ARRIVE guidelines. 

Clinical trial registry

Clinical trials must follow the CONSORT guidelines. We advise the authors to register the clinical trials with a clinical trial registry that allows free online access to the public. Registration in the following trial registers is acceptable:

http://www.ctri.in/http://www.actr.org.au/
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/;  http://isrctn.org/
http://www.trialregister.nl/  and http://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr.

ABBREVIATIONS

Standard abbreviations should be used throughout the manuscript. All nonstandard abbreviations should be kept to a minimum and must be defined in the text following their first use.

COPYRIGHT, LICENSE, AND OPEN ACCESS

  • The journal allows the author(s) to retain the copyright of their work. Authors do not need to transfer the copyright of their work to the journal. 
  • All the articles published in WJPS are distributed under a creative common’s attribution 4.0 International license.
  • All the articles published in WJPS are made freely accessible online immediately after publication in an easily readable format, without any subscription or registration barrier.
  • The journal also allows the authors to self-archive the final accepted version of the articles on any OAI-compliant institutional/subject-based repository.

Use of third-party material

Authors must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in the article. If authors wish to include any material in their paper for which they do not hold copyright, and which is not marked as open-access, they will need to obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to submission to this journal. Please make an appropriate citation for the open-access material and follow the license terms. Please read the Open Access and Copyright policies for further details.

ARTICLE-PROCESSING CHARGES
The authors are required to pay Rs. 1200/- INR (Indian Authors) or USD 50 (Foreign Authors) for APCs upon acceptance of the manuscript. APCs are applicable only to the accepted articles.