Author Guidelines

1. General Criteria for Article/Manuscript Acceptance

The selection of material for publication in the JPAFP is based on the following criteria:

· Suitability for the journal’s subject scope.

· Scientific soundness, originality, salience, and timeliness of the information.

· Compliance with the standards of medical ethics governing research conducted on human and animal subjects.

· Compliance with specific research reporting protocols.

· Coherence of the research design and methodology.

Manuscripts must comply with the specifications outlined in these Instructions and Guidelines in order to be accepted. Authors should carefully read all sections before submitting papers through the online system to ensure the paper will meet the conditions for publication. Manuscripts not following the standard format of JPAFP will immediately be returned to authors. The journal may also refuse to publish any manuscript whose authors fail to answer editorial queries satisfactorily.

2. Manuscript Specifications

Manuscripts must be prepared using a Microsoft Word, in double-space, single column, using 12-pt. characters in Times New Roman or Arial script.

Figures may be in color or black and white and should be provided in an editable format. Once articles are accepted for publication, authors may be asked to send figures and tables in a more clear and readable format.

3. Formatting Requirements

The general formatting for the JPAFP sections is presented as follows:

Sections	Words (Maximum)	References	Tables/Figures
Original Research Article	4000-5000	Up to 40	Up to 5
Review	3500-4000	Up to 40	Up to 5
Special Reports	3500-4000	Up to 35	Up to 4
Brief Communication	3000	Up to 15	Up to 2
Opinions and Analyses	3000	Up to 25	Up to 2

NOTE: Word count excluding abstract, tables, figures, and references.

4. Title

The manuscript’s title should be clear, precise, and concise and include all the necessary information to identify the scope of the article. A good title is the first entry point to the article’s content and facilitates its retrieval in databases and search engines. Titles may not exceed 15 words. Ambiguous words, jargon, and abbreviations should be avoided. Titles separated by periods or divided into parts should also be avoided.

5. Authorship

JPAFP defines authorship in agreement with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines, which recommend that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

(1) Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work

 (2) Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.

(3) Final approval of the version to be published.

(4) 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.” Authors must declare in the cover letter the contribution of every author.

Although the submission system includes fields for 8 authors only, the JPAFP accepts more than 8 authors for a given manuscript. All authors should be mentioned in the cover letter.

6. Abstract and Keywords Page

The abstract is the second point of entry for an article and must enable readers to determine the article’s relevance and decide whether to read the entire text. Original research articles or systematic reviews must be accompanied by a structured abstract of no more than 250 words, divided into the following sections: (a) Objectives, (b) Methods, (c) Results, and (d) Conclusions.

Other types of contributions must also be accompanied by an informative abstract of no more than 250 words. The abstract should not include any information or conclusions that do not appear in the main text. It should be written in the third person and should not contain footnotes, unknown abbreviations, or bibliographic citations.

7. Body of the Article

Original research articles and systematic reviews are usually organized according to the IMRAD (Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, and Discussion) format. While subheadings may be needed throughout the body, typically the paragraph that begins the body does not need to be titled “Introduction” as this is usually eliminated during the editing process. However, the article’s objective should be clearly stated at the end of the introductory section. The “Results and Discussion” sections may require subheadings. And “Conclusions”, which must be included at the end of the “Discussion” session, may also be identified by a subheading.

Review articles are usually structured similarly to original research articles but must include a section describing the methods used for selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data.

Brief communications follow the same sequence of original articles, but usually omit subdivision headings.

Other types of contributions have no predefined structure and may use other subdivisions, depending on their content. When using abbreviations, give the full term the first time an abbreviation or acronym is mentioned in the text followed by the abbreviation or acronym in parentheses. As much as possible, abbreviations should be avoided. In general, abbreviations should reflect the expanded form in the same language as that of the manuscript.

Footnotes are clarifications or marginal explanations that would interrupt the natural flow of the text; therefore, their use should be kept to a minimum. Footnotes are numbered consecutively and appear at the bottom of the page on which they are cited. Links or references to cited documents must be included in the references list.

Citations are essential to the manuscript and must be relevant and current. Citations serve to identify the original sources of the referred-to concepts, methods, and techniques resulting from earlier research, studies, and experiences. The JPAFP follows the ICMJE Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals style for references (known as “Vancouver Style”), which is based largely on an American National Standards Institute style adapted by the U.S. National Library of Medicine for its databases. Recommended formats for a variety of document types and examples are available below

Zhou J, He P, Qin Y, Ren D. A selection model based on SWOT analysis for determining a suitable strategy of prefabrication implementation in rural areas. Sustainable Cities and Society. 2019 Oct 1;50:101715.

Yin J, Ma Z, Yu H, Jia M, Liao G. Transformational leadership and employee knowledge sharing: Explore the mediating roles of psychological safety and team efficacy. Journal of Knowledge Management. 2019 Nov 8.

Yuwen P, Chen W, Lv H, Feng C, Li Y, Zhang T, Hu P, Guo J, Tian Y, Liu L, Sun J. Albumin and surgical site infection risk in orthopaedics: a meta-analysis. BMC surgery. 2017 Dec;17(1):1-9.

References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text, and identified by Arabic numerals in parentheses in text, tables, and legends.

Examples: “It has been observed (3, 4) that…”

or: “Several studies (1-5) have shown that …”

8. Tables and Figures

Tables present information usually numerical in an ordered, systematic arrangement of values in rows and columns. The presentation should be easy for the reader to grasp, supplementing, without duplicating, the information in the text. Too much statistical information may also be hard to interpret. Tables should be uploaded separately from text files and left in an editable format (preferably a word file) and not as objects extracted from other files or embedded in Word documents. Each table should have a brief, but complete title, including place, date, and source of the information. The column headers should also be as brief as possible and indicate the unit of measure or the relative base (percentage, rate, index)

Figures include graphs, diagrams, line drawings, maps, and photographs. They should be used to highlight trends and to illustrate comparisons clearly and exactly. Figures should be easy to understand and should add information, not repeat what has been previously stated in the text or the tables. Legends should be as brief as possible, but complete, and include place, date, and source of the information. Figures should be sent in a separate file, in their original editable format, following standards of the most common software programs (Excel, Power Point, Open Office, .eps).

9. Manuscript Submission

      You can send the cover letter, manuscript text file (including title page and manuscript text) and figures/images as email attachments to: submissions@jpafp.org

10. Publication Charges

	National Manuscripts	International Manuscripts
Processing Fee	Rs. 2000	USD 20
Publication Fee	Rs 10,000	USD 100

11. Journal Subscription Rates (Print Version)

 Rs. 600/- Issue; Rs. 2,000/- year (4 Issues) Rs. 500/- for Additional Copy.

 Complimentary copies for all life members of JPAFP and leading medical institutions of the country.