Information For Authors

The Scientific Journal of the University of Benghazi

 

The OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BENGHAZI

 

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

 

INTRODUCTION:

The Scientific Journal of the University of Benghazi (SJUOB) is a multi-displinary journal, owned by the University of Benghazi. The SJOUB has three sections; Humanities, Science and Medicine.

Submitted manuscripts must pertain to these three specialities (Humanities, Science and Medicine.) Additionally, manuscripts submitted for publication must be submitted solely to SJUOB. They must not be submitted for consideration elsewhere or be published elsewhere.

 Disclaimer:  The statements, opinions, and advertisements in the SJUOB are exclusively those of the individual authors, contributors, editors, or advertisers, as indicated.

 

  1. BEFORE SUBMISSION:

Before you submit your manuscript for the consideration of the SJOUB, please read the following carefully.

  • Ethical considerations:
  • Submission declaration and verification

By submitting an article to the SJOUB, authors indicate that the work has not been previously published (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis). Submission also implies that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and implicitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was conducted, and that, if accepted, it will not be published in any other place in the same form, in English or translated into any other language, including electronically without first obtaining the written consent of the copyright holder. To confirm originality, submitted articles may be checked by an originality detection service.

 

  • Author contributions

For transparency, we advise authors to submit an author statement file which outlines their individual contributions to the paper using the relevant credit roles:

 

  • Conceptualization;
  • Data curation;
  • Formal analysis;
  • Funding acquisition;
  • Investigation;
  • Methodology;
  • Project administration;
  • Resources; Software;
  • Supervision;
  • Validation;
  • Visualization;
  • Roles/Writing - original draft;
  • Writing - review & editing.

 

Authorship statements should be formatted with the names of authors first and followed by their credit role(s).

 

  • Changes to authorship

Authors are expected to carefully prepare the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and to provide the final and confirmed list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal editor.

To request such a change, the editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. It must be noted that only in exceptional circumstances will the editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted.

 

  • Copyright

When an article has been accepted, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement'. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement. Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the publisher is needed for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations. If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article.

 

  • Open access

The Scientific Journal of the University of Benghazi supports Open Access.

 

  • General points on composition
  • Authors are strongly encouraged to analyse their final draft with both software (eg, spelling and grammar programs) and human proof readers if possible.
  • Authors are encouraged to keep in mind that clarity is an important feature of scientific writing. Scientific articles must be clear and precise in their content and concise in their delivery because their purpose is to inform the reader. The editor reserves the right to edit all manuscripts or to reject those manuscripts that lack clarity or precision or that have unacceptable grammar or syntax.

 

  • Specifics of the composition of submitted manuscripts
  • General structure
    All manuscripts submitted to the Scientific Journal of University of Benghazi should include: Title Page, Abstract, Main Text, References and Acknowledgements, Tables, Figures and Figure Legends as appropriate.

 

  • Title Page:

The title page should include the following: 

 (i) Title, which should be succinct as well as descriptive.

 (ii) First name and last (surname) name of each author.

(iii) Name and address of department, hospital or institution to which work should be attributed.

(iv) Running title (no more than 30 letters and spaces).

(v) No more than six keywords (in alphabetical order).

(vi) Name, full address, telephone and e-mail address of author responsible for correspondence, known as the corresponding author.

 

  • Guidelines for different articles:
  1. ABSTRACT GUIDELINES:
  2. Original scientific article:

Should not exceed 350 words and should give details of the research using the following structure:

Aim: Provide clear statement of the main aim of the study and the main hypothesis tested, if any.
Methodology: Describe the methods adopted including; the strategy of the study, the setting, entry requirements for subjects, use of materials, outcome measures and statistical tests.
Results: Give the main results of the study, including the outcome of any statistical analysis.
Conclusions: State the primary conclusions/findings of the study and their implications.


  1. Systematic review articles 

Should not exceed 350 words using the following structure where applicable:

Title: Identify the report as a systematic review, meta-analysis, or both.
Background: Provide a brief introduction of the subject and why it is important.
Objectives: The research question including components such as participants, interventions, comparators, and outcomes.
Methods: Briefly describe i) the inclusion criteria, ii) provide databases searched and dates, iii) mention the method used to assess study quality (risk of bias) iv) meta-analysis methodology (if appropriate).
Results: Present i) Number and type of included studies and participants ii) results for main outcomes (benefits and harms). If a meta-analysis was undertaken, include summary measures and confidence intervals. iii) direction of the effect in terms that are meaningful to clinicians and patients.
Discussion: i) Strengths and ii) limitations of evidence.
Conclusions: General interpretation of the results and important implications.
Funding: Primary source of funding for the review (if no funding: say ‘none’).
Registration: Registration number and name.


III. Review articles (narrative)
      Should be unstructured and should not exceed 350 words.

  1. Clinical techniques and case reports

    Should not exceed 350 words using the following structure:

Aim: Give a clear statement of the main aim of the report and the clinical problem which is addressed.
Summary: Describe briefly the clinical technique(s) or the case report(s).
Key learning points: Provide up to 5 short, bullet-pointed statements to highlight the key messages of the report. All points must be fully justified by material presented in the report.

 

  1. MAIN TEXT:
  2. Original scientific article

 Should include Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion:

  • Introduction: should be focused, outlining the historical or logical origins of the study and gaps in knowledge.  Exhaustive literature reviews are not appropriate. It should close with the explicit statement of the specific aims of the investigation, or hypothesis to be tested.
    • Material and Methods: must contain sufficient detail such that, in combination with the references cited, all clinical trials and experiments reported can be fully reproduced. Suppliers of materials should be named and their location (company, town/city, state, country) included.
  • Results: should present the observations with minimal reference to earlier literature or to possible interpretations. Data should not be duplicated in tables and figures.
    • Discussion: may usefully start with a brief summary of the major findings, but repetition of parts of the abstract or of the results section should be avoided. The Discussion section should progress with a review of the methodology before discussing the results in light of previous work in the field. The Discussion should end with a brief conclusion and a comment on the potential clinical relevance of the findings. Statements and interpretations of the data should be appropriately supported by original references.
    • Conclusion: should contain a summary of the findings.

 

  1. Systematic review articles

 Should be divided into Introduction, Methods, Results and Conclusions:

  • Introduction:Should be focused to place the subject matter in context and to justify the need for the review.
    • Method:Divide into logical sub-sections in order to improve readability and enhance understanding (e.g. details of protocol registration, literature search process, inclusion/exclusion criteria, data extraction, quality assessment, outcome(s) of interest, data synthesis and statistical analysis, quality of evidence).
    • Results: Present in structured fashion (e.g. results of the search process, characteristics of the included studies, results of primary meta-analysis, additional analysis, publication bias, quality of evidence).
    • Discussion: Should summarize the results, highlighting completeness and applicability of evidence, quality of evidence, agreements and disagreements with other studies or reviews, strength and limitations, implications for practice and research.
    • Conclusion(s): Section should reach clear conclusions and/or recommendations on the basis of the evidence presented.

 

 


III. Review articles 

Should  be divided into Introduction, Review and Conclusions.

  • The Introduction section should be focused to place the subject matter in context and to justify the need for the review.
  • The Review section should be divided into logical sub-sections in order to improve readability and enhance understanding. Search strategies must be described and the use of state-of-the-art evidence-based systematic approaches is expected. The use of tabulated and illustrative material is encouraged.
  • The Conclusion section should reach clear conclusions and/or recommendations on the basis of the evidence presented.

  1. Clinical techniques and case reports

Should be divided into Introduction, Report, Discussion and Conclusion, they should be well illustrated with clinical images, radiographs, diagrams and, where appropriate, supporting tables and graphs. However, all illustrations must be of the highest quality.

 

  1. Acknowledgements: 

The Scientific Journal of the University of Benghazi requires that all sources of institutional, private and corporate financial support for the work within the manuscript must be fully acknowledged, and any potential conflicts of interest noted. Grant or contribution numbers may be acknowledged, and principal grant holders should be listed. Acknowledgments should be brief and should not include thanks to anonymous referees and editors.   


  1. REFERENCES

Reference list:

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not allowed in the reference list, but they may be mentioned in the text. Citation of a reference as "in press" implies that the item has been accepted for publication.
We recommend the use of a tool such as EndNote or Reference Manager for reference management and formatting.

Note:References and citations should be in the Vancouver style.

  • Placement of citations: In-text citation numbers should be placed after the relevant part of a sentence. The original Vancouver Style documents do not discuss placement of the in-text citation in regards to punctuation, so it is acceptable to place it before or after the period. Consistency is required.
  • References are numbered consecutively in the order they are first mentioned. Place each reference number in parentheses throughout the text, tables, and legends. If the same reference is used again, re-use the original number.
  • The last page of your paper is entitled References. References are single-spaced, with double-spacing between references.
  • Numbering: List all references in order by number, not alphabetically. Each reference is listed once only since the same number is used throughout the paper.
  • Authors: List each author’s last name followed by a space and then initials without any periods; there is a comma and space between authors and a period at the end of the last author. If the number of authors exceeds six, give the first six followed by “et al.” Example:

[Aho M, Irshad B, Ackerman SJ, Lewis M, Leddy R, Pope T, et al. Correlation of sonographic features of invasive ductal mammary carcinoma with age, tumor grade, and hormone-receptor status. J Clin Ultrasound [Internet]. 2013 Jan [cited 2015 Apr 27];41(1):10-7. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcu.21990/full DOI: 10.1002/jcu.21990]

  • For edited books, place the editors’ names in the author position and follow the last editor with a comma and the word editor (or editors). For edited books with chapters written by individual authors, list the authors of the chapter first, then the chapter title, followed by “In:”, the editors’ names, and the book title (Example)

[ Altobelli N. Airway management. In: Kacmarek R, Stoller JK, Heuer AJ, editors. Egan’s fundamentals of respiratory care. 10th ed. St. Louis: Saunders Mosby; c2013. p. 732-86].

  • Title: Capitalize the first letter of the first word in the title. The rest of the title is in lower-case, with the exception of proper names. Do not underline the title; do not use italics. If there is an edition for a book, it appears after the title, abbreviated and followed by a period, for example 3rd ed.                 

 

  • Publication information: Books: After the title (and edition if applicable), place a period and space, then enter the city. If the city is not well known or there could be confusion, enter the postal abbreviation for the state (U.S.) or province (Canada), or enter the country (elsewhere) of publication, followed by a colon. Give the name of the publisher as it appears in the publication followed by a semicolon. If the author is also the publisher, use part of the name as the publisher, e.g., The Association for publisher if the author is Canadian Medical Association. Give the year of publication followed by a period. If no date of publication can be found, but the publication contains a date of copyright, use the date of copyright preceded by the letter “c”, e.g. c2015.

 

  • Publication information: Journals: List the abbreviated journal title, place a period and a space, year, (and abbreviated month and day if applicable), semi-colon, volume, issue number in parentheses, colon, page range, and a period. For example, Brain Res. 2002;935(1-2):40-6. (The issue number may be omitted if the journal is paginated continuously through the volume.)

 

  • Pages: For journals, the entire page range of an article is given, not the specific page on which the information was found; usage is 124-7 (pages 124 to 127) or 215-22 (pages 215 to 222). For books, no page numbers are given, with two exceptions: the page number of a dictionary entry is included (example A), as well as the page range of a chapter with its own author (example B).

Example A:

 Stedman’s medical dictionary for the health professions and nursing. 7th ed. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; c2012. Hematoma; p. 756.

Example B: Altobelli N. Airway management. In: Kacmarek R, Stoller JK, Heuer AJ, editors. Egan’s fundamentals of respiratory care. 10th ed. St. Louis: Saunders Mosby; c2013. p. 732-86.

 

  • Information specific to online sources. In general, include the same information as you would for print material and then add retrieval information so others can locate the sources.
  1. Place the word Internet in square brackets after the book title or abbreviated journal-title. Example:

[OpenStax College. Anatomy & physiology [Internet]. Version 7.28. Houston: The College; 2013 Apr 25 [Updated 2015 May 27; cited 2015 May 28]. Available from: http://cnx.org/content/col11496/latest/]

  1. Indicate date of retrieval, preceded by the word “cited”, in square brackets after the date of publication.
  2. Add retrieval information at the end of the citation using the full URL (Uniform Resource Locator). There is no punctuation at the end of the URL unless it ends with a slash, in which case a period is added.
  3. If a DOI exists, it is optional to add it after the retrieval of information. Example:

[Aho M, Irshad B, Ackerman SJ, Lewis M, Leddy R, Pope T, et al. Correlation of sonographic features of invasive ductal mammary carcinoma with age, tumor grade, and hormone-receptor status. J Clin Ultrasound [Internet]. 2013 Jan [cited 2015 Apr 27];41(1):10-7. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcu.21990/full DOI: 10.1002/jcu.21990]

  1. Include a short note after the URL if special access information is required. Example:

Canadian Pharmacists Association. eCPS. [Internet]. Ottawa: The Association; 2015. Methimazole; [revised 2012 Mar; cited 2015 May 28]; [about 6 screens]. Available from: http://lrc.michener.ca:2048/login/ecps with authorized username and password.


  1. TABLES, FIGURES AND FIGURE LEGENDS

    Tables: Tables should be double-spaced with no vertical rulings, with a single bold ruling beneath the column titles. Units of measurements must be included in the column title.


Figures: All figures should be planned to fit within either 1 column width (8.0 cm), 1.5 column widths (13.0 cm) or 2 column widths (17.0 cm), and must be suitable for photocopy reproduction from the printed version of the manuscript. Lettering on figures should be in a clear, sans serif typeface (e.g. Helvetica); if possible, the same typeface should be used for all figures in a paper. After reduction for publication, upper-case text and numbers should be at least 1.5-2.0 mm high (10 point Helvetica). After reduction, symbols should be at least 2.0-3.0 mm high (10 points). All half-tone photographs should be submitted at the final reproduction size. In general, multi-part figures should be arranged as they would appear in the final version. Reduction to the scale that will be used on the page is not necessary, but any special requirements (such as the separation distance of stereo pairs) should be clearly specified.

Unnecessary figures and parts (panels) of figures should be avoided: data presented in small tables or histograms, for instance, can generally be stated briefly in the text instead. Figures should not contain more than one panel unless the parts are logically connected; each panel of a multipart figure should be sized so that the whole figure can be reduced by the same amount and reproduced on the printed page at the smallest size at which essential details are visible.

Figures should be on a white background and should avoid excessive boxing, unnecessary color, shading, and/or decorative effects (e.g. 3-dimensional skyscraper histograms), and highly pixelated computer drawings. The vertical axis of histograms should not be truncated to exaggerate small differences. The line spacing should be wide enough to remain clear on reduction to the minimum acceptable printed size.

Figures divided into parts should be labeled with a lower-case, boldface, roman letter, a, b, and so on, in the same type size as used elsewhere in the figure. Lettering in figures should be in lower-case type, with the first letter capitalized. Units should have a single space between the number and the unit and follow SI nomenclature or the nomenclature common to a particular field. Thousands should be separated by a thin space (1 000). Unusual units or abbreviations should be spelled out in full or defined in the legend. Scale bars should be used rather than magnification factors, with the length of the bar defined in the legend rather than on the bar itself. In general, visual cues (on the figures themselves) are preferred to verbal explanations in the legend (e.g. broken lines, open red triangles, etc.)


Figure legends: Figure legends should begin with a brief title for the whole figure and continue with a short description of each panel and the symbols used; they should not contain any details of methods.

 

 

 

  1. SUBMISSION

Our online submission system guides you through the process of entering your article details and uploading your files. The system converts your article files to a single PDF file used in the peer-review process. Editable files are required to typeset your article for final publication. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, is sent by e-mail. Please submit your article via…………………

 

Submission checklist

You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review.

Please check the relevant sections in this Guide for Authors for more details.

  • Checklist:

Please ensure that the following items are present:

  1. One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:
  • E-mail address
  • Full postal address.
  1. All necessary files have been uploaded.
  2. The manuscript has been checked for inclusion of:
  • Keywords
  • All figures (including relevant captions)
  • All tables (including titles, description, footnotes)
  1. All figures and table citations in the text match the files provided
  2. I have indicated clearly if color should be used for any figures in print Graphical Abstracts / Highlights files (where applicable) Supplemental files (where applicable).
  3. The manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'
  4. All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa
  5. Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)
  6. A competing interest’s statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare
  7. Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed
  8. Referee suggestions and contact details provided, based on journal requirements

 

 

 

  • AFTER ACCEPTANCE:

  One set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author and a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download the files.

Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by email. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the editor.

To ensure that your article is published quickly and accurately, please inform us of all your corrections within 48 hours.

It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as the inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading your manuscript is solely your responsibility.