The corresponding author will submit the article and all further communications will be made through the corresponding author only. The corresponding author has to mention the name and contact details. Further s/he should upload the files as mentioned below.

1. INITIAL FILE (Including covering letter, acknowledgements, source of support, conflict of interest, ethical considerations, author’s contribution, data availability statement and recommended reviewers)

The file should be submitted as Microsoft word document. This should include covering letter, acknowledgements, source of support, conflict of interest, ethical considerations, author’s contribution, data availability statement and recommended reviewers

COVERING LETTER

A covering letter must accompany all submitted manuscripts. The covering letter should provide the name, complete postal address, telephone number, electronic mail address, ORCiD of the corresponding author. Author must mention few important features of the article for consideration of publication of the article in covering letter. Acknowledgement of receipt of manuscripts by the Editorial office will be made via email only. The responsibility will lie solely with corresponding author. The authors should clearly state that the manuscript or parts of it have not and will not be submitted elsewhere for publication. The author should mention the type of article and broad speciality area in the covering letter.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It must be mentioned after the covering letter. The work of persons who do not quality for authorship may be acknowledged. The acknowledgment may be for official permission, statistical analysis, cooperation etc.

SOURCE OF SUPPORT

If the work has received full or partial financial support, it must be clearly mentioned. The name and address of funding agency and the reference number along with date should be mentioned.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Authors are expected to disclose any commercial associations that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted manuscript. Separately, each author must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/ registrations, and grants or other source of support. The conflict of interest should be declared at the time of submission of the article by all authors. If any type of conflict of interest is noticed or detected later, the article will be rejected or retracted. If there are no conflicts of interest then please state this: 'Conflict of interest: Nil'. All authors must sign the Conflict of Interest

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The study should be submitted and approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee and should be mentioned. It is mandatory when human or animal studies are reported. If the institutional ethics approval is not obtained; it should be mentioned stating the reason. In case of interventional trials, trial registered number obtained/received from competent authority like Clinical Trial Registry of India (CTRI) number (or equivalent from other countries) should be mentioned. Informed verbal or written consent from study participants for participation or publication should be mentioned.

AUTHOR’S CONTRIBUTION

Each author’s contribution should be clearly mentioned in terms of conceptualization, design, data collection, implementation, monitoring, data analysis, interpretation, and manuscript writing. All authors should have reviewed and approved the final version of manuscript.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

A statement on data availability has to be included. Authors may use following statement:
Data is available in public domain
OR
Request of data may be made to the corresponding author

RECOMMENDED REVIEWERS

The authors will be requested to recommend names of three potential reviewers who are not affiliated with the author’s institution and are well-versed with the topic. Provide full name, affiliation, recent mail ID and contact number of each reviewer. The article may or may not be sent to the recommended reviewers.

2. TITLE PAGE (including article title, name of authors with affiliation and corresponding author with contact details)

The file should be submitted as Microsoft word document. This should include title of the article and all authors information

TITLE

The Title should be concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.

AUTHORS INFORMATION

The title page must include names and details of all contributing authors in the sequence of authorship. No prefixes like Dr., Mr., Mrs., Ms. should be used before any author names. It should include the family name (surname), given name and middle name (father/husband) in that sequence, highest academic title(s), current affiliation(s) of the authors and if available, the e-mail address. Please ensure that the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author are accurately spelled. The name/names of institutions where the work is performed should be mentioned as authors’ main affiliation. Indicate all affiliations with Arabic numerals in superscript immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate institutional name and address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR

Clearly indicate the corresponding author and mention full address, telephone/mobile number email address and ORCiD of the corresponding author separately. The corresponding author will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication and also post-publication. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.

3. MAIN FILE (including title, abstract and key words, introduction, material and methods, results/observation, discussion, conclusions, references, tables and figure legends and captions)

The file should be submitted as Microsoft word document and should be blinded (does not contain any authors’ identity revealing information). This should include abstract, key words, introduction including objectives, material and methods, results/ observations, discussion including strengths and limitations, conclusions, references, tables, figure legends and disclaimer if any in that order. The file should be prepared as per the instruction mentioned under blinded manuscript preparation tab.

4. FIGURES / GRAPHS (if applicable)

• Provide a figure title i.e. figure legend for your artwork files at the bottom in bold.
• Figures must be submitted in electronic format, submitting each figure as a separate file.
• For electronic artwork, make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork. Use only Times New Roman font of 12 size throughout.
• Images should be provided in JPG (JPEG) or PNG format. Graphics software such as Photoshop and Illustrator and not presentation software such as Power Point may be used to create art.
• Color images must be CMYK, at least 300 DPI, with a digital color proof and not a color laser print or color photography.
• Please include hardware and software information in addition to file names.
• If your electronic artwork is created in a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) then please supply 'as is' in the native document format.
• Regardless of the application used other than Microsoft Office, when your electronic artwork is finalized, please 'Save as' or convert the images to one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below).
  • PNG/JPEG: Color or grayscale photographs (halftones); keep to a minimum of 300 dpi.
  • PNG/JPEG: Bitmapped (pure black & white pixels) line drawings, keep to a minimum of 1000 dpi.
  • PNG/JPEG: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale), keep to a minimum of 500 dpi.
• Size the illustrations close to the desired dimensions of the published version as given: Maximum size for portrait type of figure should be 8.5 cm (320 pixels) in width and 22.0 cm (831 pixels) in height. Landscape type of figure should be maximum 17.5 cm (661 pixels) in width and 10.0 cm (378 pixels) in height.
• All the figures must be of standard size as given below for inclusion in the print version. • Please do not supply files that are optimized for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); these typically have a low number of pixels and limited set of colors.
• Please do not supply files that are too low in resolution or submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

5. Copyright and Declaration Form

It is mandatory for the author(s) to submit a scanned copy of the copyright and author’s declaration form with signature of all authors. The form is available on the website and can be downloaded for use.

5. Additional files (if applicable)

Copy of Institutional Ethics Committee permission letter and Clinical Trial Registry of India number (or equivalent from other countries) in relevant cases, questionnaire/ tool used, any additional data or table or information relevant to the article can be submitted as additional files.