AUTHOR INFORMATION

Types of articles published by the IntJNM
Instructions for authors
Editorial Policies

TYPES OF ARTICLES PUBLISHED BY THE INTJNM

The International Journal of Naturopathic Medicine accepts manuscripts for publication in the following categories:

Editorials
Letters to the Editor
Brief Reports
Original Research
Case Reports
Review Articles
Commentary, Perspective and Reflections

Editorials (limited to 1500 words, 10 references)

Editorials are peer-reviewed authoritative commentaries on topics of current interest to naturopathic physicians or that relate to articles published in the same issue. Editorials may be about any important topic related to naturopathic medicine or health. Editorials are usually commissioned. Although unsolicited manuscripts will be considered, these should be discussed with the Editor-in-Chief before submitting. Editorials should have a maximum of two authors.

Editorial style articles will be considered in three formats and do not require a formal abstract in most cases.

Editorials
Editorials will normally be requested by the editor; however, we will consider unsolicited manuscripts.

Elders’ letters
Letter from elders can be requested by the editor or suggested from potential authors with at least ten years of experience as a practicing clinician. We welcome suggestions from elder naturopathic physicians on particular clinical pearls.

Letters to the Editor (limited to 350 words, 5 references)

We encourage short communications in the form of letters to the editor that stimulate debate and provide relevant commentary, especially on articles published in the journal. These may be on new topics, research or cases unrelated to content published in the journal.

Brief report (limited to 1500 words, 15 references, 2 tables or figures)

A short communication is preferred for the submission of important preliminary observations or data that does not warrant publication as a full research paper. Short communications should be approximately 500-1500 words in length and provide adequate information to allow for the same peer review given to other submissions. An abstract is required during the online submission process in order to facilitate peer-review, but should not be included with the manuscript. Keywords are not required. Specific sections, such as Methods, should not be used. A short communication can include one table or figure and up to 10 references. Preliminary data published as a short communication will not preclude subsequent publication of more complete results if the work is significantly expanded.

Original Research (limited to 5000 words, 50 references)

Major articles are papers that report clinically relevant investigations or observations within IntJNM’s scope of interests. The abstract should be structured (as described in to Authors), the text should not exceed 5000 words, and there should be approximately 20 to 40 references. Figures and tables are encouraged and should be included where possible; however, data should not be repeated in both a table and a figure and accompanying text need not reiterate the information provided in tables and figures.

• An IMRaD format (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion)
• A structured abstract, which should contain the following headings:
  • Objectives: a clear statement of the main aim or hypothesis of the study
  • Design: eg, prospective, randomised, placebo control, case control, crossover, etc; include study dates
  • Setting: include the level of care (eg primary care, tertiary referral hospital) and number of participating centres
  • Participants: include selection criteria and participation or response rate
  • Intervention: what, how, when and for how long
  • Main outcome measures
  • Results: include absolute event rates (not just proportions), 95% confidence intervals, level of statistical significance, number need to treat/harm, as appropriate
  • Conclusions: conclusions and their implications must directly relate to data in the study
  • Trial registration: (if applicable) registry and registration number for clinical trials
• Data that are original and as timely and current as possible
• Signed patient permission if any patients are potentially identifiable in the text or images.
• A statement that ethics approval was obtained for the study (or that it was not required), including the name of the ethics committee or institutional review board
• A statement giving the details of all sources of funding for the study, outlining any role the funder had in any part of the study, and that the researchers were independent from the funder
• A statement that the authors had full access to all of the data (including statistical reports and tables) in the study
• Copies of any non-standard questionnaires used in the research
• Copies of published articles based on the same research, especially if the methods have been published elsewhere.

Meta-Analyses
For reports of meta-analyses authors should refer to the QUOROM statement (http://www.consort-statement.org/). For reports of meta-analyses of observational studies authors should refer to the MOOSE statement (http://www.consort-statement.org/).

Clinical trials
All clinical trails should be registered prior to commencement in a public trials registry, and include the registration in the manuscript. Please see the ICMJE’s FAQs on clinical trial registration for further information (http://www.icmje.org/faq_clinical.html). Clinical trials not registered will be immediately rejected. Randomised trials must follow CONSORT statement guidelines, including the checklist and flowchart ((http://www.consort-statement.org/). For reports of controlled trials of acupuncture authors should refer to the STRICTA statement (http://www.ftcm.org.uk/stricta.htm). The original protocol for the study should be published, and any deviation from this original protocol explained.

The use of checklists for other study types is highly encouraged (see also EQUATOR Network).

Case Reports (limited to 2000 words, 15 references)

The IntJNM welcomes well-described reports of cases that include the following:

• Unreported or unusual side effects or adverse interactions involving medications.
• Unexpected or unusual presentations of a disease.
• New associations or variations in disease processes.
• Presentations, diagnoses and/or management of new and emerging diseases.
• An unexpected association between diseases or symptoms.
• An unexpected event in the course of observing or treating a patient.
• Findings that shed new light on the possible pathogenesis of a disease or an adverse effect.

Case reports should make a contribution to medical knowledge and must have educational value or highlight the need for a change in clinical practice or diagnostic and prognostic approaches. These are unique cases with features that have not previously been reported, or are new and important in the naturopathic context, or present a unique diagnostic conundrum and how it was solved. The IntJNM will generally not consider Case reports describing preventive or therapeutic interventions, as these generally require stronger evidence. Case reports should include relevant positive and negative findings from history, examination and investigation, and can include clinical photographs, provided these are accompanied by written consent to publish from the patient(s). Case reports should also include an up-to-date review of all previous cases in the field.

Authors are encouraged to describe how the Case report is rare or unusual as well as its educational and/or scientific merits in the covering letter that will accompany the submission of the manuscript. Case report submissions will be assessed by the Editors and will be sent for peer review if considered appropriate for the journal. Authors should seek written and signed consent to publish the information from the patients or their guardians prior to submission. The submitted manuscript must include a statement to this effect in the Consent section. The editorial office may request copies of the informed consent documentation upon submission of the manuscript.

Authors considering writing a Case report for publication are strongly encouraged to read the IntJNM’s Guidelines to Case Report Writing for Naturopathic Doctors (PDF).

Review Articles (limited to 4000 words, 100 references)

Review papers provide a synthesis of topics related to clinical aspects of naturopathic medicine. Key aims of reviews are to provide systematic and substantial coverage of mature subjects, evaluations of progress in specified areas, and/or critical assessments of emerging technologies. The text should not exceed 5000 words and have an abstract that does not exceed 250 words. Review papers can be written as focused systematic reviews or more broadly as narrative reviews. These reviews are required to adhere to the same guidelines described in the original research section.

Commentary, Perspectives and Reflections (2500 words, 30 references)

We welcome articles of an academic nature that are educational to the naturopathic community. We also welcome articles that may be hypothesis generating, foster debate within the profession and may create dialogue within the readership. Articles should be scholarly and well argued, and assertions must be supported by appropriate references. There are two major types of commentary articles (see below), but others will be considered for publication.

Viewpoints/Opinion Pieces
Viewpoints are somewhat review in nature, however they are designed to provide an argument to convince the reader. This type of narrative paper presents the opinions of an author or authors rather than providing a balanced literature review or new experimental data. Viewpoint and opinion articles should generally be shorter than educational articles.

Educational Articles
Educational articles are written for a broad audience in order to provide specific instructions on how a specific research methodology can be used or how to best employ a therapy or diagnostic technique.

Reflections
Reflections articles contains items related to personal opinion or experience, or the humanities with respect to medicine. Scholarly historical reflection articles related to the naturopathic profession are particularly encouraged.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

The requirements for publishing in IntJNM are in accordance with the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.” (http://www.icmje.org/). Authors are encouraged to read the instructions to authors, as failure to adhere with instructions may result in immediate rejection of the article or delay in sending out for peer-review until these guidelines are followed.

Articles must be submitted electronically, either through the IntJNM submission page or via email (editor@intjnm.org).

Electronic submissions should use MS word or WordPerfect as the word processing system only. Electronic submissions should include the following files:

1. A cover letter
2. A separate title page
3. A copy of the text with tables and references. Figures may be inserted into the document for review, but high quality versions will be required for publication. All references to the authors should be removed from the manuscript.
4. Individual files for each figure (files should be in ppt, jpeg, or gif)

The Cover Letter

The cover letter should contain a brief outline of the context of your work, including what your manuscript adds to current knowledge on the topic, to assist IntJNM editors in their initial assessment of your manuscript. The cover letter should also explain why the manuscript should be published in the IntJNM. Confirmation that the manuscript content (in part or in full) has not been submitted or published elsewhere should also be included in the cover letter. Indicate in your cover letter at least three individuals who could act as peer reviewers for your manuscript. Please provide the names, institutional affiliations, and email addresses for each of these individuals.

The Title Page

The title page should: provide the title of the article; list the full names, institutional addresses and email addresses for all authors; and indicate the corresponding author. Abbreviations within the title should be avoided.

File Name Conventions

Label the attached files by primary author’s last name, short title of the article, component of article, and date submitted. For example a submission to the editor for an article written by Jones and Smith on the use of curcumin in cancer might include the following files sent by email to the editor:

1. Jones_Curcumin and cancer review_cover letter_Aug_15_2012
2. Jones_Curcumin and cancer review_main article_Aug_15_2012
3. Jones_Curcumin and cancer review_figure 1_Aug_15_2012
4. Jones_Curcumin and cancer review_figure 2_Aug_15_2012

Formatting Requirements

The following formatting guidelines should be adhered to:

1. The text should use a common typeset (i.e. helvetica, arial, times new roman, or garamond)
2. Use 12 pt font
3. Have 2.54cm (1”) margins
4. Be double spaced
5. Include page numbers as footnotes in the document
6. Please structure the manuscript as outlined in the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.” http://www.icmje.org/.

References

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and for correct text citation.

References should be numbered as superscript or in parentheses in the order in which they appear in the text. At the end of the article the full list of references should follow the AMA style and abbreviate names of journals according to the journals list in PubMed. Please give the names and initials of all authors (unless there are more than six, when only the first three should be given followed by et al). The authors’ names are followed by the title of the article; the title of the journal abbreviated according to the style of Index Medicus; year of publication; volume number; and the first and last page numbers. References to books should give the names of any editors, place of publication, editor, and year. Number references in the order they appear in the text; do not alphabetize. In text, tables, and legends, identify references with superscript Arabic numerals.

Examples of reference style:

1. Soter A, Wasserman SI, Austen KF. Cold urticaria: release into the circulation of histamine and eosinophil chemotactic factor of anaphylaxis during cold challenge. N Engl J Med 1976;294:687-690.
2. Modlin J, Jenkins P. Decision Analysis in Planning for a Polio Outbreak in the United States. San Francisco, CA: Pediatric Academic Societies; 2004.
3. Solensky R. Drug allergy: desensitization and treatment of reactions to antibiotics and aspirin. In: Lockey P, ed. Allergens and Allergen Immunotherapy. 3rd ed. new York, NY: Marcel Dekker; 2004:585-606.

Information from manuscripts not yet in press, papers reported at meetings, or personal communications should be cited only in the text, not as a formal reference. Authors should get permission from the source to cite personal communications. Authors must verify references against the original documents before submitting the article.

Electronic citations should include the URL as well as the date last accessed by the author. You may know of other websites that will interest people reading your article. If you know the web addresses (URLs) of those sites, please include them in the relevant places in the text of your article. If we accept your article we will insert hotlinks in the electronic version so that readers can jump directly from your article to those related sites.

EDITORIAL POLICIES

Copyright

All authors are asked to transfer copyright to the ND News & Review Publishing Company (NDNR) before their article is published by the IntJNM. Manuscripts that are accepted may not be published elsewhere, in whole or in part, without written permission from AMPCo.

Author contributions

In order to give appropriate credit to each author of a paper, the individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in the manuscript, usually in a small and separate section before the references.

An ‘author’ is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. To qualify as an author one should 1) have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) have been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) have given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship.

We suggest the following kind of format as recommended by the Biomed Central group of journals (please use initials to refer to each author’s contribution): AB carried out the molecular genetic studies, participated in the sequence alignment and drafted the manuscript. JY carried out the immunoassays. MT participated in the sequence alignment. ES participated in the design of the study and performed the statistical analysis. FG conceived of the study, and participated in its design and coordination and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Ethics approval

All experimental investigations on humans should have received ethics approval and the name of the ethics committee or institutional review board that gave approval for the study must be stated in the Methods section of the manuscript. Ethics approval may also be required for case reports. All case reports, including letters, in which living patients are described and there is any possibility of identification in the text or images, even if this is just by the patient(s) themselves, must include a signed statement from the patient(s) giving approval for the publication of the personal or identifying material, including photographs.

Clinical trial registration

All clinical trails should be registered prior to commencement in a public trials registry, and include the registration in the manuscript. Please see the ICMJE’s FAQs on clinical trial registration for further information (http://www.icmje.org/faq_clinical.html). Clinical trials not registered will be immediately rejected.

Conflict of interest disclosure

All manuscripts should include a competing interests statement. If there are no conflicts, please write “Competing interests: No relevant disclosures”. If there are potential conflicts, please provide a detailed statement. If IntJNM offers to publish your manuscript, a standard disclosure form from The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) is required to be completed individually by every author listed on your submission before the article can be formally accepted (http://www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf).