MSD Publications will always accept original research reports, reviews of experts, communications, opinions, editorials, case studies and letters for publication. Authors before submitting manuscripts are requested to follow below guidelines. Only submissions that meet the following criteria will be considered for the review process.
Authors are also expected to meet internationally accepted research reporting standards applicable respectively to their field. All medical journals of MSD Publications are members of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, authors are encouraged to follow ICMJE preparation guidelines to maintain universal standards in medical publishing.
Initial submissions should be sent to the editorial office, addressed to the editor-in-chief of the appropriate journal. Authors will be notified of the status of their submission within 2 days after an initial quality screening and suitability for the journal. Submissions cleared by the preliminary analysis will be sent for evaluation by reviewers.
A cover letter containing an institution/personal letterhead is mandatory for each submission. Take this chance to assert the originality, validity and necessity of your research as well as any future impact your contribution may have in your field of study.
Authors are supposed to disclose any direct or indirect personal/career, financial, commercial relationship with the manuscript, including any beliefs you personally hold to your work.
Title page should always contain the title of the article or running title, list of authors, subtitle, author affiliations, author order and correspondence information. Authors may also choose to include article type, number of tables, figures, word count and any other supplementary information.
MSD Publications will not arbitrate or witness any disputes among authors. Each author's contribution to the final work, such as study design, data collection, paper preparation, etc., should be clearly specified. In case of any revisions editorial office will communicate to the corresponding author(s), all authors are responsible for final content.
An abstract is a short and powerful statement that best describes a whole article. It is the most read part of any research report. Components of it may vary according to discipline. A well written abstract provides the readers with an accurate overview of the paper in only a few words. Verify that you have provided adequate background and explained your motivation, state your methods and key findings, end with the conclusion. Your abstract should be the most concise summary of your paper.
A graphical depiction tends to attract more readers, so encourage you to submit a graphical abstract for the publication. Step back for a moment and think of a way to summarize your research in pictorial form, you may also include a description of 50-70 words. Submit a high-resolution image as a separate file.
Authors are required to provide highlights of the article in maximum 5 bullet points and not more than 75 words for original reports, reviews and case studies.
Original reports, reviews and case studies should also have a list of keywords used in the paper followed by the abstract, this makes it easier to enhance the article for search engine results. For medical journals authors are requested to use MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) list of Index medicus catalogue to present keywords.
Use of abbreviations in scientific articles is recommended as it improves the overall readability. Each abbreviation mentioned should be fully expanded the first time it appears in the paper. Any abbreviation in the title should be fully expanded.
Figures and Tables should be submitted as high-resolution individual files in JPEG or TIFF format. Each item must have a legend. Scanned or watermarked images with copyrights are not accepted for publication. In case of reusing a published figure/table authors are required to provide copyright permission from the original publisher and provide proper citation in the text.
Appendix and supplementary data should be submitted in a separate for and cited within the text. Appendix may include figures, tables or relevant citations. On the journal web page, a unique link will be provided for all the supporting information.
A declaration stating all funding sources involved in performing the research must be attached with the submission. Any role played by each party providing financial support must also be declared in the statement.
Authors should acknowledge the work of individuals who do not meet the criteria for authorship but otherwise contributed to the study in any way. Research sponsors may also be included in this section.
First five authors
author1, author2, author3, author4, author5. Article title. Journal abbreviation. Year; Volume(Issue):Page numbers.
More than five authors
author1, author2, author3, author4, author5, et al. Article title. Journal abbreviation. Year; Volume(Issue):Page numbers.
Website pages
Center for Disease Control and prevention, USA, annual report 2011. https://www.cdc.gov/
All content published in MSD Publications Open Access journals is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, commonly known as CC BY. Lawful reuse of the article is allowed with proper attribution.
When using previously copyrighted content, such as a figure/table/text, the corresponding author is responsible for acquiring the copyrights from previous owner and citing the original work as necessary.
Quality and credibility are paramount to MSD Publications Open Access. In the event that an article needs to be retracted, we follow internationally accepted retraction policy. An article may need to be retracted due to honest errors that were overlooked, flaws in experimental methodology or scientific misconduct. Inaccurate or misleading research reporting has no place in a scientific journal, therefore we waste no time in raising ourselves to meet our exceptional standards. Any papers found to have plagiarized content are retracted immediately. A notification will be published on the website stating reasons for the retraction, the note will include a link to the original paper.
Under this section a note of corrections at various production levels in the published paper will be provided in the subsequent issue of the journal. Only writing, editing, typesetting errors, mistakes in tables and figures are corrected and published.
A list of corrections submitted by the authors will be published under this section. These corrections may not alter the results and conclusions of the published work. Errors in units of measurements, misidentification of strains, authorship, affiliations, etc. are considered for publication. The corresponding author needs to send a notification, with the consent of all authors attached, to the editorial office with the list of corrections.