Instructions to the Authors

Journal of Basic and Clinical Reproductive Sciences is a peer reviewed journal, which publishes original research work that contributes significantly to further the scientific knowledge in all fields of Reproduction, including Obstetrics and Gynecology. The journal publishes the articles related to prevention, management and treatment of diseases and the promotion of health in developed and developing countries in concern with the reproductive system. The Journal publishes original research work either as a full Research Paper or as a short communication, review articles on current topics in Basic and Clinical Reproductive Sciences. Author(s) may submit their manuscripts through online submission system Online Submissions

Editorial process

All contributions are evaluated according to the criteria of originality and quality of the scientific content. The manuscript needs to be prepared strictly according to the guidelines provided in the Journal and it should be submitted via online submission system only. All submissions should carry a covering letter, which must state that the present article has neither been published nor under consideration for publication in any other journal.

Peer Review Process

The articles should be submitted in English using, United States spelling. The journal offers assistance to the non-native English speakers that need language services. Each new submission is assigned to a primary editor, who reads the paper, consults with other editors, and decides whether it should be sent for peer review. The Editor-in-chief can reject if the submitted article is not of sufficient interest and lacking novelty.. In addition, articles will be immediately rejected if the manuscript is lacking in creativity, containing significant scientific or technical flaws, or deficient in considerable message. Furthermore, articles that differ markedly from the scope of the journal will also be rejected by suggesting an alternative journal for submission. Once it is accepted for peer review, the corresponding authors will receive a conformation e-mail with a reference number assigned to the paper, which he/she is asked to quote all subsequent correspondence.

As soon as we determine the suitability of manuscripts for publication in the Journal of Basic and Clinical Reproductive Sciences, two or more experts who have published in that specialty are appointed as reviewers. The duration of the reviewing process mostly depends on the availability and speed of the field editor and the reviewers. Authors may also be requested to disclose the names of two or more experienced reviewers with considerable experience in the study area where their manuscripts may be sent to. However, the suggested reviewers should not have the same affiliation with the authors. Each member of the editorial team is responsible for a manuscript, but the final decision on acceptance lies with the editorial team. After reviewing, the corresponding author receives the comments, and suggestions like acceptance, rejection and amendments in the manuscript. The authors may be requested to provide a point by point reaction to the reviewers comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process will be repeated until the reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript.

Accepted manuscripts for publications are copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within three days. It may not be appropriate to include corrections received after that period. The entire process from the submission of manuscript, sending or receiving proofs until the final acceptance for publication is communicated online. To achieve quicker and better propagation of knowledge and information, the journal publishes articles online as Ahead of Print immediately on acceptance.

Article processing charge (APC) :

No paper copies of manuscripts will be accepted. All communication will be done electronically. To ensure that the final, published version matches the electronic file, make sure that you use only the following fonts: Arial, Courier, Symbol and Times. The use of nonstandard fonts may lead to missing symbols. The font size should be no smaller than 7 point and no larger than 14 point.It may vary based on the extensive editing, colored effects, complex equations, extra elongation of no. of pages of the article, etc.

Average Article prorcessing time (APT) is 55 days

Fast Editorial Execution and Review Process (FEE-Review Process):

Journal of Basic and Clinical Reproductive Sciences is participating in the Fast Editorial Execution and Review Process (FEE-Review Process) with an additional prepayment of $99 apart from the regular article processing fee. Fast Editorial Execution and Review Process is a special service for the article that enables it to get a faster response in the pre-review stage from the handling editor as well as a review from the reviewer. An author can get a faster response of pre-review maximum in 3 days since submission, and a review process by the reviewer maximum in 5 days, followed by revision/publication in 2 days. If the article gets notified for revision by the handling editor, then it will take another 5 days for external review by the previous reviewer or alternative reviewer.

Acceptance of manuscripts is driven entirely by handling editorial team considerations and independent peer-review, ensuring the highest standards are maintained no matter the route to regular peer-reviewed publication or a fast editorial review process. The handling editor and the article contributor are responsible for adhering to scientific standards. The article FEE-Review process of $99 will not be refunded even if the article is rejected or withdrawn for publication.

The corresponding author or institution/organization is responsible for making the manuscript FEE-Review Process payment. The additional FEE-Review Process payment covers the fast review processing and quick editorial decisions, and regular article publication covers the preparation in various formats for online publication, securing full-text inclusion in a number of permanent archives like HTML, XML, and PDF, and feeding to different indexing agencies.

Ethical Consideration

Human and Animal Rights Policy

The journal ascertains that research studies conducted must be abide by ethical as well as human and animal rights policies provided by the responsible committee of the institution and in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in Edinburgh 2000), available at Ethical Consideration http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html. Authors may be asked to provide evidence of the ethical approval. Informed oral or written permission must be obtained from human subjects, and this must be clearly stated in the methodology section. Efforts should be made to preserve patient anonymity. Confidentiality of subjects should be strictly maintained by desisting from mentioning participants names, initials or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. The photographs should be cropped sufficiently to protect the identities of the human subjects; an eye bar can also be placed. Animal experiments must conform to the instructions for the care and use of animals provided by the institution in which the research was carried out.

Authorship Criteria

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) has established uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals that each author that has contributed to the manuscript must follow 3 criteria to qualify for the authorship:

• The author should be capable of analyzing and interpreting the data presented in the article
• Drafting the article or revising it critically to extend effective intellectual impact
• Giving final approval of the version to be published

Contribution Details

The contribution of each author towards the preparation of the manuscript must be stated. One or more author should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole right from the conceptual development to t publication of the article and should be designated as 'guarantor'.

Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest may arise when the author, reviewer, or editor has any financial or personal interests that may influence the final decision making process. The journal insists that the author/s must submit a declaration by stating the conflict of interest if any. The author is expected to disclose this before publishing any article. The author should also declare that the content submitted to the journal by him/her is not under consideration or published elsewhere.

Changes in authorship

Authors are obligate to submit a new covering letter with each revised version together with the reply to the reviewers. During the revision, if there is change in authorship, i.e. Addition or removal of author occurs; authors are requested to clarify the reason for such change and all the authors (including the removed/added ones) need to submit a written consent to this effect.

Types of articles

Research articles

Research article are manuscripts written based on original data, collected through a systemic study. It is called as primary research and it collects the first-hand information on the topic. The research article should justify by maintaining sufficient word limit as the article length must not be less than 1500-3500 words (excluding Abstracts, references and Tables). Research article should strictly follow a structure by including Abstract, Introduction, Materials and method, results, discussion, acknowledgements, references, tables, figures and legends in the order specified here.

Review articles

Review articles should provide systematic, critical assessments of the literature and creative discussion on the topic stated in the article. The word limit for a review article should not exceed 4000 words. Review articles should address topics of general interest. The presentation should include, abstract, introduction, body of the review with headings and subheading, references, figures and tables. The authors of the review articles should also submit the details of the section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting and synthesizing data.

Short communication

The journal publishes exciting findings, preliminary data or studies that did not yield enough information to make full paper, can be published as short communication. Short communications should not have subtitles such as; introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion. Instead, the entire information centered on a particular issue must be merged as a single text. The word limit should be up to 1500, with a maximum of two tables or figures and 12 references. A brief three sentence summary can be included as a conclusion.

Research Letters

For original research work. up to 700 words with a single table or figure and a maximum of five references.

Case study

Case studies present an exclusive overview of patiens experiences from the medical or clinical point of view. Case studies contribute significantly in advancing our understanding about that particular physiological, clinical or psychological condition. This study is expected to discuss the signs, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. By providing clear and brief description of the case, case studies must be able to sums up the entire issue. This should be presented within 1000 words with a brief summary. The content should be logically arranged, which may or may not be divided as sections. One table or a figure is allowed in addition to text, and five references may be given.

Letters to the Editor

This category does not follow the writing styles discussed above. Letters to editors generally reflects the readers viewpoints related to article that is already published in the Journal of Basic and Clinical Reproductive Sciences. It should be concise, comprehensive and brief in which the reader may accept or differ a particular case or research findings.

Methods and Devices

Articles that describe procedures, techniques or equipment demonstrations that allow the readers to assemble/dissemble a particular work are also welcomed. However, the name of the author, qualifications, position, and place of work should be given.

Article submission Process

Registration is required for the first time users and it is free. Registered authors can keep track of their articles after logging into the site, using their user name and password. Any queries should be directed toeditor.jbcrs@journalsoa.com Manuscripts that do not comply with Instructions to Authors would be returned to the authors for technical correction prior to editorial review/ peer-review. The manuscript should be submitted as two separate files:

Page;1, the Title Page and Covering Letter: This page should posses the following details;

• The type of manuscript (original article, case report, review article, Letter to editor, etc.)
• Title should be concise and informative with fewer than 150 characters. Do not use abbreviations and formulae as titles.
• The names of all the authors (with their affiliations) and name(s) of department(s) and/or institution(s) to which the work should be credited. All information which can reveal author's identity should be here
• The total number of pages, number of photographs and words (excluding the references, tables and abstract) should be mentioned
• Acknowledgement, if any should specify the names of the institutes or individuals that support the study as a statement
• If the manuscript was presented at a meeting, the organization, place, and exact date on which it was read must be stated
• Registration number of a clinical trial and where it is registered (name of the registry and its URL), and
• The name, address, e-mail, and telephone number of the corresponding author, who is responsible for communicating with the other authors about revisions and final approval of the proofs.

Blind peer review of the article file

In this file authors names or initials or the institution where the study was done and the acknowledgement remains unknown to the reviewers and hence they should not be included in the manuscript. The main article must begin from abstract and ends with the reference and it should not include images. The pages should be numbered consequently, beginning with the first page of the blinded article file. The manuscript which is not in compliance with the Journals blinding policy will be returned to the corresponding authors.

Article format:

• Page format: Manuscripts should be prepared as word processing documents on A4, leaving a liberal margin (2 cm) on all four sides
• The manuscript should be typed double-spaced throughout including references and tables
• All figures and tables in the text should be mentioned as an additional copy on a separate page.
• Fonts: Times New Roman with font size should be 12. Tables: Tables should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals in the text itself with an explanatory caption which should be concise and opt
• Figures and images: The figures and images should be clear, easy to read and of good quality. All the figures/images must be in the text and be numbered with Arabic numerals.

Note: To help in formatting images (including tables and figures) or multimedia files, please submit them as separate attachments.

Preparation of manuscript

Please read the following instructions carefully, and the manuscript should be in the following order: The following sections give a brief overview of the main elements of an article.

Title page

• Title: Title should convey the concept and importance of the paper to non-specialist readers
• It should be concise, informative and meaningful to the readers. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible
• Present the details of all the authors by spelling the names completely
• Indicate authors affiliation with a lower-case, superscript the letter immediately after the authors name
• Full postal address of each affiliation can be presented either in the end note or as a footnote
• Clearly indicate the details of the corresponding author that handles all the communication at various stages of review and publication and post-publication. Ensure that the telephone and fax numbers (with country code and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address.

Abstract

• Abstract should be able to convey the concept and the importance of the paper even to the non- specialist reader. It should give readers concise information about the topic under study in the article
• It should be informative, accessible and include a brief account of the issue under investigation or study by quoting the principle results and conclusion
• It should be suitable for direct inclusion in abstracting services with a word limit 250 words
• References should not be quoted in the abstract.

Keywords

• Author/s should provide at least 5 keywords within the abstract.

Introduction

• It should present the objective of the work and should provide adequate background and scope of the subject, novelty of research work and finally the organization of the paper.

Materials and Method

• In the first paragraph, permissions from the animal ethical committee should be mentioned if it is applicable for the study
• The method followed for the data collection should be explained clearly and should provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced
• The cutting edge techniques adopted for data analysis should be described in detail and if there are any modifications it should be mentioned briefly with proper references
• Systematic rules of IUPAC or chemical abstract should be followed while mentioning the chemical compounds. Units and dimensions should be expressed in accordance to the metric system and SI units
• If any statistical analysis is done, the statistical methods used should be specified clearly
• If actual P value is too small it is not acceptable. Care should be taken that P should be in upper case and in italics. Mean differences in continuous variables, proportions in categorical variables and relative risks including odds ratios and hazard ratios should be accompanied by their confidence intervals.

Results

• The results should discuss the outcome/s of the study
• It should include tables to improve the conciseness or where the information cannot be given satisfactorily in other ways such as histograms or graphs
• Each table should have an explanatory caption or labelling

Discussion

• It should include summary of key findings, strengths and limitations; Interpretation and implications of the study. But it should not be the repetition of the data given in the data presentation/analysis section.

Conclusion

• This section should highlight the novelty and significance of the work by mentioning suggestions if any, for further studies in this direction.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgement if any, should be specified in one or more statements

• Contributions that need acknowlement but do not justify authorship, such as general support by a departmental chair.
• Acknowledgments should be given to those who gave technical help
• Acknowledgments of financial and material support should be specified by the author by stating the nature of the support. This should be included in the title page of the manuscript and not in the main article file.

Tables

• Upper limit for columns and rows is 10 and 25 respectively; tables that exceed the upper limit are not acceptable for publication
• Tables should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals with an explanatory caption which should be concise and opt and should be included in footnote, not in heading
• The non-standard abbreviations used for tables should be clearly explained as footnote
• In case of borrowed, adapted and modified, its citation is mandatory.this is the sequence for symbols used for footnote
• Legend labelling of the tables should be provided at the end of the text after the references.

Figures

• The image size should be within 1024 kb and in JPEG format.
• The figures and images should be clear, easy to read and of good quality. All the figures/images must be numbered with Arabic numerals, in which they have been cited
• The symbols, number, labels used in photomicrographs should be in contrast to that of background
• In case if the image is copied from other sources, it should be duly acknowledged by citing the original source.

References

The references should be cited in the text in large brackets not in superscript or subscript. A complete reference should comprise the following:

Article in a journal

Authors Initials, Surname. Name of the journal, year, volume, issue, page no.

MM Youle; DA Hawkins; P Collins; DC Shanson; R Evans; N Oliver; Lawrence A. Lancet, 1988, 2, 341.

Book

Author's Initials, Surname, Title, Edition, Publisher, Place of publication, Year of publication; pageno. RL Ashley. In Laboratory Diagnosis of Viral Infections, 3rd ed., Marcel Dekker, New York, 1999; pp. 489-513.

Thesis

Author's Initials, Surname. MSc/PhD/DSc thesis, University (town, country, year of publication). RJ David. PhD thesis on Laboratory Diagnosis of Viral Infections, Edinburgh University (Edinburgh, UK, 1998).

Patents Patents

AB Inventor1, CD Inventor, (Holder), Country Code and patent number (registration year).

Revised manuscript submission

The revised version of manuscript should be submitted online in the same manner by following the format adopted initially. It is necessary to submit the covering letter; contributors are requested to include the referees remarks along with detail clarification. In addition highlighting of changes did as per reviewers is compulsory.

Reprints and proofs

The author can purchase reprint of the same by making necessary payment at the time of submitting the proof / corrected manuscript.

Publication schedule

The journal publishes the article in the website immediately on acceptance and follows a continuous publication schedule. Articles are compiled for print as per the demand based on semi-annual issues .