Before You Begin

Ethical Approval

Studies on patients or volunteers require Ethics Committee and/or Independent Review Board (IRB) approval, and, where relevant, the patients' written informed consent, which should be documented in the Methods section of the paper. If such a study was not approved by the appropriate Ethics Committee or IRB, a statement as to why it was exempted should be included. The Editors reserve the right to refuse publications where the required ethical approval/patient consent is lacking.

Conflict Of Interest (mandatory)

A conflict of interest may exist when an author or the author's institution has financial or other affiliations with people or organizations that may inappropriately influence the author's work. A conflict can be actual or potential and full disclosure to the journal is the safest course. All submissions to the journal must include disclosure of any relationships that could be viewed as potential conflicts of interest. The journal may use such information as a basis for editorial decisions and may publish such disclosures if they are believed to be important to readers in judging the manuscript. This declaration (with the heading "Conflict of interests") should be uploaded among the files submitted on the EES.

Submission Declaration

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis or as an electronic preprint), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

Changes To Authorship

Request to changes in authorship is not allowed once the paper is accepted. In case any such changes need to be made then the author would have to withdraw his paper and resubmit it with the new author details in the Editorial System.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Copyright Transfer Agreement'. Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. Subscribers may reproduce tables of content or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions.

Role Of The Funding Source

Please list the source(s) of funding for the study, for each author, and for the manuscript preparation in the acknowledgements section. List all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship, such as technical assistants, writing assistants or head of department who provided only general support. Financial and other material support should be disclosed and acknowledged.

Open Access

Every peer-reviewed research article appearing in this journal will be published open access. This means that the article is universally and freely accessible via the internet in perpetuity, in an easily readable format immediately after publication.

Language

Manuscripts must be written either in English or in Hindi in a clear and concise manner. Any author who is not fluent in idiomatic English/Hindi is urged to seek assistance with manuscript preparation prior to submission. Reviewers will not expected to correct grammatical errors and any deficiency in this area may detract from the scientific content of the paper and result in acceptance delays or rejection

Submission

Our online submission system will guide you stepwise 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 (e.g., Word, LaTeX) 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.

Referees

Please submit the names and institutional e-mail addresses of three potential referees. Note that the editor retains the sole right to decide whether or not the suggested reviewers are used.