Author Guidelines

Language guidelines:

Manuscripts formatted properly and written in English language are acceptable for submission. A manuscript well-written in English gives it a best chance for editors and reviewers to understand it and evaluate it fairly. Since the journal is focused primarily on early career and graduate/undergraduate student research, we, as publishers, provide English Language Editing and Manuscript Formatting Services to help authors get the manuscript ready for submission. Please follow the link for more information.

Data analysis:

Robust statistical data analysis tools (GraphPad Prism, SPSS) should be used and cited in the manuscript. Since the journal is focused primarily on early career and graduate/undergraduate students work, we understand the difficulties related to access to software and conducting proper data analysis. We, as publishers, provide Data Analysis Services to the authors to avoid rejection of manuscript by editors or reviewers. Please follow the link for more information.

Manuscript Template:

Authors can use our pre-prepared manuscript templates for preparing original articles and reviews. These templates are available on the website.

The manuscript formatting should include the following sections:

Title Page

The title page of the manuscript must contain the following:

  • The title of the manuscript in Font Times New Roman, 12 points, bold and justified format.
  • Author(s) full name must be given below the manuscript title. The corresponding author’s name must be indicated with an asterisk (*).
  • Affiliation, including departmental name, university name, city and country should be given to each author.
  • One corresponding author’s name, affiliation, ORCID and contact email must be given on the title page.
  • Please check authors’ names carefully, as any change to authorship is not allowed after manuscript acceptance.

Preparing the main manuscript:

The manuscript text must be in the Microsoft word (DOC, DOCX) word processor file format. Only editable word files are required for submission and non-editable files (such as PDFs) will not be accepted during the submission process.

For manuscript text, the following points must be noted:

  • Use font Times New Roman, 12pts and double line spacing.
  • Include line and page numbering.
  • Headings and subheadings must be in bold and lower-case format.
  • Abbreviations should be avoided in titles, abstracts and keywords.
  • In general, terms should not be abbreviated unless they are used repeatedly (at least 3 times). Abbreviations should be defined when first used in manuscript with their abbreviations in parentheses. Abbreviations in tables and figures should be explained in the footnote or caption accordingly.

Abstract Section

This section describes a summary of the manuscript including main aims and objective(s) methodology and main findings.

  • It should be 300 words only.
  • No heading/subheadings should be used in the abstract section.
  • The abstract should not include any citation or footnote.
  • Up to six keywords closely related to the topic of the manuscript must be added below the abstract section. Each keyword must be separated by a semi-colon; no caps must be used except for proper nouns.

Main text section:

For Original Article (data related manuscripts), standard format includes headings:

  • Introduction
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion

For review articles, format of Introduction, headings/subheadings associated with the scope of the review and Conclusions are acceptable.

Declarations Section:

After the conclusion section, the declaration section must be added in the manuscript:

  • Ethics approval and consent to participate (declare not applicable for review articles or if the human or animal samples have not been used. If human/animal samples are used, then Ethical approval board designated numbers (ERC/IRB number) must be provided.

  • Availability of data and materials (declare not applicable for review articles). However, data associated with the original data driven manuscript must be available upon request or as supplementary material.

  • Competing Interests (declare not applicable if authors have no competing personal, professional or financial relationships with companies or commercial entities). However, if the authors are associated with pharmaceutical companies or with a commercial entity, this must be declared within this section)

  • Funding (declare not applicable if no funding is received). If funding/grant was received for the study, granting or funding agency name must be declared in this section with associated grant numbers in brackets. Authors must describe the role of the study sponsor(s) in the study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication, if any.

  • Authors' contributions Each author associated with specific roles and responsibilities in the research and writing process must be identified in this section using standardized CRediT guidelines. The author’s Contribution statement includes names of the authors associated with the following (only put applicable sections): Conceptualization; writing original draft; Supervision; Data Curation; Methodology; formal analysis; Visualization or illustrations lead; Project Administration; funding acquisition; writing-review and editing.

  • Acknowledgements (declare non applicable if no individual or entities require acknowledgement). This section is applicable if the corresponding author wants to thank individuals or organizations who contributed to the study, but did not qualify for authorship.

Figure Legend Section:

All figure legends should be provided in this section with figure number in bold and its associated description (non-bold).

References Section:

Only articles, clinical trial registration records and abstracts that have been published or are in the press or are available through public e-print/preprint servers, may be cited. Unpublished abstracts, unpublished data and personal communications should not be included in the reference list. The following guidelines must be followed:

  • References should be listed in the order in which they appear in the text.
  • The reference number should be in brackets in the text.
  • Vancouver endnote style available on endnote can be used.
  • For the reference list, the first six authors, followed by et al., abbreviation of journal, year of publication, Issue number, page number and DOI Number should be provided. Examples are given below:

Journal articles:

Rajasekaran T, Ng Q-S, Tan DS-W, Lim W-T, Ang M-K, Toh C-K, et al. Metronomic Chemotherapy: A relook at its basis and rationale. Cancer Letters. 2017; 388:328–33. doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2016.12.013.

Preprints

Alvarez R. Near optimal neural network estimator for spectral x-ray photon counting data with pileup. arXiv:1702.01006v1 [Preprint]. 2017 [cited 2017 Feb 9]: Accessed on 29 May 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2016.12.013.

Article published electronically ahead of the print version

Yu WM, Hawley TS, Hawley RG, Qu CK. Immortalization of yolk sac-derived precursor cells. Blood. 2002; [Epub ahead of print].

Website:

Cibulka, R. 2008. Carex cespitosa L. [online]. [Accessed 28 November 2011]. Available from (website address).

Books:

Stroh, P.A., Walker, K.J., Humphrey, T.A., Pescott, O.L. & Burkmar, R.J., eds. 2023. Plant Atlas 2020: Mapping Changes in the Distribution of the British and Irish Flora. 2 Volumes. Princeton: Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland & Princeton University Press.

Chapter in a book:

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.

Thesis or dissertation:

Brummitt, N. 2004. Patterns in the diversity and distribution of flowering plant genera. PhD thesis. University of Edinburgh.

Conference paper

Christensen S, Oppacher F. An analysis of Koza’s computational effort statistic for genetic programming. In: Foster JA, Lutton E, Miller J, Ryan C, Tettamanzi AG, editors. Genetic programming. EuroGP 2002: Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Genetic Programming; 2002 Apr 3-5; Kinsdale, Ireland. Berlin: Springer; 2002. pp. 182-91.

Preparing Tables

When preparing tables, please follow the formatting instructions below:

  • The table should be placed after the paragraph where it first appears in numerical order (e.g., Table 1, Table 2); the title should be placed above the table, and the footnote should be placed below the table.
  • If P values are shown within the table, it should be capitalized and italicized (P < 0.05).
  • Labels, numbers, letters, arrows, and symbols used in the table must be clearly displayed and explained in the footnote.
  • Tables larger than A4 page in length can be placed in the manuscript using the Microsoft tool on the word file “Layout-breaks-page break-next page-landscape orientation. Once the table is inserted in this format, the next page with the main text of the manuscript must be in continued in portrait format using the Microsoft tool on the word file “Layout-breaks-page break-next page-portrait” orientation.
  • Color and shading may not be used. Parts of the table can be highlighted using superscript, numbering, lettering, symbols or bold text, the meaning of which should be explained in a table legend.

Preparing Figures

When preparing figures, please follow the formatting instructions below:

  • If the authors are using figures from published literature or books, it is compulsory for the author(s) to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures in their manuscript. Permission should be indicated in the legend figure, and the original source included in the reference list.
  • The figures must be uploaded separately as a PowerPoint format during the submission process.
  • Figures should be numbered in the order they are first mentioned in the text.
  • Multi-panel figures (those with parts a, b, c, d etc.) should be submitted as a single file that contains all parts of the figure and should be uploaded in the correct orientation. Each figure should be closely cropped to minimize the amount of white space surrounding the illustration.
  • Figure keys should be incorporated into the graphic, not into the legend of the figure.
  • Figure titles and legends should be provided in the main manuscript, not in the figure file.

High quality figures give the manuscript a high chance of being accepted and cited. We, as publishers, provide Figure Preparation Services to help authors get the manuscript ready for submission. Please follow the link to find out more.

Manuscript Submission

All the manuscripts should be submitted online. The submitting author, generally the corresponding author, must ensure that all the eligible authors have been included in the author list and all authors read and approved of the submitted version. A cover letter is required to be submitted accompanying each manuscript. The cover letter must include the title and type of the manuscript; a summary of the background and content of the work; an explanation of why it warrants publication in the journal (e.g., novelty, importance etc); a statement that the manuscript has not been submitted or published elsewhere; In cases where the manuscript or part of it has been posted on preprints, conference, etc. a statement declaring this is a requirement. Duplicated manuscripts submitted to other journals at the same time as they are submitted to MENA Journal of Bioscience Research will be withdrawn from the journal submission system and review process. Queries should be directed to the editorial office at mjbr@menamedicalresearch.com.