Instructions for authors

ISSN 2397-5628 Journal of Geriatric Care and Research 2022, Vol 9, No 2 Manuscript Preparation Instructions for authors Introduction The Journal of Geriatric Care and Research (JGCR) (ISSN 2397-5628) is the official publication of Geriatric Care and Research Organisation (GeriCaRe). Aims and scope JGCR publishes articles from all fields relevant to old age, with an objective of encouraging evidence based practice in the care of elderly and to share information about good practice. It is a multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed, scholarly journal covering diverse areas such as geriatric medicine, psychiatry, neurology, nursing care, end of life care, public health and related fields like gerontology, sociology, psychology, culture and law along with Allied Health Sciences like occupational therapy and physiotherapy, etc. Examples of broad areas covered by the journal are: Care and intervention for various specific conditions, disorders or disabilities, standards of care, examples of good practice, end-of-life care, elder abuse and its prevention, legal aspects relevant to old age and support; cultural and ethical issues associated with care, etc. Its readership includes not only the professionals in these fields but also older persons and their caregivers. Besides regular issues, theme based special issues focusing one aspect of care are also published periodically. If found suitable, the manuscripts undergo a double-blind peer review. The suggestions received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author. When appropriate, the author is requested to provide a point by point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy-edited to improve readability and to ensure conformity with JGCR style. Authorship Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contribution to:  Conception and design, interpretation of data or analysis and  Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, and  Final approval of the version to be published All these conditions must be met. Participation solely in the collection of data or the acquisition of funding does not justify authorship. In addition, the corresponding author must ensure that there is no one else who fulfils the criteria but has not been included as an author. Group authorship is permitted, but in this case individual authors will not be cited personally. Editorial process The JGCR follows in principle the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Contributions for JGCR are accepted for publication on the condition that their substance (whole or part) has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere, including internet. If there are other papers from same database, then the authors must send all details of previous or simultaneous submissions. All submitted articles are peer reviewed. At the first step, the articles are assessed by the editorial board for its suitability for the formal review. If a professional medical writer was used for manuscript preparation, their name and contact details must be given in the acknowledgement and any conflicts of interest must be disclosed. The corresponding author must sign the contributors form on behalf of all the authors, once a manuscript has been accepted. This author must take responsibility for keeping all other named authors informed of the paper's progress. Unless otherwise stated corresponding author will be considered as the guarantor of the article. However one or more authors/contributors can be guarantor. The guarantor accepts full responsibility for the work and/or the conduct of the study, had access to the data, and controlled the decision to publish. I Instructions for authors Declaration of competing interest All submissions to the JGCR (including editorials and letters to the Editor) require a declaration of competing interest. This should list fees and grants from, employment by, consultancy for, shared ownership in, or any close relationship with, at any time over the preceding three years, an organisation whose interests may be affected by the publication of the paper. Ethics approval of research The JGCR expects authors to follow the World Association’s Declaration of Helsinki and base their article on researches conducted in a way that is morally and ethically acceptable. The research protocol must have been approved by a locally appointed ethics committee or institutional review board. Every research article must include a statement that the investigators obtained ethical approval for the study (or an explanation of why ethical approval was not needed) in the methods section of the manuscript with the name and location of the approving ethics committee(s). Patient consent and confidentiality A statement regarding informed consent must be included in the methodology. Studies involving humans must have written informed consent from the patients. Where the individual is not able to give informed consent for lack of mental capacity, it should be obtained from a relative (ideally next of kin), legal representative or other authorised person. If the patient is dead, the authors should seek permission from a relative (ideally next of kin), legal representative (usually next of kin) or other authorised person as a matter of medical ethics. If consent cannot be obtained, the head of medical team/hospital or legal team of the authors’ institute must take responsibility that exhaustive attempts have been made to contact the family and that the paper has been sufficiently anonymised not to cause harm to the patient’s family. Anonymisation means that neither the patient nor anyone could identify the patient with certainty. Such anonymisation might, at an extreme, involve making the authors of the article anonymous. The authors should check the specific laws in their country. Contributors should be aware of the risk of complaint by individuals in respect of breach of confidentiality and defamation; and must archive the signed informed consent form. The process used to assess the subject's capacity to give informed consent and safeguards included in the study design for protection of human subjects should be mentioned. Publication Ethics to the attention of the Editor and these will be investigated by procedures recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). If conclusive evidence of misconduct is found, the JGCR undertakes to publish a correction or retraction of article as necessary. Clinical trial registration All clinical trials must be registered in a public trials registry. This is a requirement for publications of the trials. Qualitative research The JGCR welcomes submissions of reports of qualitative research relevant to the scope of the care of elderly. Article submission Manuscripts for publication are submitted via email <jgcr.gericare@gmail.com>. The JGCR is not responsible for statements made by authors. Material in the JGCR does not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of GeriCaRe. Type of manuscripts Research article The research article should normally be between 3000 and 4000 words in length (excluding references, tables and figure legends). Only the essential references should be given, preferably not more than 25 beyond those describing statistical procedures, psychometric instruments and diagnostic guidelines used in the study. Authors are encouraged to present key data within smaller tables in the appropriate places in the running text. This applies also to review articles and short reports. A structured abstract not normally exceeding 150 words should be given at the beginning of the article, incorporating the following headings: Background, Aims, Method, Results, and Conclusions. Key words: Up to six key words should be provided. Please use Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) as key words. Article should have Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion sections. Authors may use relevant subheadings under these sections. Introductions should normally be no more than one paragraph; longer ones may be allowed for new and unusual subjects. The Discussion should always include limitations of the paper to ensure balance. A paragraph of practical implications of the observations is encouraged. Short report Authors should consider all ethical issues relevant to publication. This includes (but not restricted to) avoiding multiple submission, plagiarism and manipulation of figures/data. Any concerns in this regard must be brought II Short reports (brief communications) are based on original research, observational or evaluation studies, clinical audits etc. These are structured as research Journal of Geriatric Care and Research articles and require an unstructured abstract of one paragraph, not exceeding 100 words; and key words. The report should not exceed 1500 words (excluding references, tables and figure legends) and contain no more than one figure or table and up to 10 essential references beyond those describing statistical procedures, psychometric instruments and diagnostic guidelines used in the study. Case report Case reports and series require up to 100 word abstract, and the length should not exceed 1000 words (excluding references, tables and figure legends). The written informed consent of the individuals must be obtained and submitted with the manuscript. Please refer to patient consent and confidentiality paragraph for further detail. In general, case studies are published in the JGCR only if the authors can present evidence that the case report is of fundamental significance and it is unlikely that the scientific value of the communication could be achieved using any other methodology. Review Systematic and narrative review articles should be structured in the same way as research article, but the length of these may vary considerably, as will the number of references. It requires a structured abstract like that of research articles. Short review These articles focus on highly topical issues based on evidence. Professional perspectives, viewpoints, commentary and opinion are included here. It can also include clinical review relevant to the practitioners. These articles are usually more broad-based than editorials. They can include tables and figures. Usual length is around 1500 words (excluding references) with an unstructured abstract up to 100 words. Editorial Editorials require an unstructured summary of one paragraph, not exceeding 50 words. Editorials should not exceed 1000 words and may contain no more than one figure or table and up to 10 essential references. 2000 words excluding references. An unstructured summary of around 100 words is preferred but not mandatory. Use of subheadings is encouraged. First person account In first person accounts JGCR publishes experiences of older persons or their care providers about the care and concerns of the elderly, that can be considered significant and provide learning points for others. Columns These comprise a range of materials considered to be of interest to readers of the JGCR. This section includes reviews on book, film or web resources as short articles up to 400 words. Some other examples include News regarding developments that can influence the care of elderly, poems, paintings, photographs, quotations, information about important internet links, etc. These articles are published individually or as fillers at the end of other articles where space allows. Preparation of Manuscripts Prepare article in Word, A4 size page, with 1 inch margin, double spaced throughout. Article information page 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Letters to the Editor Letters may be submitted either as responses to published articles, to inform about particular situation or raise pertinent issues, as expert opinion or as general letters to the Editor. Letters may be up to 400 words in length with a maximum of 5 references. Insight These articles include variety of topics which may reflect an individual perception, involvement or contribution to geriatric care. It can include good practice examples, inspirational experiences and highlight neglected areas. Essays in descriptive prose can be submitted on any topic related to geriatric care. These are usually written by a single author but a second author may be included occasionally. The length of the articles may vary considerably depending upon the topic and may be up to 11. 12. 13. 14. Type of manuscript: Title of the article: Brief and relevant Name of all the authors: (underline Last name) Details of authors: academic degrees, professional position, institutional affiliations, professional address, email Corresponding author: name, address, phone, e-mail and ORCID Contributions of each author: Word count for abstract: Word count for the text (excluding references): Number of tables: (total number of tables and figures should not be more than 10, preferably less than 5.) Number of photographs/images (to be provided separately in high quality JPEG files): Acknowledgement: Competing interests: Funding Suggested Reviewers Up to 3, (not from authors’ institution). Name, Position, Institution and Email No identifiable details beyond this page. Article Text pages The article text pages do not contain any identifiable information, for a blind review. It should contain: Title of the article, Abstract and Key words (depending upon the article type) and the Text of the article. Please refer to article types for detail information. As a general rule, III Instructions for authors please have an Introduction and Conclusion subheadings whenever possible along with other required subheadings. References Authors are responsible for checking all references for accuracy and relevance in advance of submission. All references should be given in superscripted number in the order they appear in the text. Place superscript reference number after commas and full stops, unless the superscript is attached to authors name or title of book/database. At the end of the article the full list of references should follow the ICMJE style. If there are more than six authors, the first six should be named, followed by 'et al'. Example of journal articles: The authors' names are followed by the full title of the article; the journal title abbreviated according to the PubMed; the year of publication; the volume number; (issue number in bracket); and the first and last page numbers: 1. Singh SP, Singh V, Kar N, Chan K. Efficacy of antidepressants in treating the negative symptoms of chronic schizophrenia: meta-analysis. Br J Psychiatry. 2010; 197(3): 174-9. References to books should give the names of any editors, place of publication, editor, and year. Examples are shown below. with any footnotes or comments, should be selfexplanatory. The table should be placed at the end of the manuscript after references, each in a separate page. Authors must obtain written permission from the original publisher if they intend to use tables from other sources, and due acknowledgement should be made in a footnote to the table. Figures Figures must be of high quality and provided in JPEG files separately. They should be clearly numbered and include an explanatory legend. Legends can be provided at the end of the article after the references. All figures should be mentioned in the text (such as Fig 1) and the desired position of the figure in the manuscript should be indicated. Authors must obtain written permission from the original publisher if they intend to use figures from other sources, and due acknowledgement should be made in the legend. For ease of formatting please use the available article template. Abbreviations, units and footnotes All abbreviations must be spelt out on first usage and only widely recognized abbreviations will be permitted. Abbreviations usage should be consistent throughout the article. Use abbreviations sparingly; consider using one if it is repeated more than three times. The generic names of drugs should be used. 2. Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002. Generally, SI units should be used; where they are not, the SI equivalent should be included in parentheses. 3. Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113. Footnotes are not allowed, except table footnotes. 4. Foley KM, Gelband H, editors. Improving palliative care for cancer [Internet]. Washington: National Academy Press; 2001 [cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309074029/html/. 5. Cancer-Pain.org [Internet]. New York: Association of Cancer Online Resources, Inc.; c2000-01 [updated 2002 May 16; cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.cancer-pain.org/. Personal communications need written authorisation (email is acceptable); they should not be included in the reference list. Unpublished doctoral theses may be cited (please state department or faculty, university and degree). No other citation of unpublished work, including unpublished conference presentations, is permissible. Further information about the references can be availed from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements .html Tables Tables should be numbered and have an appropriate heading. The tables should be mentioned in the text such as Table 1 and the desired position in the manuscript should be indicated. Information in tables must not be duplicated in the text. The heading of the table, together IV Statistics Methods of statistical analysis should be described in language that is comprehensible to most readers. Raw data for the studies may be asked at any time up to 5 years after publication of research in the JGCR and the authors are suggested to keep these safe. Proofs A proof will be sent to the corresponding author of an article which should be sent back within 7 days. Copyright Copyright of all the published papers is retained by the authors. Contributors form On acceptance of the paper for publication, all authors should submit a contributor’s form to the Geriatric Care and Research Organisation (GeriCaRe) regarding adherence to publication ethics. Article Processing Fee There is no submission, processing or publication fee at present for papers published in the JGCR. Open access All papers published in the JGCR are freely available for the readers.