Guidelines for authors 

1. Papers submitted for publication to the Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal (EMHJ) must not have been published, accepted for publication or currently be under consideration for publication elsewhere (please refer to our Ethics policy).
   The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean reserves all rights of reproduction and republication of material that appears in the EMHJ.
    

2. Papers submitted for publication to the EMHJ should conform with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (URM) of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
    

3. Submission: Original papers written in Arabic, English or French may be submitted for consideration by e-mail to EMHJ@emro.who.int. Papers can also be sent to the Editor-in-chief, Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, PO Box 7608, Nasr City (11371), Cairo, Egypt.
   Abstracts of papers accepted for publication will be translated into all three languages. To ensure the correct spelling of authors’ names to accompany the Arabic abstract, authors writing in English or French but whose mother tongue is written using Arabic characters should provide their full names in Arabic script along with transliterations in English or French.
    

4. All papers considered for publication will be peer reviewed. The Editorial Board reserves the right to accept or reject any paper based on the reviewers’ comments, scientific rigor and suitability for the journal. Papers are accepted on the understanding that they are subject to statistical and editorial revision as deemed necessary, including abridgement of the text and omission of tabular or graphic material.
    

5. Topics: The subject of the paper should pertain to public health or a related biomedical or technical subject within the field of interest of the WHO, and should have particular relevance to the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
    

6. The title of the paper should be as concise as possible, preferably not more than 15 words. The full name(s) of the author(s), institutional affiliations(s) and highest scientific degrees obtained should be provided. Please include the e-mail address and any other contact information (mailing address, fax, telephone) of the corresponding author. The number of authors should not exceed seven. All authors should have made material contribution to the design, analysis or writing of the study and have approved the final version submitted. No change in authorship will be permitted after the paper has been accepted for publication and any change before this must be agreed by all authors listed. Authors may be asked to verify their contribution. Names of other contributors may be included in the acknowledgements. Please see the ICMJE guidelines for authorship and contributorship.
    

7. Research articles and Reports: Papers reporting original research findings should follow the IMRAD format: Introduction; Methods; Results; Analysis; and Discussion. The text of Research articles and Reports should not exceed 3000 words (excluding the accompanying abstract, references, tables and figures). An abstract of not more than 150 words should be supplied, clearly and briefly stating the objectives, context, results and conclusions. The maximum number of references permitted is 25. The number of tables and figures should not exceed one per 1000 words.
    

8. Review articles, i.e. critical assessments of research on topics of relevance to public health in the Region. These should contain sections dealing with objectives, sources, methods of selection, compilation and interpretation of data and conclusions. The text should not exceed 3000 words (excluding the accompanying abstract, references, tables and figures), and should be accompanied by an abstract of not more than 150 words. The number of tables and figures should not exceed one per 1000 words.
    

9. Case reports: Only reports of cases of an unusual nature are considered for publication. Text should include an Introduction, the Report of the case(s) and a Discussion. The text should not exceed 2000 words and the number of references kept to a minimum. No abstract is required.
    

10. Letters to the Editor: Letters commenting on published articles are welcome. Letters will be sent to the authors of the original article for their comments, and these will be published along with the letter. The text of letters should be kept as short as possible.
     

11. Short communications: Articles which do not constitute a complete research study but are of particular relevance or importance to public health issues in the Region are occasionally considered for publication. The text should not exceed 1500 words (excluding the accompanying abstract, references, tables and figures), and should be accompanied by an abstract of not more than 150 words. The number of tables and figures should not exceed one per 1000 words.
     

12. Ethical considerations: Where applicable, a statement must be included indicating approval for the study was granted by the ethics committee/institutional review board of the relevant institution.
    Authors should verify where appropriate that all persons on whom research has been carried out have given their voluntary, informed, written consent, and where participants (living or dead) were unable to give such consent, that surrogate consent was obtained (please refer to our Ethics policy). Authors may be asked to supply such consent forms. In cases where participants cannot read and write, oral consent is acceptable.
     

13. Conflicts of interest: Authors must provide a statement detailing any competing interests. Please see the EMHJ Ethics policy and the ICMJE guidelines.
     

14. Manuscripts should be provided in word processed format (preferably Microsoft Word) double-spaced, A4-size. Manuscripts submitted as hard copy should be double-spaced, A4 pages typewritten or printed on one side only.
     

15. References: In-text citations of published works should be limited to essential up-to-date references. These should be numbered separately as they occur in the text with sequential Arabic numerals in parentheses, e.g. [1,5-8]. These references should appear in a numbered list on a separate page after the Discussion. They should contain the following elements as appropriate: name(s) and initial(s) of author(s); title of paper or book in its original language plus translation; for research articles, complete name of journal plus volume number and page range; for books and other texts, place of publication (city and country) and name of publisher (commercial or institutional); and date of publication; for texts published exclusively on the Internet, exact URL of the page cited and date when last accessed.
    For texts with up to 3 authors, all authors must be named. For texts with more than 3 authors, only the first author is named followed by “et al”.
    The following are examples of the Journal’s preferred style:

Book:

Al Hamza B, Smith A. The fifth sign of identity. Cairo, American University Press, 1990.

Journal article:

Jones A et al. One day in Tibet. Journal of tautology, 1993, 13(5):23–7.

Document:

Al-Itneen M, ed. The principles of uncertainty. Geneva, World Health Organization, 1985 (WHO/DOC/537).

Web text:

Child growth standards. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2006 (http://www.who.int/childgrowth/en/, accessed 8 October 2008).

16. Figures and tables with appropriate captions should each be on a separate page, numbered sequentially with Arabic numerals and attached at the end of the paper. Each figure and table must be referred to in the text. Where appropriate, sources should be given. If any figures, tables or other materials have been copied from other sources, authors have the sole responsibility for securing the necessary permission. In order to avoid layout problems in final production, tables and figures should be limited as far as possible.
    Figures must be supplied in a format which can be edited, preferably Microsoft Excel format, and figures derived from data must be accompanied by those data, e.g. Excel data sheet, to enable redrawing if necessary. Photographs and illustrations should also be sent as separate files. The preferred format is JPG or TIFF; resolution should be minimum 300 dpi.
    For manuscripts submitted as hard copy, it is necessary to provide two sets of original photographs and figures along with the background data.
     

17. Submissions that do not comply with these guidelines will be returned to the author for correction before being considered for publications.

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