Guidelines for Authors

Medicine and Healthaccepts articles for publication provided they are original contributions. No articles are published without the signed copyright form.

Publication in Medicine & Health implies that the authors agree, upon reasonable request, to share any materials or data that are integral to the results presented in the article, including whatever would be necessary for a skilled investigator to verify or replicate the claims. Authors must disclose upon submission any restrictions on the availability of materials or information, such as for patented or dual-purpose materials.

Authors must affirm that the research protocol was approved by the appropriate institutional review boards or ethics committees for human (including use of human cells or tissues) or animal experiments and that all human subjects provided appropriate informed consent and/or that regulations concerning the use of animals in research were adhered to.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a serious offence. All submitted manuscripts are processed through plagiarism checking software. The editor-in-chief reserves the right to take any action once the manuscript is detected for plagiarism.

1.    Editorials-These are usually invited or written by experts in their field.

2.    Case Report/ Correspondence- Case report should describe a new case and highlight the differential diagnosis and the challenges encountered while treating. The maximum word count is 2000 words excluding abstract and references.

3.    Original Research- Studies should describe in detail, introduction, methodology, results, discussion, conclusion and acknowledgement (if any). The maximum word count is 6000 words excluding abstract and references.

4.    Reviews- Systematic reviews and meta analysis may be submitted. The authors may liaise with the editor before sending any review article. The maximum word count is 8000 words excluding abstract and references. For systematic reviews and meta-analyses, PRISMA guidelines are to be followed.

5.    Letters to the Editor- Letters pertaining to any published article within 6 weeks of publication, or concerning any important topic may be submitted. Maximum word count is 500 words. The editor-in-chief reserves the right to accept or reject any submission.

6.    Clinical Quiz- Readers and authors are encouraged to send any interesting clinical case for quiz. The case should be described within 750 words and have maximum of 2 figures.

7.     Latest Techniques/Innovations/Methods: Authors who wish to share any latest technique, innovation or methods which may be beneficial for the advancement of medical science, may submit under this section. No particular subheadings are needed but a short abstract within 100 words should be included. The maximum word count should be within 1500 words.

Manuscript format

All sections should begin in a new page. The text should be written in Times New Roman, 12 font size.

The text should be written in double spaced typing with left and right margins justified. The pages should be numbered at the bottom in the centre.

Title

The title should clearly state the type of work done. It is advisable not to use a title which is too long.

Abstract

The text should be unstructured and the total word count should not exceed 250 words. An abstract both in English and Bahasa Malaysia (BM) maybe submitted. However, if international authors are unable to submit an abstract in BM, the editorial team may arrange for free services.

Short running title

The title page should have a short running title.

Keywords

At least 3 keywords should be given as per MeSH style.

Text

The remaining sections of the text, which should include Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Acknowledgments, and each section should not begin in a new page. Commonly-abbreviated terms should be spelled out in their first occurrence and then may be referenced in abbreviation through the remainder of the manuscript.

Introduction. The Introduction section should be written from the standpoint of researchers without specialist knowledge in that area and must clearly state - and, if helpful, illustrate - the background to the research and its aims. Reports of clinical research should, where appropriate, include a summary of a search of the literature to indicate why this study was necessary and what it aimed to contribute to the field. The section should end with a very brief statement of what is being reported in the article.

Materials and Methods. Authors should describe experimental and statistical methods in enough detail that other researchers can replicate results and evaluate claims. In general, inclusion of method or reagent details as supplementary material is not acceptable.

The sequences of oligonucleotides, if not previously published, should be provided. Novel DNA or protein sequences should be deposited to an appropriate database (eg, Genbank, EMBL, Swiss-Prot), with the accession numbers included in the manuscript. When providing supplier information for material sources, company name and location (city and state, or city and country) should be provided. Website references to company information are not permitted. All novel materials and the procedures to prepare them should be described in sufficient detail to allow their reproduction (eg, DNA constructs, analytical software).

Results and Discussion. The Results and Discussion may be combined into a single section or presented separately. Results should present detailed description of the findings in the text and/or tables and figures (but should avoid duplication of findings' description). Results of statistical analysis should include, where appropriate, relative and absolute risks or risk reductions, and confidence intervals. The results and discussion sections may also be broken into subsections with short, informative headings.

Discussion, which may usefully start with a brief summary of the major findings, but repetition of parts of the abstract or of the results section should be avoided. Discussion should appraise implications of the findings and place them in the context of prior reports. The focus should be on the importance of these findings to the field and/or patient care.

Conclusion. This should state clearly the main conclusions of the research and give a clear explanation of their importance and relevance. Summary illustrations may be included.

Acknowledgement. Please acknowledge anyone who contributed towards the study by making substantial contributions to conception, design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, or who was involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content, but who does not meet the criteria for authorship. Please also include their source(s) of funding. Please also acknowledge anyone who contributed materials essential for the study.

Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgements.

References

The authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. References should begin on a new page, be double-spaced and listed according to alphabetical order. Complete author citation is required (use of "et al" is not acceptable). References should conform to the style of the Journal.

References in the text to articles, chapters, monographs or other publications should contain the authors’ names followed by the year of publication without punctuation mark, e.g. (Ismail 1997) or Ismail (1997). References cited only in legends should be numbered in accordance with a sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or illustration.

The references themselves should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus or the World List of Scientific Periodicals, 4th edition. Unpublished observations and personal communications should not be listed but may be inserted in the text. Papers which have been accepted for publication should be included in the list of references as ‘in press’. Authors are responsible for verifying the wording of all reference and that references of unpublished work are approved by the original author.

Medicine & Health reference style:

Tables

Tables should be typed double-spaced and submitted on separate files, as part of the manuscript. Tables should be black and white text only and should not include figures or other non-typeset images.

Create tables using the table creating and editing feature of your word processing software (e.g. Word, WordPerfect). Do not use Excel or comparable spreadsheet programs. Group all tables in a separate file. Cite tables consecutively in the text, and number them in that order. Each table should appear on a separate page and should include the table title, appropriate column heads, and explanatory legends (including definitions of any abbreviations used). Do not embed tables within the body of the manuscript. They should be self-explanatory and should supplement, rather than duplicate, the material in the text.

Figures

Authors should give considerable care in preparing figures. Composites consisting of multiple figures on one page are not allowed. When preparing composite figures, the front side of individual parts should be clearly and properly labelled, must be converted to paths or outlines or they must be embedded in the files. Cite figures consecutively on the site, and number them in the order in which they are discussed.

Digital figure (either in JPEG or TIFF file) should be provided for publication purposes. The resolution should be 300 dpi. Figures deviating from these dimensions will be sized at the publisher's discretion. Unwanted background material should be excluded and edges should be straight.

Figure Legends. Legends must be submitted for all figures. They should be brief and specific, and they should appear on a separate manuscript page after the references. Figures may consist of multiple related panels (labeled A, B, C, etc.) described under one figure legend. Use scale markers in the image for electron micrographs, and indicate the type of stain used.

Proof

The corresponding author will be contacted by email once proofs are ready. The author should check the proofs carefully, mark any printer's errors, and answer queries as requested. Author changes should be kept to a minimum. Proof corrections and replacement figures (if any) must be returned within seven days to avoid any delay in publication.

Editorial Communications

All correspondence concerning editorial matters should be addressed to the editor-in-chief, at the following address:

Medicine & Health,
Sekretariat Penyelidikan Perubatan & Inovasi,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre,
Jalan Yaacob Latif, Bandar Tun Razak
56000 Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA,
Fax:- 603-9146 6634, or
E-mail:- medhealthukm@gmail.com.