Guide for Authors

Manuscript submission

JPHTR supports online and manual submission of articles. Online submission is done through the online platform. This involves creating an account on the platform, filling out a submission form, and uploading the manuscript and any accompanying files, such as figures or supplementary materials. For online submission, please login or register for submission.

Manual submission of articles, on the other hand, requires direct submission of articles via mail or email, without the use of the online submission platform. Authors who adopt this option must include the names, affiliations and email addresses of all authors. The email address for manual submission is editor@jphtr.com

Manuscripts should be written in English with double line spacing, with margins of at least I inch on all sides. Pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page and continuing through to the last page.

Formatting Requirements

Manuscripts should be submitted in Microsoft Word format, Times New Romans with font size of 12 and double-spaced. Authors should remove all identifying information from the main manuscript before submission.

Authorship

Authorship implies responsibility and accountability. This should be those who have made substantial contributions to the research and preparation of the manuscript. Journal subscribes to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) which based authorship on four 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
  3. Final approval of the version to be published
  4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work

The full names of all authors (first, initial, surname) should be provided as well as their affiliations. The phone and email of the corresponding author should also be provided.

Acknowledgments

Contributors who do not meet all four ICMJE criteria should be acknowledged and not given authorship status. Acknowledgments of general support, grants, technical assistance, etc, should be indicated. Authors are responsible for obtaining the consent of all institutions and those being acknowledged. The journals endorsed Conflict of interest disclosure forms and statements shall be provided by the Authors before the publication of their articles.

Ethical Approval

Authors of original research articles are expected to make statements, confirming the Ethical approval of the work from their respective institutions on submission of their manuscript. JPHTR may, if necessary, request evidence of such approval from the Author's Institutional Review Boards. When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

Plagiarism policy

Please review our plagiarism policy here

Preparation of manuscripts

Each manuscript should have a: 

Cover page

Stating authors names, affiliated institutions, corresponding author with full contact addresses with email and phone numbers, conflict of interest declaration, acknowledgement, ethical conformity statement, a running title of not more than 60 characters, word count for the abstract and manuscript body and acknowledgements.

Abstract

Abstracts (not more than 300 words) should be structured as follows:

  • Background: This section provides background information on the research topic and states the research question or objective.
  • Objective: This section describes the specific goal or purpose of a research study
  • Methods: This section describes the methods used in the study, including the design, participants, and data collection techniques.
  • Results: This section presents the main findings of the study, including any statistical analyses or data.
  • Conclusions: This section summarizes the main conclusions of the study and highlights the implications of the results.

Note: Citations, Figures, Tables, Images, Illustrations, Abbreviations (if possible) should not be included in the abstract.

Keywords

This is essential and frequently used to maximize online retrieval of the article. The keywords should not be more than 7 words/phases, and contain essential terms/words from the title, abstract or main manuscript. Should be cases (except abbreviations or proper names), separated by commas and end in a full stop. Acronyms should be spelt out e.g., IOM, Institute of Medicine.

Abbreviation and Nomenclature

All abbreviations must first be written in full followed by parentheses before subsequent use in the manuscript.  All Non-standard abbreviations contained in the manuscript (excluding references) should be listed in an alphabetical order with definitions after key words

Main Manuscript

Except for Review Articles, Case Reports, Editorial, Short Commentaries, and Medical Education articles, all manuscripts Should be categorized into the Introduction, Methodology, Results, Discussion and Reference sections.  Each of the following sections should begin on a new page.  All units of measurement and laboratory values must be expressed in line with (System International) SI unit standards. Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and placed after the sections of the manuscript which they reflect, particularly the results which they describe on separate pages. Legends should be provided for all tables and figures, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the tables and figures. Any abbreviation and symbols in the tables and figures should also be explained. Vertical lines should not be used when constructing the tables. All tables and figures should also be sent in electronic format by email on submission of the manuscript as supplementary files. Clinical Photographs should conceal the subject's identity. The authors accept the full responsibility of obtaining the written consent of the subjects.

Article Length

Word limits inclusive of references are as follows; Correspondence: 1500 words, Short Commentaries: 2,500 words, Reviews: 4,000 words, Original Research articles: 3,500 words, Case Reports: 2,500 words, Book review 4,000 words, medical education and clinical practice materials 4,000 words.  The word limits exclude tables, figures, and references. Authors should assume each figure counts for 250 words of the total word count. However, depending on the topic and potential impact of a paper, the Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to waive word limits.

Referencing

JPHTR supports APA (American Psychological Association) reference style. However, it also accepts other reference styles provided that consistency is maintained for chosen reference styles throughout the text.

Commonly encountered reference styles in public health are:

  • APA: APA is a widely used citation format in the social sciences, and it is also used in public health. This style is often used in articles that focus on behavioral and social aspects of public health.
  • AMA (American Medical Association): AMA style is primarily used in the medical field and is often used in articles that focus on the biological and medical aspects of public health.
  • Vancouver: This style is used by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and is often used in articles that focus on the clinical aspects of public health.
  • Harvard: Harvard style is a widely used referencing style in many fields including public health. This style is often used in articles that focus on the social and environmental determinants of health.
  • MLA (Modern Language Association): MLA style is mainly used in humanities and liberal arts fields, however, it is also used in some public health articles that focus on qualitative research.

Commonly encountered reference styles in toxicology are:

  • ACS (American Chemical Society): This style is often used in articles that focus on the chemical aspects of toxicology and is the style used by journals such as Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T), Environmental Science & Technology Letters (ES&T Letters), and ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (ACS Sustain Chem Eng).
  • APA (American Psychological Association): APA is a widely used citation format in the social sciences, and it is also used in toxicology articles that focus on the behavioral and social aspects of toxicology.
  • AMA (American Medical Association): AMA style is primarily used in the medical field and is often used in articles that focus on the biological and medical aspects of toxicology.
  • Harvard: Harvard style is a widely used referencing style in many fields including toxicology. This style is often used in articles that focus on the social and environmental determinants of toxicology.
  • Vancouver: Vancouver style is used by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and is often used in articles that focus on the clinical aspects of toxicology.

Submission checklist

You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review. Please check the relevant section in this Guide for Authors for more details.

Ensure that the following items are present:

One author has been designated as the corresponding author √

Contact details of the corresponding author are provided:

  • E-mail address √
  • Phone number √
  • Full postal address √

Affiliations and ORCID iDs of all authors are provided √

All necessary files have been uploaded √

Manuscript:

  • Include keywords √
  • All figures (include relevant captions) √
  • All tables (including titles, descriptions, and footnotes) √
  • Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided √
  • Indicate clearly if color should be used for any figures in print √
  • Graphical Abstracts / Highlights files (where applicable) √
  • Supplemental files (where applicable) √

Further considerations

  • Ethics approval obtained and reported in the manuscript √
  • Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked' √
  • Manuscript reported in line with specified reporting guideline √
  • All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa √
  • References are in Vancouver referencing style √
  • Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet) √
  • A competing interest statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed √