About the Journal

Journal of Health Specialties (JHS) is a quarterly peer-reviewed international journal published by the Saudi Commission of Health Specialties. The journal’s full text is available online at www.thejhs.org. The journal allows free access (Open Access) to its contents and permits authors to self-archive final accepted versions of articles on any OAI-compliant institutional / subject-based repository. The journal does not charge for submission, processing or publication of manuscripts.

Scope of the journal

Original articles contributing new knowledge or insights for the health professional practice and allied health that may include studies of clinical and basic health sciences. Review Articles are welcome but should be undertaken after first contacting the editorial offices. In general, the journal will give priority to articles that have information relevant to professional practice in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The Editorial Process

A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to JHS alone at that point in time and has not been previously published, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere. The journal expects that authors will authorize one author to correspond with the Journal for all matters related to the manuscript. All manuscripts received will be duly acknowledged. On submission, editors carry out an initial review of all manuscripts for suitability for formal review. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or lack a significant message are rejected before proceeding for formal review. Manuscripts that are unlikely to be of interest to the Journal of Health Specialties readers will be rejected at this stage.

Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication in the JHS are sent to two or more expert reviewers. During submission, the contributor is requested to provide names of two or three qualified reviewers who have had experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but this is not mandatory. The reviewers should not be affiliated with the same institutes as the contributor (s). However, the selection of these reviewers is at the sole discretion of the editor. The journal follows a double-blind review process. The reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identity. Every 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. The comments and suggestions (acceptance/ rejection/ amendments in manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author. If required, the author is requested to provide a point by point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated till reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript.

Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within three days. It may not be possible to incorporate corrections received after that period. The whole process of submission of the manuscript to final decision and sending and receiving proofs is completed online.

Clinical trial registry

Manuscripts reporting results of clinical trials must provide a registration number. Registration of clinical trials must be done prior to the initiation of the study on a publicly available data base. At present, the data bases that are satisfactory are the NIH registry http://www.clinicaltrials.gov and the International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number (http://isrctn.com).

Authorship Criteria

Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to each of the two components mentioned below:

1. Concept and design of study or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data;
2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content.

Participation solely in the acquisition of funding, the collection of data or general supervision of the research group does not justify authorship. Therefore, each author shall have contributed substantially to the substance and or reporting of information contained in the article. The order author names should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and writing the manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests

All authors must disclose any and all conflicts of interest they may have with publication of the manuscript or an institution or product that are mentioned in the manuscript and or are important to the outcome of the study presented. Authors should also disclose conflict of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.

Submission of Manuscripts

All manuscripts must be submitted on-line through the website www.journalonweb.com/jhs . First time users will have to register at this site. Registration is free but mandatory. Registered authors can keep track of their articles after logging into the site using their user name and password. Authors do not have to pay for submission, processing or publication of articles. If problems are encountered, please contact the editorial office by e-mail at editor.jhs@scfhs.org .

Manuscripts not meeting these guidelines in “Instructions to Authors” will be returned to the authors for correction, before they undergo editorial and peer-review. Generally. Manuscripts should be submitted in the form of five separate files (see below):

[1] A covering letter signed by all authors

[2] The Cover page, containing:

This file should provide

1. Acknowledgement (s), if any. 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 and not in the main article file.
2. If the manuscript was presented in whole or part at a meeting; the authors must declare the organization, place, and exact date on which it was read. 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.
3. Registration number in case of a clinical trial and where it is registered (name of the registry and its URL)
4. Conflicts of Interest of each author and contributor. 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.
5. Criteria for inclusion in the authors’ or contributors’ list
6. The name, address, e-mail, 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.

[3] Blinded Article file:

The manuscript must not contain any mention of the authors' names or initials or the institution at which the study was done or acknowledgements. Page headers and running title can include the title but not the authors' names. Manuscripts not in compliance with The Journal's blinding policy will be returned to the corresponding author. The main text of the article, beginning from Abstract till References should be in this file. Use rtf/doc files. Do not zip the files. Limit the file size to 1024 kb (1MB). Do not incorporate images in the file. The pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the first page of the blinded article file.
Therefore five files will be submitted:

1. Covering letter
2. Cover page
3. Full text plus references and figure legends
4. Tables
5. Figures and illustrations

[4] Images: :

Submit good quality color images. Each image should be less than 4 MB in size. Size of the image can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images (keep around 1800 x 1200 pixels or 5-6 inches). Images can be submitted as jpeg files. Do not zip the files. Legends for the figures/images should be included at the end of the article file.

[5] The contributors' / copyright transfer form

The template provided below has to be submitted in original with the signatures of all the contributors within two weeks of submission via courier, fax or email (copyright at www.Medknow.com ) as a scanned image. It can also be uploaded online from your area on the site www.journalonweb.com. Print ready hard copies of the images (one set) or digital images should be sent to the journal office at the time of submitting revised manuscript. If the upload images are not print ready and you have higher resolution images it can be sent by email on images at www.Medknow.com).

The hard copies of the Contributors’ form / copyright transfer form may be sent to the following addresses or submitted online from the authors’ area on www.journalonweb.com/jhs .

Professor Ziad Ahmed Memish
Department of Medical Education and Postgraduate Studies
The Saudi Commission for Health Specialties
PO Box 94656
Saudi Riyadh, 11614
Saudi Arabia

Preparation of Manuscripts

Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with "Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (October 2006). The uniform requirements and specific requirement of JHS are summarized below. Before submitting a manuscript, contributors are requested to check for the latest instructions available. Instructions are also available from the website of the journal and from the manuscript submission site (http://www.journalonweb.com).

JHS accepts manuscripts written in British English.

Copies of any permission(s)

It is the responsibility of authors/ contributors to obtain permissions for reproducing any copyrighted material. A copy of the permission obtained must accompany the manuscript.

Types of Manuscripts

Original Articles:

The text of original articles amounting to up to 3000 words (excluding Abstract, references and Tables) should be divided into sections with the headings Abstract, Key-words, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Tables and Figure legends. The article should be supported with 25-35 references.

Reporting Guidelines for Specific Study Designs

Review Articles:

Most of these articles will be commissioned by the editor on the basis that the invited author is an acknowledged expert in his subject area. However, similarly experienced authors are encouraged to make submissions. Anyone considering making a submission of a review is encouraged to contact the editor, editor.jhs@scfhs.org.

The manuscript should not be more than 3000 words (excluding references and abstract) and should be supported with more than 40 references. Only reports which carry added value for professional practice will be considered for review.

Case Reviews:

The manuscript should not be no less than 1500 words (excluding references and abstract) and should be supported with more than 15 references. Only reviews which carry added value for professional practice will be considered for review.

Case Reports:

The manuscript should not be no less than 1000 words (excluding references and abstract) and should be supported with up to 10-14 references. Only reports which carry added value for professional practice will be considered for review.

Letter to the Editor:

The letter could have up to 500 words and 5 references. It could be generally authored by not more than four authors.

Other:

Editorial, Guest Editorial, and Commentary are solicited by the editorial board.

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 superscript with square bracket after the punctuation marks. 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.
The commonly cited types of references are shown here, for other types of references such as newspaper items 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 (for up to six authors): Shukla N, Husain N, Agarwal GG, Husain M. Utility of cysticercus fasciolaris antigen in Dot ELISA for the diagnosis of neurocysticercosis. Indian J Med Sci 2008;62:222-7.
2. Standard journal article (for more than six authors): List the first six contributors followed by et al.
   Nozari Y, Hashemlu A, Hatmi ZN, Sheikhvatan M, Iravani A, Bazdar A, et al. Outcome of coronary artery bypass grafting in patients without major risk factors and patients with at least one major risk factor for coronary artery disease. Indian J Med Sci 2007;61:547-54
3. 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.
4. 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

1. Personal author(s): Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996.
2. Editor(s), compiler(s) as author: Norman IJ, Redfern SJ, editors. Mental health care for elderly people. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1996.
3. 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.

Electronic Sources as reference

Journal article on the Internet
Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [serial on the Internet]. 2002 Jun [cited 2002 Aug 12];102(6):[about 3 p.]. Available from: http://www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/june/Wawatch.htm
Monograph on the Internet
Foley KM, Gelband H, editors. Improving palliative care for cancer [monograph on the Internet]. Washington: National Academy Press; 2001 [cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309074029/html/.
Homepage/Web site
Cancer-Pain.org [homepage on the 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/.
Part of a homepage/Web site
American Medical Association [homepage on the Internet]. Chicago: The Association; c1995-2002 [updated 2001 Aug 23; cited 2002 Aug 12]. AMA Office of Group Practice Liaison; [about 2 screens]. Available from: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/1736.html

Tables

• Tables should be self-explanatory and should not duplicate information in main text
• Number tables, in Arabic numerals, consecutively in the order in the text
• Explain in footnotes all non-standard abbreviations that are used in a table
• For footnotes use the following symbols, in this sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ||,¶ , **, ††, ‡‡
• Tables shall be submitted in a separate file

Illustrations (Figures)

• Upload the images in JPEG format. The file size should be within 1024 kb in size while uploading.
• Figures should be numbered consecutively as they appear in text.
• Final figures for print production: Send sharp, glossy, un-mounted, color photographic prints, with height of 4 inches and width of 6 inches at the time of submitting the revised manuscript. Print outs of digital photographs are not acceptable. If digital images are the only source of images, ensure that the image has minimum resolution of 300 dpi or 1800 x 1600 pixels. Send the images on a CD. 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.
• The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size.

Protection of Patients' Rights to Privacy

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients' names from figures unless they have obtained written informed consent from the patients. When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the article and a copy of the consent should be attached with the covering letter.

Sending a revised manuscript

The revised version of the manuscript should be submitted online in a manner similar to that used for submission of the manuscript for the first time. However, there is no need to submit the “First Page” or “Covering Letter” file while submitting a revised version. When submitting a revised manuscript, contributors are requested to include, the ‘referees’ remarks along with point by point clarification at the beginning in the revised file itself. In addition, they are expected to mark the changes as underlined or colored text in the article.

Reprints and proofs

The journal provides no free reprints. Authors can purchase reprints, payment for which should be done at the time of submitting the proofs. Proofs will be sent to the corresponding author.

Manuscript submission, processing and publication charges

The journal does not charge the authors or authors’ institutions for the submission, processing and or publication of manuscripts.

Copyrights

The entire contents of the JHS, grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for personal non-commercial use under Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Checklist

Covering letter

• Signed by all contributors
• Previous publication / presentations mentioned
• Source of funding mentioned
• Conflicts of interest disclosed

Authors

• Last name and given name provided along with Middle name initials (where applicable)
• Author for correspondence, with e-mail address provided

Presentation and format

• Double spacing
• Margins 2.5 cm from all four sides
• Page numbers included at bottom
• Headings in title case (not ALL CAPITALS)
• Send the article file without ‘Track Changes’

Language and grammar

• Uniformly British English

Contributors' form

(to be modified as applicable and one signed copy attached with the manuscript)

Manuscript Title:

______________________________________________________________________________
I/we certify that I/we have participated sufficiently in contributing to the intellectual content, concept and design of this work or the analysis and interpretation of the data (when applicable), as well as writing of the manuscript, to take public responsibility for it and have agreed to have my/our name listed as a contributor.

I/we believe that the manuscript represents valid work. Neither this manuscript nor one with substantially similar content under my/our authorship has been published or is being considered for publication elsewhere, except as described in the covering letter. I/we certify that all the data collected during the study is presented in this manuscript and no data from the study has been or will be published separately. I/we attest that, if requested by the editors, I/we will provide the data/information or will cooperate fully in obtaining and providing the data/information on which the manuscript is based, for examination by the editors or their assignees. Financial interests, direct or indirect, that exist or may be perceived to exist for individual contributors in connection with the content of this paper have been disclosed in the cover letter. Sources of outside support of the project are named in the covering letter.

I/We hereby transfer(s), assign(s), or otherwise convey(s) all copyright ownership, including any and all rights incidental thereto, exclusively to The Saudi Commission for Health Specialties, in the event that such work is published by The Journal of Health Specialties. The Journal of Health Specialties shall own the article, including

1. copyright;
2. The right to grant permission to republish the article in whole or in part, with or without fee;
3. The right to produce preprints or reprints and translate into languages other than English for sale or free distribution; and
4. The right to republish the work in a collection of articles in any other mechanical or electronic format.

We give the rights to the corresponding author to make necessary changes as per the request of the journal, do the rest of the correspondence on our behalf and he/she will act as the guarantor for the manuscript on our behalf.

All persons who have made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript, but who are not contributors, are named in the Acknowledgment and have given me/us their written permission to be named. If I/we do not include an Acknowledgment that means I/we have not received substantial contributions from non-contributors and no contributor has been omitted.

Name Signature Date signed
1 --------------- --------------- ---------------
2 --------------- --------------- ---------------
3 --------------- --------------- ---------------
4 --------------- --------------- --------------- (up to 4 contributors for case report/ images/ review)
5 --------------- --------------- ---------------
6 --------------- --------------- --------------- (up to 6 contributors for original studies)

Click here to download instructions

Click here to download copyright form

These ready to use templates are made to help the contributors write as per the requirements of the Journal.

Save the templates on your computer and use them with a word processor program. 
Click open the file and save as the manuscript file.

In the program keep 'Document Map' and 'Comments' on from 'View' menu to navigate through the file. 


Download Template for Original Articles/ABSTRACT Reports. (.DOT file)

Download Template for Case Reports.  (.DOT file)

Download Template for Review Articles.  (.DOT file)

Download Template for Letter to the Editor.  (.DOT file)