Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with "Uniform requirements for Manuscripts

submitted to sBiomedical Journal" developed by International Committee of Medical Journal

Editors (October 2004). The uniform requirements and specific requirement of Indian Journal of
Ophthalmology are summarized below. Before sending a manuscript contributors are requested
to check for the latest instructions available. Instructions are also available from the website of the
journal (http://www.ijo.in ) and from the manuscript submission site
(http://www.journalonweb.com/ijo ).

The Editorial Process

The manuscripts will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that they are
being submitted to one journal at a time and have not been published, simultaneously submitted,
or already accepted for publication elsewhere.
The Editors review all submitted manuscripts initially. Manuscripts with insufficient originality,
serious scientific flaws, or absence of importance of message are rejected. On an average 20%
of manuscripts get rejected at the initial stages. All manuscripts received are duly acknowledged.
The journal will not return the unaccepted manuscripts. Other manuscripts are sent to two or
more expert reviewers without revealing the identity of the contributors to the reviewers. Each
manuscript is also assigned to a member of the editorial team, who based on the comments from
the reviewers takes a final decision on the manuscript. Within a period of 10 to 12 weeks, the
contributors will be informed about the reviewers' comments and acceptance/rejection of
manuscript. On an average, the submission to first decision period was less than 32 days in the
year 2004. Up to 70% of the manuscripts submitted to the journal do not get accepted.
Articles accepted would be copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Page
proofs will be sent to the first contributor, which has to be returned within three days. Correction
received after that period may not be included.
The contributor may provide names of two or three qualified reviewers who have had experience
in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but who are not affiliated with the same institutes as
the contributor/s.

Types of Manuscripts and Limits

Original articles: Randomized controlled trials, intervention studied, studies of screening and
diagnostic test, outcome studies, cost effectiveness analyses, case-control series, and surveys
with high response rate. Up to 3000 words excluding references and abstract.
Review articles: Systemic critical assessments of literature and data sources. Up to 4000 words
excluding references and abstract.
Case reports: new/interesting/very rare cases can be reported. Cases with clinical significance or
implications will be given priority, whereas, mere reporting of a rare case may not be considered.
Up to 1000 words excluding references and abstract and up to 10 references.
Letter to the Editor: Should be short, decisive observation. They should not be preliminary
observations that need a later paper for validation. Up to 400 words and 4 references.
Announcements of conferences, meetings, courses, awards, and other items likely to be of
interest to the readers should be submitted with the name and address of the person from whom
additional information can be obtained. Up to 100 words.

Authorship Criteria

Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions

to conception and design or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data;
drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
final approval of the version to be published.
Conditions 1, 2, and 3 must all be met. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the
collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not
sufficient for authorship. Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to take
public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the
contributor towards the study and writing the manuscript. Once submitted the order cannot be
changed without written consent of all the contributors.

For a study from in a single institute the number of contributors should not exceed six. For a
case-report, images, Letter to the Editor and review article the number of contributors should not
exceed four. A justification should be included, if the number of contributors exceeds these limits.
Only those who have done substantial work in a particular field can write a review article. A short
summary of the work done by the contributor(s) in the field of review should accompany the
manuscript. The journal expects the contributors to give post-publication updates on the subject
of review. The update should be brief, covering the advances in the field after the publication of
article and should be sent as letter to editor, as and when major development occur in the field.

Contribution Details

Contributors should provide a description of what each of them contributed towards the
manuscript. Description should be divided in following categories, as applicable: concepts,
design, definition of intellectual content, literature search, clinical studies, experimental studies,
data acquisition, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing,
and manuscript review. Authors' contributions will be printed on the first page of the article. One or
more author should take responsibility of the integrity of the work as a whole from inception to
published article and should be designated as 'guarantor'.

Sending the Manuscript to the Journal

Send three copies of the manuscript along with a covering letter, contributors' form signed by all
the contributors, checklist and floppy in a heavy-paper envelope. Place the photographs in a
separate heavy-paper envelope. The covering letter must include

A full statement to the editor about all submissions and previous reports that might be regarded
as redundant publication of the same or very similar work. Any such work should be referred to
specifically, and referenced in the new paper. Copies of such material should be included with the
submitted paper, to help the editor decide how to handle the matter.

A statement of financial or other relationships that might lead to a conflict of interest, if that
information is not included in the manuscript itself or in an authors' form

A statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, that the
requirements for authorship as stated earlier in this document have been met, and that each
author believes that the manuscript represents honest work, if that information is not provided in
another form (see below); and

The name, address, and telephone number of the corresponding author, who is responsible for
communicating with the other authors about revisions and final approval of the proofs, if that
information is not included on the manuscript itself.

Copies of any permission(s) to reproduce published material, and to use illustrations or report
information about identifiable people must accompany the manuscript. Copies of any and all
published articles or other manuscripts in preparation or submitted elsewhere that are related to
the manuscript must also accompany the manuscript. The manuscript should be sent to Indian
Journal of Ophthalmology , P.D. Hinduja Hospital & Medical Research Centre , Veer Savarkar
Marg, Mahim, Mumbai - 400 016, India
 Online Submission of the Manuscripts

Articles can also be submitted online from http://www.journalonweb.com. New authors will have to
register as author, which is a simple two step procedure. For online submission articles should be
prepared in two files (first page file and article file). Images should be submitted separately.
First Page File: Prepare the title page, covering letter, acknowledgement, etc. using a word
processor program. All information which can reveal your identity should be here. Use
text/rtf/doc/PDF files. Do not zip the files.

Article file: The main text of the article, beginning from Abstract till References (including tables)
should be in this file. Do not include any information (such as acknowledgement, your names in
page headers, etc.) in this file. Use text/rtf/doc/PDF files. Do not zip the files. Limit the file size to
400 kb. Do not incorporate images in the file. If file size is large, graphs can be submitted as
images separately without incorporating them in the article file to reduce the size of the file.
Images: Submit good quality color images. Each image should be less than 100 kb in size. Size
of the image can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images (keep up to
400 pixels or 3 inches). All image formats (jpeg, tiff, gif, bmp, png, eps, etc.) are acceptable; jpeg
is most suitable. Do not zip the files.

Legends: Legends for the figures/images should be included at the end of the article file.

If the manuscript is submitted online, the contributors' form and copyright transfer form has to be
submitted in original with the signatures of all the contributors within two weeks from submission.
Hard copies of the images (one set), for articles submitted online, should be sent to the journal
office at the time of submission of a revised manuscript.

Preparation of the Manuscript

The text of observational and experimental articles should be divided into sections with the
headings: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Tables, Figures, Figure
legends, and Acknowledgment. Do not make subheadings in these sections. Send laser printout,
on white thick paper, of A4 size (212 × 297 mm), with margins of 25 mm (1 inch) from all the four
sides. Type or print on only one side of the paper. Use double spacing throughout. Number pages
consecutively, beginning with the title page. The language should be British English.

Title Page
The title page should carry
Type of manuscript (e.g. Original article, Case Report)
The title of the article, which should be concise, but informative;
Running title or short title not more than 50 characters;
The name by which each contributor is known (Last name, First name and initials of middle
name), with his or her highest academic degree(s) and institutional affiliation;
The name of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed;
The name, address, phone numbers, facsimile numbers and e-mail address of the contributor
responsible for correspondence about the manuscript;
The total number of pages, total number of photographs and word counts separately for abstract
and for the text (excluding the references and abstract);
Source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, or all of these;
Acknowledgement, if any; and
If the manuscript was presented as part at a meeting, the organization, place, and exact date on
which it was read.

Abstract Page
The second page should carry the full title of the manuscript and an abstract (of no more than 150
words for case reports, brief reports and 250 words for original articles). The abstract should be
structured and state the Context (Background), Aims, Settings and Design, Methods and Material,
Statistical analysis used, Results and Conclusions. Below the abstract should provide 3 to 10 key
word.

Introduction
State the purpose of the article and summaries the rationale for the study or observation.

Methods

The Methods section should include only information that was available at the time the plan or
protocol for the study was written; all information obtained during the conduct of the study
belongs in the Results section.

Selection and Description of Participants: Describe your selection of the observational or

experimental participants (patients or laboratory animals, including controls) clearly, including
eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population. Because the relevance
of such variables as age and sex to the object of research is not always clear, authors should
explain their use when they are included in a study report; for example, authors should explain
why only subjects of certain ages were included or why women were excluded. The guiding
principle should be clarity about how and why a study was done in a particular way. When
authors use variables such as race or ethnicity, they should define how they measured the
variables and justify their relevance.

Technical information: Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer's name and
address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce
the results. Give references to established methods, including statistical methods (see below);
provide references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well
known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and
evaluate their limitations. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic
name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration.
Authors submitting review manuscripts should include a section describing the methods used for
locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data. These methods should also be summarized
in the abstract.

Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all major study elements,
including the protocol, assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of
allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding), based on the CONSORT
Statement (Moher D, Schulz KF, Altman DG: The CONSORT Statement: Revised
Recommendations for Improving the Quality of Reports of Parallel-Group Randomized Trials. Ann
Intern Med. 2001;134:657-662, also available at http://www.consort-statement.org).
Authors submitting review article should include a section describing the methods used for
locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data. These methods should also be summarized
in the abstract.

Ethics
When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures followed were
in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation
(institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (available
at http://www.wma.net/e/policy/17-c_e.html). Do not use patients' names, initials, or hospital
numbers, especially in illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate
whether the institution's or a national research council's guide for, or any national law on the care
and use of laboratory animals was followed.

Statistics
When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement
error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Report losses to observation (such as
dropouts from a clinical trial). Put a general description of methods in the Methods section. When
data are summarized in the Results section, specify the statistical methods used to analyze them.
Avoid non-technical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as 'random' (which implies a
randomizing device), 'normal', 'significant', 'correlations', and 'sample'. Define statistical terms,
abbreviations, and most symbols. Use upper italics (P 0.048). For all P values include the exact
value and not less than 0.05 or 0.001.

Results
Present your results in logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations, giving the main or
most important findings first. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations;
emphasize or summarize only important observations. Extra or supplementary materials and
technical detail can be placed in an appendix where it will be accessible but will not interrupt the
flow of the text; alternatively, it can be published only in the electronic version of the journal.
When data are summarized in the Results section, give numeric results not only as derivatives
(for example, percentages) but also as the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were
calculated, and specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Restrict tables and figures
to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support. Use graphs as
an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Avoid non-
technical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as "random" (which implies a randomizing
device), "normal," "significant," "correlations," and "sample."
Where scientifically appropriate, analyses of the data by variables such as age and sex should be
included.

Discussion
Include Summary of key findings (primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures,
results as they relate to a prior hypothesis); Strengths and limitations of the study (study question,
study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation); Interpretation and implications in the
context of the totality of evidence (is there a systematic review to refer to, if not, could one be
reasonably done here and now?, what this study adds to the available evidence, effects on
patient care and health policy, possible mechanisms); Controversies raised by this study; and
Future research directions (for this particular research collaboration, underlying mechanisms,
clinical research). Do not repeat in detail data or other material given in the Introduction or the
Results section.
In particular, contributors should avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless
their manuscript includes economic data and analyses. Avoid claiming priority and alluding to
work that has not been completed. State new hypotheses when warranted, but clearly label them
as such.

Acknowledgments
As an appendix to the text, one or more statements should specify 1) contributions that need
acknowledging but do not justify authorship, such as general support by a departmental chair; 2)
acknowledgments of technical help; and 3) acknowledgments of financial and material support,
which should specify the nature of the support. This should be included in the title page of the
manuscript.

References
References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in
the text (not in alphabetic order). Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic
numerals in square bracket (e.g. [10]). References cited only in tables or figure legends should be
numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the
particular table or figure. Use the style of the examples below, which are based on the formats
used by the NLM in Index Medicus. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the
style used in Index Medicus. Use complete name of the journal for non-indexed journals. Avoid
using abstracts as references. Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should
be cited in the text as "unpublished observations" with written permission from the source. Avoid
citing a "personal communication" unless it provides essential information not available from a
public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited
in parentheses in the text. For scientific articles, contributors should obtain written permission and
confirmation of accuracy from the source of a personal communication.
The commonly cited types of references are shown here, for other types of references such as
electronic media, newspaper items, etc. please refer to ICMJE Guidelines (http://www.icmje.org
or http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).
Articles in Journals
1. Standard journal article: Kulkarni SB, Chitre RG, Satoskar RS. Serum proteins in tuberculosis.
J Postgrad Med 1960;6:113-20.
List the first six contributors followed by et al.
2. Volume with supplement: Shen HM, Zhang QF. Risk assessment of nickel carcinogenicity and
occupational lung cancer. Environ Health Perspect 1994; 102 Suppl 1:275-82.
3. Issue with supplement: Payne DK, Sullivan MD, Massie MJ. Women's psychological reactions
to breast cancer. Semin Oncol 1996; 23(1, Suppl 2):89-97.
Books and Other Monographs
4. Personal author(s): Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd
ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996.
5. Editor(s), compiler(s) as author: Norman IJ, Redfern SJ, editors. Mental health care for elderly
people. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1996.
6. Chapter in a book: Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner
BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York:
Raven Press; 1995. pp. 465-78.

Tables
Tables should be self-explanatory and should not duplicate textual material.
Tables with more than 10 columns and 25 rows are not acceptable.
Type or print out each table with double spacing on a separate sheet of paper. If the table must
be continued, repeat the title on a second sheet followed by "(contd.)".
Number tables, in Arabic numerals, consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and
supply a brief title for each.
Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading.
Explain in footnotes all non-standard abbreviations that are used in each table.
Obtain permission for all fully borrowed, adapted, and modified tables and provide a credit line in
the footnote.
For footnotes use the following symbols, in this sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ||, , **, ††, ‡‡

Illustrations (Figures)
Submit three sets of figures.
Send sharp, glossy, un-mounted, color photographic prints, with height of 4 inches and width of 6
inches.
Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first
cited in the text.
Each figure should have a label pasted (avoid use of liquid gum for pasting) on its back indicating
the number of the figure, the running title, top of the figure and the legends of the figure. Do not
write the contributor/s' name/s. Do not write on the back of figures, scratch, or mark them by
using paper clips.
Labels, numbers, and symbols should be clear and of uniform size. The lettering for figures
should be large enough to be legible after reduction to fit the width of a printed column.
Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background and
should marked neatly with transfer type or by tissue overlay and not by pen.
Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends for illustrations not on the illustrations
themselves.
When graphs, scatter-grams or histograms are submitted the numerical data on which they are
based should also be supplied.
The photographs and figures should be trimmed to remove all the unwanted areas.
If photographs of people are used, either the subjects must not be identifiable or their pictures
must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph.
If a figure has been published, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission
from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. A credit line should appear in the legend for
figures for such figures.
Print outs of digital photographs are not acceptable. For digital images send TIFF files of
minimum 1200 x 1600 pixel size.
The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an
acceptable size.
Legends for Illustrations
Type or print out legends (maximum 40 words, excluding the credit line) for illustrations using
double spacing, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations.
When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify
and explain each one in the legend.
Explain the internal scale and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.

Protection of Patients' Rights to Privacy

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms,
CT scans, etc., and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the
patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent
for this purpose requires that the patient be shown the manuscript to be published. When
informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the article and copy of the consent
should be attached with the covering letter.

Electronic Version
The manuscript must be accompanied by a 3.5 inch (1.44 MB) floppy or CD containing the
manuscript.
Use a new diskette or fully format the diskette before use. There should be no other document,
file, and material on the diskette other than the final manuscript. Text, references, tables and
legends, all should be in one electronic file.
Label each diskette with first contributor's name, short title of the article, software (e.g. MS Word),
version (e.g. 7.0) and file name. Name the file on the diskette with the corresponding contributor's
last name (up to eight characters) and a three-letter extension to signify the format (e.g.
sharma.doc). For a revised manuscript name the file with the manuscript number (e.g. ijo58). Use
any word-processing program (e.g. Microsoft Word, Word Perfect) or provide text files.
Do not use 'oh' (O) for 'zero' (0), 'el' (l) for one (1). Do not use space bar for indentation. Do not
type headings or any other text in ALL CAPITALS. Do not break words at the end of lines. Do not
use an extra hard return/enter between paragraphs. Do not insert a tab, indent, or extra spaces
before beginning of a paragraph. Do not use software's facility of automatic referencing,
footnotes, headers, footers, etc.
Use a hyphen only to hyphenate compound words. Use only one letter space at the end of
sentence. Use hard return/enter only at the end of paragraphs and display lines (e.g. titles,
headings and subheadings). Incorporate notes or footnotes in the text, within parentheses, rather
than their usual place at the foot of the page.
Use single space between lines for the manuscript on the floppy. Provide the tables and charts at
the appropriate place in the text and not at the end of the manuscript.
Care should be taken to prevent damage to floppy while sending it through post.

Sending a revised manuscript

While submitting a revised manuscript, contributors are requested to include, along with single
copy of the final revised manuscript, a photocopy of the revised manuscript with the changes
underlined in red and copy of the comments with the point to point clarification to each comment.
The manuscript number should be written on each of these documents. If the manuscript is
submitted online, the contributors' form and copyright transfer form has to be submitted in original
with the signatures of all the contributors within two weeks of submission. Hard copies of images
should be sent to the office of the journal. There is no need to send hard copies of the manuscript
for articles submitted online.
A photocopy of the first page of all the cited references (articles and books) can be asked by the
journal to verify the references.

Reprints

Journal provides no free printed reprints. It is mandatory to purchase minimum reprints,

payment for which should be done at the time of submitting the proofs.

Copyrights

The whole of the literary matter in the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology is copyright and cannot
be reproduced without the written permission of the Editorial Board.