Author Guidelines

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1. Aims and Scope

Ethiopian Journal of Medical and Health Sciences is an international peer-reviewed journal. The scope of the Journal is broad, embracing clinical medicine, public health, and biomedical sciences. Original research work, reviews, comments on current health initiatives, case reports, and other relevant scientific work will be published in the journal in understandable formats to improve health and advance human progress.

2 . Article Types

Ethiopian Journal of Medical and Health Sciences (EJMHS) publishes the following:

• Research Articles
• Case Reports
• Review Articles
• Short Communications
• Commentaries

2.1.1  Research Articles

Research articles generally encompass basic and applied researches, and graduate and postgraduate researches related to medical, health, and basic sciences. These articles should present the results of an original research. The articles should describe how the research project was conducted and provide a thorough analysis of the results of the project. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses may be submitted as research articles.

2.1.2   Case Reports

A case report is detailed description of a single case presenting the characteristics of the case, signs and symptoms, investigations done, diagnosis, treatment/management, follow up  and outcome. It often addresses a new/emerging/re-emerging disease, a rare disease, an unusual manifestation, and adverse reaction to a new drug or vaccine. A case report article should be structured as abstract, introduction, description of the case, and discussion.

2.1.3   Review Articles

A review article encompasses an overview of critically reviewed scientific papers (the published literature) in a particular subject area. Review articles should be submitted by experts in the fields of medical, health, and biomedical sciences.

2.1.4  Short Communications

A short communication (also known as brief communication) includes articles of brief scientific notes on preliminary results, scientific observations, experimental techniques, and recent technological advances in medical and health sciences including basic applied sciences. It also includes information on specific cases and limited applications. Short communications should not be more than six typed pages. They should have a brief abstract and may not contain more than two figures and/or two tables.

2.1.5  Policy Brief

A policy brief is a brief document intended to apprise and encourage policymakers about a specific issue by presenting a concise analysis of the problem, supported by research evidence, and present clear recommendations for action, aiming to extract complex information into accessible language for evidence-based decision-making purposes; basically, it's a tool to advocate for a particular policy approach on a given topic. 

Policy briefs need to be simple and direct. The brief should be no more than 1,500 words including figures and tables. It should only include essential information to set out your perspective and recommended action. Headlines should make an impact, quickly communicate the content and should be easy to remember when citing it to argue a position. The executive summary should be 100 to 250 words which can help your readers get familiar with a large body of work without having to read it all. Please keep it short and use bullet points to describe the purpose of the brief, highlight the major points you will make, and then describe any results, conclusions, or recommendations.

2.1.6  Commentaries

A commentary may be a comment on a newly published article, or a presentation of a new viewpoint on existing problems, fundamental concepts, or prevalent notions, or a discussion of the implications of a newly implemented innovation. A commentary may also draw attention to current advances and speculate on future directions of a certain topic, and may include original data as well as state a personal opinion. The author of a commentary may have in-depth knowledge of the topic. When a commentary is a treatise on a published article, it must use a polite language. It should provide critical arguments in relation to the ideas, theoretical underpinnings, methodologies, interpretation of results and conclusion of the article in point. It should not be directed at the authors. .

A commentary should be limited to four to six pages. Only essential citations which are necessary to substantiate the authors’ arguments should be used. Commentaries do not follow the IMRAD style of manuscript writing. They often do not have an abstract section. Manuscript sections depend on the nature of the commentary. Authors can structure commentaries in a way that best fits their treatise. Title should be short and emphasize the key message of the commentary. Commentaries are submitted to EJMHS when solicited by the Editor-in-Chief. Authors who wish to submit unsolicited commentaries need to first contact the Editor-in-Chief and get their advice.

3. Manuscript Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted to EJMHS online at   https://journals.hu.edu.et/hu-journals/index.php/ejmhs.  Manuscripts should be submitted by one of the authors of the manuscript through the online manuscript tracking system. The manuscript must be written in English. It is the responsibilities of the authors to submit the manuscripts in clear and Standard English. Only Word (.doc, .docx, .rtf) or electronic PDF (.pdf) files can be submitted. There is no page limit; however, we encourage authors to be precise and avoid verbose language. EJMHS does not charge authors any article processing fees.

4. Detailed manuscript submission instructions

4.1 Language

The manuscript must be written in English. It is the responsibility of the authors to submit the manuscripts in clear and understandable language. 

4.2  Format

Manuscript files can be submitted in Microsoft Word documents (DOC, DOCX, or RTF) and as PDFs.  

4.3  Fonts

The manuscript should be prepared in Times New Roman with font size of 12 points, double line spacing, and 2.5 cm marginal indentions on all sides.

4.4  Length

There are no restrictions on page limit, word count, number of figures and tables, amount of supporting information, and thus manuscripts can be any length. However, we encourage authors to present and discuss the findings concisely.

4.5  Page and line numbering

The page numbers and line numbers (use continuous line numbers) should be included in the manuscript file.

4.6  Headings and subheadings

Limit manuscript headings and sub-headings to 3 heading levels. Main headings should be bold, have font size of 14 points, and be in capital letters. Sub-headings should be bold, have font size of 12 points, and capitalize the first letter, followed by lowercase. Minor sub-headings should be light font italics.

4.7  Reference style

Ethiopian Journal of Medical and Health Sciences uses the “Vancouver” reference citation style.

4.8  Units

Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI.

4.9  Photographs and illustrations

Illustrations may be submitted in the form of black and white or coloured photographs or computer drawings or both.

5. Manuscript structure

The manuscript should be structured as follows.

5.1 Title page

The first page should contain the full title of the manuscript, the author list, and current affiliations of the authors.

Title: The length of the title should not be more than 250 characters. Scientific names should be written in full when mentioned for the first time in the text.

Authors: Enter the name of the authors on the title page of the manuscript. For ease of communication, authors are requested to include their email addresses.

Corresponding authors: For manuscripts with multiple authors, an asterisk should indicate the author to whom all correspondence is to be addressed. The corresponding author should be clearly indicated for handling the correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, and for post-publication correspondence. Change in authorship requests is only made by the corresponding author to the editor-in-chief. The submitting author, who is generally the corresponding author, is responsible for ensuring that the article’s publication has been approved by all the co-authors.

Affiliations: The affiliation of authors includes department, university, or organizational affiliation and its location which includes city and country. The authors should present their affiliations below the name of the authors. If an author has multiple affiliations, enter all the affiliated institutions on the title page. Indicate all affiliations with superscript Arabic numbers immediately after the author's name.

5.2  Abstract

The Abstract is the self-contained citation-free part that comes after the title page in the manuscript file. It should not exceed 300 words and must include a brief background on the study topic (the rationale for the study and objectives), methods used, results, and a conclusion. It should include up to five keywords, separated by commas. The abstract should not include citations and abbreviations.

5.3  Introduction

This section of the manuscript should include:

• Background on the topic being studied,
• In-depth description of the rationale of the study,
• Objectives of the study, hypothesis, and significance of the study.
• It should provide a brief review of the literature, limited to information essential to orient the reader.

5.4  Materials and methods

Subheadings under this section include description of the study setting, study design, population and eligibility criteria, sample size and sampling procedures, variables and measurement, methods of data collection, and statistical data analysis.

5.5  Results

The major findings are in response to objectives set in the study. Be selective and focus on reporting the results.

5.6  Discussion

It should follow your major findings. Interpret the findings, show relationships and implications, and compare with other studies in similar topics and relevant to the study. It should explore the significance of the results of the work. Don’t repeat what has been already described in the results. In some cases, results and discussion can be merged (result and discussion parts may be divided into subsections or may be combined.)

5.7  Conclusion (optional)

This can be written in a separate section or can be part of the discussion. It should also be concise, clear, and align to stated objectives and major findings.

5.8  Acknowledgements

All acknowledgments (if any) should be included at the very end of the manuscript before the references. Anyone who made a contribution to the research or manuscript, but who does not qualify as an author, should be acknowledged (with their permission).

5.9  Ethical consideration

In many studies on human or animal subjects, the following ethical guidelines must be observed. For any experiments on humans, all work must be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (1964). Manuscripts describing experimental work which carries a risk of harm to human subjects must include a statement that the experiment was conducted with the human subjects’ understanding and consent, as well as a statement that the responsible ethical committee has approved the experiments. In the case of any animal experiments, the authors must provide a full description of any anesthetic or surgical procedure used, as well as evidence that all possible steps were taken to avoid animal suffering at each stage of the experiment.

5.10  Figures and Tables

Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively in the order of their citation in the text. Each table and figure must be typed on a separate sheet and should be placed at the end of the manuscript. Footnotes should contain information relevant to specific entries or parts of the table. The approximate position of each table and figure should be indicated in the text.

5.11  Data Availability

This statement should describe how readers can access the data supporting the conclusions of the study and clearly outline the reasons why unavailable data cannot be released.

5.12  Conflicts of Interest

Authors must declare all relevant interests. If no conflicts exist, the authors should state this. Submitting authors are responsible for coauthors declaring their interests.

5.13  Funding Statement

Authors must state how the research and publication of their article were funded.