Submissions

Author Guidelines

All material submitted for publication is assumed to be submitted exclusively to the International Journal of Care Scholars (IJCS) unless the contrary is stated. Manuscript decisions are based on a double-blinded peer review process. The Editor retains the right to determine the style and if necessary, edit and shorten any material accepted for publication. All manuscripts submitted must be original and must be submitted online through our website.

Instructions for registration and submission are found on the webpage. All final ‘proof’ submissions must be accompanied by a completed Copyright Assignment Form, duly signed by all authors. British English should be used. Manuscript text should be submitted using Microsoft Word (in .doc or .docx only). Images should be submitted as TIFF files. Submissions received via hard copy will not be accepted. 

 

ARTICLE TYPES

IJCS will publish original research articles and case reports as well as review articles in all related areas on the care of individual, family and community. Our expertise and interest, including the topics related to nursing care, medical care, collaborative care, transdisciplinary care, patient and healthcare provider education. It also covers management and ethics issues related to individual, family and community care. 

 

ORGANISATION

All submissions must use a 12-point font Times New Roman, double-spaced throughout. There should be a 2.5 cm wide margin on all sides. Each section should be on a new page and number the pages consecutively. The following documents are required for each submission:
1. TITLE PAGE
2. ABSTRACT AND KEYWORDS
3. TEXT
4. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (IF ANY)
5. CONFLICT OF INTEREST
6. REFERENCES

* Manuscripts which do not adhere to the above guidelines will be returned to the corresponding author without being sent for review.

 

TITLE PAGE

In separate lines, title page should contain the title of the manuscript, the name(s) and affiliation(s) of the author(s), and the mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the corresponding author. The title must be specific, concise and informative.

 

ABSTRACT AND KEYWORDS

- The abstract of original articles should be structured and not exceed 300 words. The structured abstracts should have the following headings: Objective, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. 

- Abstracts of manuscripts of other categories should be unstructured.

- Avoid symbols and abbreviations in the abstract. Provide a minimum of three (3) and a maximum of six (6) keywords.

 

TEXT

This section should consist of Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion. Cite all References and Figures mentioned in the text in Arabic numerals (e.g. 1, 2, 3), and Table(s) in Roman numerals (e.g. I, II, III).

Introduction: briefly review important prior publications and state the reasons for the investigation being reported.
Material and methods: description of methods, equipment and techniques (including statistical treatments used in the research).

Statistics: Clearly describe the statistical methods used with sufficient detail to enable a reader to verify the reported results. Where possible, a clear numerical and graphical presentation of the results is recommended. The results of the primary analysis should preferably be reported using Effect Size and/or Confidence Intervals in addition to P values. 

Results: Results should be presented in a logical sequence, referring to Tables, and Figures etc.
Discussion: Elaborate on the new and important findings of the study. Do not repeat in detail data or other information already given in the Introduction or the Results sections. Compare and discuss with previous works (citing references). Discuss the implications of the findings and their limitations.
Conclusions: This should clearly explain the main conclusions of the work highlighting its importance and relevance.
Ethical Matters: Authors using experimental animals and human subjects in their investigation must seek approval from the appropriate Ethical Committee. The method section must include a statement to prove that the investigation was approved and that informed consent was obtained.  

 

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

All submissions to the International Journal of Care Scholars must include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest. The Editor may use such information as a basis for editorial decisions and will publish such disclosures if they are believed to be important to readers in judging the manuscript.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Acknowledgements should be included at the end of the text and not in footnotes. Personal acknowledgements should precede those of institutions or agencies. Acknowledge those people who contributed towards the study but do not qualify to be authors (including technical assistance, manuscript reading etc). Any other information concerning research grants (Grant awarding bodies) should be indicated. 

 

REFERENCES 

It is the authors’ responsibility to check all references carefully for accuracy and completeness. Number references consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text.
References should be identified in the text, Tables and Legends by Arabic numerals. Use Vancouver style. Examples of correct references are given at the end of these instructions.

 

MANUSCRIPT – ANONYMISED VERSION

Reviews are double-blinded. Thus authors should provide also a cover page with the Title but without names of authors. All forms of identification (names, institutions) must be removed from the text of the article.

 

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

Use only standard abbreviations. Avoid the use of abbreviations and symbols in the title and abstract. Use the full term first and subsequently the abbreviation. Use the full term if it is a
standard unit of measurement. In general, symbols and abbreviations should be those used by British Chemical and Physiological Abstracts. Weights, volumes, etc. should be in metric units.

 

SUBMISSION OF REVISED MANUSCRIPTS

The authors are strongly advised to carefully read and if necessary revise the manuscripts in accordance with comments made by the reviewers and or the editors before resubmission. Two copies must be resubmitted. One copy should be a clean copy and the other as an annotated anonymised version. The authors are also required to provide a point-by-point reply for each of the comments made by the reviewers and/or the editors.

 

PROOFS

Upon acceptance for publication, copyediting of the manuscript will be done to conform to the style of the Journal. The galley proof is then sent back to the authors who would then be responsible to carefully scrutinize and answer any further enquiries, should there be any. A copyright assignment form will also be sent at this stage and an immediate response (within one week) by the authors is required. Failure to comply may delay publication of the manuscript in a particular volume/issue of the Journal.

 

GUIDELINES FOR OTHER ARTICLE TYPES

REVIEW ARTICLES
Review articles can be submitted by any authors or by invitation. These are systematic critical assessments of literature and data sources, usually written by experts providing recent information on a given specialty. Each article should include an unstructured Abstract, up to six keywords, Introduction, relevant section headings, Conclusion and up to 75 References.

 

COPYRIGHT ASSIGNMENT FORM

All accepted submissions must be accompanied by a completed Copyright Assignment Form, signed by all authors. The form will be sent out with the galley proof once the manuscript has been accepted and the author is expected to return the form within one (1) week. The form and the proof can also be submitted together and sent to email: ijcs@iium.edu.my

 

PUBLICATION ETHICS

IJCS follows guidelines from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee for Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) related to all aspects of publication ethics, particularly on how to handle cases of research and publication misconduct. All studies must abide to a high ethical standard and adhere to local regulations and standards in obtaining scrutiny and approval from related body.

Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific endeavor.  Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation can be achieved by following the rules of good scientific practice. 

The manuscript has not been submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration. 

 

PLAGIARISM

IJCS use a plagiarism detection software Turnitin to screen for plagiarism. All submitted articles will be screened for plagiarism before undergoing a peer-review process.

 

EXAMPLES OF CORRECT FORMS OF REFERENCES

Vancouver style: If 7 or more authors, list the first 6 author(s) and abbreviate with et al.
Examples:
- Combination therapy is an effective strategy in neuropathy treatment, where a reduction of dose could decrease unpleasant side effects while producing effective analgesic
outcomes (1).
- The concept underlying antigen-specific immunotherapy is that autoantigen-specific
immunoregulatory mechanisms are physiological and can be boosted or restored to prevent pathological autoimmunity (2).

A. ARTICLES IN JOURNALS
1. AL-Mahmood SMA, Abdullah STBC, Ahmad NNFN, Mohamed AHB, Razak TA. Analgesic synergism of gabapentin and carbamazepine in rat model of diabetic neuropathic
pain. Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research. 2016;15 (6):1191-5.

B. BOOKS
2. Greenbaum CJ, Harrison LC. Diabetes: Translating research into practice: Taylor & Francis US; 2008.

 

FEE

This journal is free of charge.