Submissions

Submission Preparation Checklist 

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.

Author Guidelines  

Journal of Psychiatrists’ Association of Nepal (JPAN) is a biannual, peer reviewed national medical journal. It is an official journal of Psychiatrist’s Association of Nepal (PAN). The fundamental objective of this medical journal is to encourage psychiatrists and relevant experts to share eminent psychiatric issues that they encounter during their professional career. The journal will also provide a platform to advocate various issues on psychiatry.

Categories of article (Scope)

The various categories under which articles can be submitted are:

  • Original Research Articles
  • Case studies/Case Series
  • Review Articles
  • Book review
  • Educational Articles
  • Editorials

The original research articles will be the prime focus of the JPAN. We will also look forward to publishing conference declarations, decision of the PAN that are of interest to all the psychiatrists including policy level updates in the field of Psychiatry in Nepal. The author should clearly state to which category the article falls. The Editorial Board will have the full discretion to decide on the category of article.

Articles outside the scope
The categories mentioned above are not static and can be changed as per decision of the Editorial Board. So please do not hesitate to send any articles that do not fall under the above stated categories.

If the article falls outside the scope of JPAN, the author(s) should justify why such category of article should be considered for publication in no more than 300 words at the beginning of the manuscript. If the author(s) is able to provide a satisfactory justification only then the article will be considered for review by the Editorial Board.

Copyright
Copyright on any research article is transferred in full to the Journal of Psychiatrists' Association of Nepal upon publication in the journal. The copyright transfer includes the right to reproduce and distribute the article in any form of reproduction (printing, electronic media or any other form).

All works in the Journal of Psychiatrists' Association of Nepal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Peer-Review
Manuscripts submitted to the editorial board are reviewed for originality, significance, adequacy of documentation, reader interest and composition.

Manuscripts not fulfilling the criteria of the Journal will be returned to the author by the editor for correction prior to beginning the peer review/process. Revised manuscripts are judged on the adequacy of responses to suggestions and criticisms made during the initial review. These articles submitted to the journal editor are forwarded to the experts in the field. These reviewers carefully evaluate the quality of the submitted manuscript, check for the accuracy and assess the validity of the research methodology and procedures. This generally involves anonymized refereeing by at least two independent reviewers.

Manuscript Submission Procedure
Manuscript submission will be via email in Microsoft Word Format (.doc or .docx format) in the following address:

journalofpan@gmail.com

The following documents needs to be produced at the time of submission
A Letter of Declaration:
The letter should be addressed to the Editor in Chief. The First paragraph of the letter should state that the manuscript presented represents the valid work of the author(s) and the manuscript with its present content and authorship has not been published or has not been considered for publication elsewhere, also it should ensure that authorship of the article will not be challenged or contested by any individual whose name has not been stated in the present list of authors. The letter should also state that the order in which author’s names have been placed is as per acceptance from all the authors.

The second paragraph of the letter should state that the manuscript has been submitted to JPAN and the journal reserves the exclusive copyright of the manuscript, which means that work shall not be published elsewhere in any language without the written consent of JPAN. The article published is protected by copyright which covers translation rights and also right to reproduce and distribute the article printed in the journal.

The letter should be signed by all the authors in the order of their authorship. The electronic copy (scanned version) of letter should be sent along with the manuscript.

  1. Manuscript File in the assigned format.
    The original research article should be based on the following format: The manuscript should not exceed 2500 words excluding references (upto 50)

Title
The title should be in bold letters. The author’s names, address, affiliations, complete address should be stated clearly. Indicate the corresponding author with an asterisk sign as a superscript following the author’s name. An email address, easily accessible phone number and a complete postal address of the corresponding author will be required.

Abstract
The abstract is the quintessence of the whole research article. Therefore it should be noted that it should summarize whole manuscript and no discrepancies should exist between abstract and the remainder of the manuscript. Note that any such discrepancies can lead to rejection of the manuscript. The abstract should not be more than 250 words and should be structured in the following format:

  • Background
  • Methods and materials
  • Results
  • Conclusion
  • Keywords ( Three to five)

Note: The final sentence of the background sub heading should bear the precise objective of the research.

Introduction
It should incorporate aims and objectives of the study. The author(s) should provide a rationale for conducting the study based on valid literature review. If it is an analytical study it should also include a well defined hypothesis.

Materials and methods
This section should clearly state the study design, procedures, site/location, study period, study settings, statistical and data collection tools, method of administration of tools, ethical clearances of Institutional review board of the institution in which the author(s) works or carries out the study. If such institutions do not exist then such clearances can be obtained form Nepal Health Research Council or any other respected body.

Results
The results section should only present most significant findings. Author(s) should make best utilization of tables, graphs, charts etc to simplify their resultants of the study.

Tables: The tables should be numbered as 1, 2, 3… and headings should be in bold letters. Footnote to tables if necessary to further clarify the table content can be accepted. The brief written statement on the results section illustrating the table should be present. The initial sentence should bear the table number, for example it can state “data on the Table 2 states/ shows that…” The data should not be presented in percentages unless there are more than 100 subjects. When interpreting the results it should include the number of subjects, the central tendency (Mean ± Standard Deviation), and the confidence interval for mean. For any unexpected results presented the author(s) should account for it in the discussion section.

Illustrations: The author(s) must try and make the graphs, charts, diagrams etc as understandable as possible with suitable legends. The illustrations will be presented in black and white so select colors suitably. For the images the file format may be in extension .jpeg or. tiff with 300 dots per inch of resolution.

Discussion
This section should only be confined to discussing the study’s most significant findings. It should include basic reason or underlying factors leading to generation of such study findings. For analytical study it should state whether the proposed hypothesis was accepted or not. This section should also state the limitations of the study, biases leading to deviation of study results and comparison of results with other similar literature. If the study findings are not in line with previous studies the author(s) should clearly state reason for such deviation. The discussion should also include the scientific implications of such study. Recommendation is very important aspect a study. The experiences of author(s) can be fruitful for other enthusiast of the topic. Therefore it should also recommend on the prospects of further study.

Conclusion
State most important finding which often happens to be the answer to the research question or hypothesis.

Funding Source:
Please state if any funding support was obtained for conceptualizing, conducting, analyzing and writing this research.

Acknowledgement
Acknowledge the people/institutions that have been of great help on any aspect of the study. But in doing so be careful not to disclose the name of any study site which should not have been otherwise disclosed. Take prior permission of the people or the institution concerned.

References
Authors should strictly follow the Vancouver style of referencing. Those manuscripts not following this style of referencing will be sent back for revision.

Abbreviations will not have a separate section; therefore an abbreviation must be fully explained in their first occurrence.

Case reports
New/interesting/very rare cases can be reported within 1000 words excluding references (upto 10). It should include abstract with key words, Introduction, Method/materials, Case report/results, discussion, conclusion and acknowledgement if needed. Abstract should also be structured and contain introduction, method, discussion, conclusion, keywords (three to five). It should be noted that valid informed written consent must be taken from study subjects. The case reserves the right to confidentiality; hence any statement leading to identity of the subject would be considered unethical and sent back for revision. The course of action undertaken should be clearly described, including the need for that particular course of action. It would be better if the authors make an effort to relate between the manifested health condition and underlying and/or confounding factor.

Review articles
Review article should be written only by the experts of the associated field. It should be based on a broad discussion on the topic of interest with valid literature review. The total word count should not exceed 3000 words excluding references (up to 50).

Educational articles
It should be confined to education process in the field of psychiatry.

Editorial
It is not open for external authors. It is accessible to only member of the editorial board or invitees by the editorial board.

  1. Supplementary files when necessary.

Manuscript reviewing
The manuscript will be reviewed based on the following policy:

The reviewer(s)/editor(s) will

  • Provide constructive criticism to the author(s) regardless of its probability for final publication.
  • Treat the manuscript in reputable manner.
  • Will avoid forwarding insulting and sarcastic statements.
  • Comment on manuscript only and not on author(s).
  • Suggest room for improvement so as to increase the possibility for publication.

While reviewing the following factors will confound to eventual publication:

  • Manuscript based on contemporary issues.
  • Manuscript with well designed methodology.
  • Manuscript that is statistically sound and logical.
  • Manuscript that has accounted for the limitation, bias and error.

Factors leading to rejection
The following factors will be lead to eventual rejection of the article

  • Insufficient problem statement
  • Sample population too small or biased
  • Misleading reference/misinformation
  • Statistical and methodical errors
  • Incomplete referencing
  • Failure to account for biases and errors
  •  
  • Incomplete information

Criteria for authorship
He/she will qualify as an author only when the individual has contributed significantly to study design, idea, data collection, analysis and interpretation, manuscript preparation, statistical analysis, supervision (specially for thesis or dissertation) and obtaining funding.

Dual publication
If the article published in the JPAN is found simultaneously or previously published or published in future in any other Journal or scientific magazines or proceedings the author(s) will be blacklisted and termed not qualified (NQ) for future publication.

Translation and Republication
For the republication of the article in another journal the author(s) must take prior permission from JPAN, the work published without such permission will be considered an act of plagiarism.

The article cannot be translated into any other language and published without the permission from JPAN.

Articles

Section default policy

Make a new submission to the Articles section.