Article Types / Research Article

Research Article

Research articles (aka original articles) are regarded as the primary mode of communication in most scholarly and scientific journals. They comprise the essential components of a comprehensive research project and are considered as a suitable format for presenting many different kinds of study in a variety of fields.

 

MANUSCRIPT FORMAT

  • Title includes research question and study design. However, it should not reflect the results of the study.
  • Abstract (250-350 words) should be structured with the following headings:
    1. Background: State the limitations in previous research and the rationale for performing a new study. Briefly explain the purpose of the article in one sentence.
    2. Methods: Provide an overview of the research design, data collection methods, sampling methods, conceptual framework, and data analysis procedures.
    3. Results: Summarize the results or major findings, confidence intervals, and level of significance whenever appropriate.
    4. Conclusions: State only those conclusions supported by the results. Conclusions may also include an evaluation of your study and areas for further research.
  • Keywords (3-10 keywords) are provided for indexing purposes and online searches. Authors are encouraged to browse through articles on similar topics to find appropriate keywords.
  • Introduction provides a brief review of the relevant literature to clarify the rationale of the new study. Key publications should be cited, including relevant systematic reviews. Authors need to end this section with a clear statement of the objectives and highlight the significance of the study.
  • Objectives (optional); the objectives can be stated in the Introduction section or placed under a separate “Objectives” heading.
  • Methods should describe the research process in sufficient detail. Authors need to present a full description of the study design, sampling method and sample size, location and timing of research, inclusion & exclusion criteria, data gathering tools, reliability & validity of the tools, descriptive and analytic statistical method, acceptable significance (p-value), and ethical considerations (informed consent from human participants). To better organize their manuscripts (especially the subheadings of the Methods section), authors are encouraged to consult the Checklists for different study types.
  • Results should be laid out in a coherent fashion and logical order. They must be based on research findings and must directly address the initial research questions or hypotheses. Interpretation of the results is not stated in this part of the manuscript.
  • Discussion should challenge the findings of the study with other available evidence in the format of arguments and counterarguments. It should emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow them. Possible mechanisms or explanations for these findings should be explored.
  • Limitations and Suggestions The limitations of the study and the implications of the findings for future research or clinical practice should be explored.
  • Conclusion should state the final result and recommendation that the author(s) has (have) reached. Such results and recommendations should be derived from the researcher’s own study and the results of other studies should not be stated in this section.
  • Acknowledgments recognize the individuals, institutes, or organizations that have contributed to the preparation of the article but do not meet the criteria for authorship. Contributions may include academic, technical, financial, or personal assistance in preparing the articles. The authors must indicate the contributors' affiliations and their specific contributions.
  • Footnotes; all manuscripts must contain the following sections under the heading 'Footnotes':

1. Authors’ Contribution: Authors specify their individual contributions to the research process and writing of the manuscript. They indicate their contributions to different aspects of a project such as conceptualization, study design, experimentation, data acquisition, statistical analysis, preparing the manuscript, etc. Please note that the authors’ initials, rather than full names, should be used for identification.

2. Conflict of Interests: Authors must disclose any financial and non-financial competing interests in advance of the review process. They need to declare if they received financial payment for the research, or if they have close relationships with people or entities that could inappropriately influence (bias) their study. Non-financial interests may include the disclosure of any personal, political, religious, ideological, academic, and intellectual interests that might bias a study.

If there are no competing interests, add the following statement: “The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper”.

3. Ethical Considerations and participants consent: If a study involves human participants/or animals, authors need to obtain approval from the ethics committee/Institutional Review Board of their institution and be prepared to provide documentation when requested by editors. They must provide the name of the committee/board along with the Ethical Approval Code/ID. This code/ID must be linked to an official website showing the details of approval.

Authors should also declare that they have obtained written informed consent from each potential research participant. It should be clearly stated that the researchers were properly introduced before the research, and the participants understood the objectives of the research. The authors also maintain that the consent was not obtained under coercion and that the participants had the choice to withdraw at any stage of the research. Finally, it should be indicated that the participants were assured of confidentiality regarding the information provided.

4. Funding/Support: All sources of financial and material support for the research work are acknowledged in this section. Authors should identify the roles of the sponsor(s) if any, in study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, and in preparing the manuscript.

Please include the name(s) of the funding organization(s) along with the grant number(s). If no funding has been provided for the research, please add the following statement: "This research did not receive any outside funding or support".

  • References conform to the style outlined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), also referred to as the “Vancouver” style.

References in the text should be numbered sequentially and placed in parentheses. At the end of the manuscript, references are listed in numerical order as they appear in the text.

At least 80% of the references must have article identifiers, such as digital object identifier (DOI) or PubMed PMID (or PubMed Central PMCID). Please add these identifiers at the end of your references when available. You can visit the following link to search for DOIs and PMIDs of articles: http://www.crossref.org/SimpleTextQuery. It is highly recommended to use EndNote software for writing and managing references.

 

A full text article includes a maximum of 4500 words (including references), 5 illustrations/tables, and 55 references.