INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

A. Submission

1. Authors should submit the text of the paper as a word-processed document, and not as a PDF.
2. The site contains instructions and advice on how to use the system, whereas in the events of system maintenance manuscripts can also be forwarded to editorial@afmjonline.com for processing and review.
3. All submitted manuscripts should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief (E-I-C).
4. Submitted articles undergo a preliminary review by the section editor. Some articles may be returned to authors without further consideration. Those being considered for publication will undergo further assessment and peer-review by the section editors and those invited to do so from the board and reviewer pool. The Journal uses a single-blind process for peer-review.
5. Appeals on editorial decisions should be sent to the E-I-C at editorial@afmjonline.com.
6. Font type should be Times New Roman, and the font size should be 12 for text and tables should be 10. Margins should not be less than 3 cm, double spacing should be used throughout the manuscript, which should include the following sections, each starting on a separate page:
   Title page;
   Abstract and Keywords;
   Text;
   Acknowledgements;
   References; and
   Tables with captions and Figures.
   Pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page, and the page number should be placed in the centre bottom of each page.
7. Abbreviations should be defined on their first appearance in the text; those not accepted by international bodies should be avoided.
8. Manuscripts must be submitted on the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere and are only being considered by this journal.
9. When submitting the revised manuscript, please indicate the changes made in the text, and upload a point by point response using line numbers on the manuscript to the Reviewers' comments or requests.

B. Article Types And Characteristics

1. Types of articles accepted include Original manuscripts (original clinical and experimental research), Reviews (including Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses), Editorials and Editorial Comments (by invitation from the E-I-C), Case reports (unusual single cases or series of cases with a learning point or significant contribution to Medicine), and Correspondence (comments on published papers and authors' replies).
2. All manuscripts should be as clear and concise as possible.
   • a) Title page should include a descriptive title; author’s forename and surname, address of each author and full address, telephone and e-mail address of the corresponding author. The above should be followed by word count for abstract, main text of not more than 3000 words (introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion), and the number of tables and figures. Note that tables and figures should not exceed 5 in total and are excluded from word count for main text. They should have clear headings and abbreviations should be explained in the foot note.
   • b) Abstract of not more than 250 words: Background- identifying the purpose of the study, key Methods, main Results, and the main Conclusion;
   • c) Keywords: with a maximum of 3-10 keywords for indexing;
   • d) Introduction: introducing the work and stating the rationale for the work;
   • e) Methods: a description of the study design, procedures, techniques, and statistical evaluation;
   • f) Results: a clear account of the study findings cross-referenced to tables and figures;
   • g) Discussion: an interpretation of the study related to current knowledge;
   • h) Conclusion: specific conclusions drawn from results obtained from the study;
   • i) Declarations:
     
     1. - Conflicts of interest- including financial, consultant, institutional and other relationships that might lead to bias should be acknowledged. If there is no conflict of interest, this should be explicitly stated as none declared.
     2. - Funding - All sources of funding or support if any should be acknowledged.
     3. - Data availability - statement on data availability on request should be added.
     Submitting authors are responsible for coauthors declaring their interests and sources of funding or support;
   • j) Acknowledgements; and
   • k) References (maximum of 30).
3. Reviews should include Title page as above; Abstract (150 words) setting out the scope, key messages and conclusions of the review. Body of text should be partitioned with headings and sub-headings with conclusions at the end. Conflicts of interest, Acknowledgements, References, Tables and Figure should then follow.
4. Case Report should be no more than 2000 words, excluding abstract (150 words), references (maximum 20), tables and figures (maximum 3 in total). Correspondence should be limited to 800 words and one illustration (figure or table).
5. Other articles should adopt a concise style as above.
6. Authors who are not native speakers of English and require help in writing an article in English are encouraged to consider using a language service in preparing a manuscript submission.

C. Permissions to Reproduce Previously Published Material

Authors must obtain prior permission to reproduce material (such as illustrations) from the copyright holder. The granting of permission should be acknowledged alongside the material (e.g., within legend of a figure) in the submitted article. Authors are responsible for paying any fees to reproduce material.

D. Ethics Committee Approval and Subject Consent

1. Ethical committee approval from relevant authorities must be obtained for human and animal experiments.
2. Informed consent should be obtained from patients or other subjects of experiments that clearly grants permission for the publication of photographs or other material that might identify them. If the consent form for your research did not specifically include this, please obtain it or remove the identifying material.

AUTHORSHIP

All authors must meet the criteria for authorship as established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, that they believe that the paper represents honest work, and that they are able to verify the validity of the results reported.

In the case of a large study group involvement, please list the names of authors that meet the ICMJE criteria on the title page of the paper and include a study group name, if required, to encompass other author contributors. The study group name on the title page should be marked with a superscript asterisk, with a footnote on the title page stating "*A list of other author contributors are listed in the Acknowledgment section." Clearly identify in the Acknowledgement section those individuals who meet the author criteria after a superscript asterisk and study group name and the text "author contributors:". Other study sites and participants should be identified and listed separately to this study group.

COPYRIGHT

1. All authors must complete and submit the journal’s copyright transfer agreement (available here), which includes sections on author declaration and the disclosure of potential conflicts of interest based on the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, (www.icmje.org/update.html).
2. Papers are accepted for publication on the understanding that exclusive license to publish your paper online and in print is assigned to AFMJ. You may use material from your paper in other works.

MANUSCRIPT

Title Page

The title page should carry:

• Full title of the paper, consisting of no more than 20 words (only common abbreviations should be used if absolutely necessary); titles should be clear and brief, conveying the message of the paper.
• All authors’ names: the full first name, middle initial(s) and last (family name) name of each author should appear; if the work is to be attributed to a department or institution, its full name and location should be included. The last (family name) must appear in CAPITAL letters. Persons listed as authors should be those who substantially contributed to the study’s conception, design, and performance.
• The affiliations of all the authors; when authors are affiliated to more than one institution, their names should be connected using 1,2,3, etc. These numbers should follow the surname but precede the address; they should be used for all addresses.
• Information about previous presentations of the whole or part of the work presented in the article.
• Word count of all text excluding tables and figures.
• Number of tables and figures.
• The name and address of the author responsible for correspondence concerning the manuscript. The peer-review process as well as publication will be delayed if you do not provide up to date telephone number, and E-mail address.

Abstracts

The second page should carry a structured abstract of no more than 250 words. The abstract should include Background of the study stating the objective(s) of the study or investigation, main Methods (selection of study subjects or laboratory animals; observational and analytical methods), main Results (giving specific data and their statistical significance, if possible), and the main Conclusions. It should emphasize new and important aspects of the study or observations.

Review articles and Case Reports should include an unstructured summary of no more than 150 words.

Key Words

The abstract should be followed by a list of 3–10 keywords or short phrases which will assist the cross-indexing of the article.

Abbreviations and symbols

Use only standard abbreviations. Avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract.

Text

Full papers of an experimental or observational nature should be divided into sections: Introduction, Methods (including ethical and statistical information), Results, Discussion (including limitations), and Conclusions, although reviews may require a different format. Case Reports should typically contain the sections Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, and References.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements should be made only to those who have made a substantial contribution to the study.

References

References should be in accordance with the citation style of the National Library of Medicine. They should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they first appear in the text. They should be assigned Arabic numerals, which should be given in brackets, e.g. [17]. References should include the names of all authors and any Study Group named in the primary author list when six or fewer; when seven or more, list only the first six names and add et al.

Articles in journals

Uchenwa-Onyenegecha TA, Gabriel-Job N. Hypertension and Pre-Hypertension among Children and Adolescents in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. West Afr J Med. 2021; 38(7): 661-666.

More than six authors:

Odili AN, Danladi B, Chori BS, Oshaju H, Nwakile PC, Okoye IC et al. Prevalence and Determinants of Masked Hypertension in Nigeria: The REMAH Study. Am J Hypertens. 2021; 34(4): 359-366.

Books

Book:

Malik A, Brito D, Vaqar S, Chhabra L. Congestive Heart Failure. Treasure Island: StatPearls Publishing; 2022

Chapter in a book:

Hay RJ. Fungal and yeast infections. In: Buxton PK (editor). ABC of Dermatology. BMJ Publishing Group Ltd; 2003. pp. 101-104.

Personal communications and unpublished work should not feature in the reference list but should appear in parentheses in the text. Unpublished work accepted for publication but not yet released should be included in the reference list with the words ‘in press’ in parentheses beside the name of the journal concerned. References must be verified by the author(s) against the original documents.

Tables, figures and supplementary materials

Each table should be typed on a separate page in double spacing. Tables should not be submitted as photographs. Each table should be assigned an Arabic numeral, e.g. (Table 3) and a brief title. Vertical rules should not be used. Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain in footnotes all non-standard abbreviations that are used in each table. Identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard deviation and standard error of mean.

Be sure that each table is cited in the text. If you use a table or data from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge the source fully.

Authors are encouraged to submit coloured and non-coloured versions of illustrative figures, should the editor choose to publish gratis the colour version online only.

All figures should be cited in the manuscript in a consecutive order. Figures should be supplied in either vector art formats (Illustrator, EPS, WMF, FreeHand, CorelDraw, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) or bitmap formats (Photoshop, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, etc.). Bitmap images should be of 300 dpi resolution at least unless the resolution is intentionally set to a lower level for scientific reasons.

Supplementary materials are the additional parts to a manuscript, such as audio files, video clips, or datasets that might be of interest to readers. Authors can submit one file of supplementary material along with their manuscript through the manuscript submission system.

Units of measurement

Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units (metre, kilogram, or litre) or their decimal multiples. Temperatures should be given in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be given in millimetres of mercury.

All haematologic and clinical chemistry measurements should be reported in the metric system in terms of the International System of Units (SI). Editors may request that alternative or non-SI units be added by the authors before publication.

Revision submission

When submitting the revised manuscript, please indicate the changes made in the text, and upload a point by point response using line numbers on the manuscript to the Reviewers' comments or requests.

Article processing fee (APF)

The article processing fee (APF) is charged on acceptance of the article and should be paid within 30 days by the author, funding agency or institution.

Privacy statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Author’s copyright

Authors retain their copyright for all articles they publish. Authors grant AFMJ an exclusive license to publish the article online and in print, and the article is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons user license.

Creative Commons license

Open access articles are freely available to read, download and share from the time of publication under the terms of the Creative Commons License Attribution-Non Commerical No Derivative (CC BY-NC-ND) license. This license does not permit reuse for any commercial purposes nor does it cover the reuse or modification of individual elements of the work (such as figures, tables, etc.) in the creation of derivative works without specific permission.