Instructions for Authors to Prepare a Manuscript

Although conducting thorough research and writing manuscripts for publication invokes challenges that involve substantial investments of time and energy, intellectual rigidity, courage, and patience, we encourage new scholars and researchers to develop skills in order to conduct research and write scholarly manuscripts. The accomplishment of the hard work of one’s research and sharing one’s findings with the scientific community can bring personal rewards. In the article writing process, scholars are likely to meet interesting challenges in developing their intellectual and creative potential. Throughout the publication process, authors have an exclusive opportunity to build on previous discoveries and add to the traditional knowledge of science. Authors are encouraged to seek mentors, peers, and colleagues to help and guide them in the genre of science. Regarding the submission of the main manuscript, the journal prefers to receive a single complete file that includes all figures (.jpeg and .png) and tables in MS Word Document (.docx) format. The supplementary materials should be submitted as a single separate file either in .docx or PDF format along with the main file. Authors should use double spacing format throughout the text and all tables and figures should be cited in numerical order. Authors should assemble the manuscript in the following order:

  • Article Title
  • Author(s) details in the desired sequence
  • Author(s) complete affiliations along with their e-mail and ORCID IDs
  • Abstract
  • Keywords
  • Introduction
  • Review of literature
  • Methods and Methodology (for research articles)
  • Results and Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • References
  • Notes (optional)
  • Conflict of Interest
  • Acknowledgment
  • List of Supplementary materials- Figure (Begin each figure caption with a label, “Figure 1.”) and Table (Begin each table caption with a label “Table 1.”)

Title

The title reflects the subject of the article, its novelty, and its relevance to the field it deals with. It greatly contributes to the visibility of the manuscript. The title should be summarised in one sentence reflecting the purpose of the study. The title is determinant for the indexing process of the article and should be clear, specific, brief, and should not include unexplained abbreviations. The recommended length of the title should be up to 20 words and should not exceed 30 words.

Author(s) and Co-Author(s)

Author(s) and Co-Author(s) are contributors to the articles including the mentors/supervisors thus the name of the author(s) and co-author(s) should be mentioned in the desired sequence separated by a comma (,) as they share equal responsibility and accountability for the results. That is <First Author/ Co-Author>,<Second Author/ Co-Author>,<Third Author/ Co-Author>, and so on along with the superscript of affiliation number ex-<First Author/ Co-Author>1,<Second Author/ Co-Author>2,<Third Author/ Co-Author>3. The affiliation must be in sequence. The author responsible for the entire communication that is with the journal, editor, and reviewers is known as Corresponding Author who is identified with a star mark (*) in superscript [<Author/ Co-Author>1*].

Note:

  • Use the full name for the author(s)/co-author(s) instead of abbreviation to avoid any complexity.
  • All submitted manuscripts to health and/or medical science journals must agree with the International Committee on Medical Journal Ethics [ICMJE].

Affiliation

The affiliation signifies to the place (institution(s)/organization(s)/laboratories) where the research work was conducted thus it is mandatory to provide complete and accurate details. The affiliation also includes funding institutions if any. The following elements must be included for the affiliation:

  • Complete name of institution/organization/laboratories along with address, city, and country.
  • Complete details of funding institution/organization/laboratories if any.
  • Contact details of Author(s)/ Co-Author(s) including a phone number with country code and working e-mail address.
  • ORCID ids of Author(s)/ Co-Author(s).

Abstract

The abstract is the key element that provides maximum information to the readers and is the part of the manuscript that gains the widest exposure. Citations and abbreviations should not be included in the abstract. For research articles, the abstract should be structured in a specific way: Background, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. Moreover, the abstract is read by far more readers rather than the whole article. It is a concise summary of the manuscript and further represents the article in indexing databases. Readers usually decide whether to go through the article or not on the basis of the abstract. Thus, a well-written abstract should be easy to understand, informative, and broadly appealing. A good abstract ranges from 250 to 300 words.

Keywords

Keywords are the important points highlighted by the Author(s)/ Co-Author(s) from the article that enables the database searching of the article by identifying the subjects under which the article may get indexed. The keywords should be specific and to the content and sub-content of the manuscript and should also represent it.

Introduction

The manuscript should start with a brief introduction describing the study’s importance providing sufficient background information to make the article comprehensible to readers in other disciplines. Author(s) should provide previous controversies related to the study and further explain why further research is needed in the required field. Technical or index terms should be well defined. A strong introduction engages the reader in the problem of interest and provides a context that suggests that the experimental findings are clear. In introducing the research concern, some points should be taken into consideration:

  • An author should justify why the problem deserves new research or review.
  • The author should perform prior theoretical and empirical work on the topic.
  • To establish current knowledge of the field and stating its purpose and outlining its design.
  • To introduce present research, indicating gaps in knowledge and presenting the research question also, state the path to deduce the answer to the presented question.

Literature Review

A literature review focuses on a specific topic of interest including a survey of scholarly sources on a specific or related topic(s) and relating this research to your work. It provides an overview of current knowledge, analyses, and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the study. There are five key steps to write a review of the literature-

  • Search for relevant literature or theories across the knowledge databases.
  • Evaluate sources.
  • Identify gaps in the existing research.
  • Outline the structure.
  • Write the literature review.

Note: There should be proper in-line citations for the review of the literature to provide the reference source that should not be more than 10 years old.

Method and Methodology

This section should provide ample amounts of information so that a reader can reproduce the study. In both quantitative and qualitative research, the use of appropriate methods of participant sampling and study design critically influences the study’s methodological soundness i.e. use of appropriate, valid, and unflawed methods of sampling and use of instruments, procedures, and analysis. The statistical procedures should be relevant and adequate while examining the data and are carried out appropriately. Moreover, the author should provide a detailed description of participant characteristics, measures, protocols and apparatus, methods of recruitment, and statistical procedures. Method and Methodology section can be divided into following subsections-

  • Divide the work into proper sub-headings.
  • Use proper tenses.
  • Subjects or enrolment criteria.
  • Instrumentation.
  • Experimental protocol(s) [Emphise more on new protocol if developed].
  • Outcome data collection.
  • Statistical or Non-Statistical analysis.

Results and Discussions

The results section should include a summary of the collected data and analysis which follows from the analytic plan performed by the author(s) and/or co-author(s) throughout his research. The data should be transferred to the analysis system to perform statistical calculations needed for the analysis. This section also includes both descriptive statistics and tests of significance. Authors should succinctly inevitably state the facts. All results should be described in the text, including unexpected findings. According to the publication manual, the results and discussion section provides information on tests of significance, including inferential statistics, null hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, effect sizes, and supplementary analyses. Figures and tables with proper captions should be used for more clarity to report primary and secondary outcomes.

Conclusion

In the conclusion section, the author evaluates and interprets the findings. This section allows the author a chance to explain the meaning of the results. Outline of the concepts should be discussed including comparison with previous work, clinical relevance, the novelty of the work, and elucidations of differences compared with previous studies. The author(s) should encourage scholars by providing a link to future research, and offer recommendations for further study. Author(s) should not only enhance the strengths of the study but also discuss the weak points of the evidence reported in the paper.

Images, Figures and Tables

The best way to support your content that is research or review is to support them with visual aids. As this is the fastest way to share a massive amount of multifaceted information instead of complicating in text. It is generally observed that readers are more often intended to have a look at images, figures, and tables to deduce their required pieces of information.  Thus author(s) should always support their manuscript with high-quality images and figures also, represent the complex data in the form of tables in order to attract a wide range of audiences.  The manuscript with images, figures, and tables are more professional in terms of appearance when compared to text-based articles.  While adding images and figures the author(s) should note:

  • The image and figures should not be repeated that is it not be a repeated version of the text which has already been stated.
  • The image and figures should be of high quality and are legible that is it should not be a blur or hasty.
  • The images and figures should be properly cited in the text.
  • Each image and figure should be supplemented with the legends explaining the image or figure.
  • Author(s) should use either .png or .jpeg formats to provide high-quality images and figures.
  • If any image or figure has copyright then it should be supplemented with references also should acquire permission to use the same in their work.
  • The diagrams created by the author(s) follow the same procedure as images and figures.

Tables

The best way to represent a hefty amount of data sets is tabular representation. The table facilitates the reader to interpret the data to ease the analysis. As data is divided into different sub-headings thus it is easy to analyze.  A well-designed table adds value to the manuscript thus author(s) should note:

  • The column and rows should have proper spacing.
  • The headings and sub-headings should be properly categorized and highlighted.
  • The font size should be appropriate so that the table is legible [recommended “Times New Roman” font size-12].
  • The table should be supported by the table caption.
  • All units and annotations should be properly explained.
  • The table should be cited in the correct position within the text.

Suggestion: To formulate an appropriate table one may employ the MS Excel tool.

References

References should be cited in numerical order first through the text, then through the figure and table legends, and finally through supplementary materials. They are an efficient way to guide readers to a body of literature. The abstract should not contain reference numbers and retracted articles should not be cited in the reference section. A unique number should be given to each reference. Journal article references mentioned in the manuscript should be complete, including the full list of authors, the full titles, volume, issue number, and the inclusive pagination. All references should be hyperlinked redirecting to the source of reference taken.

SNI publications follow the Vancouver reference style

<First Author last name> <First Author initials>, <Sectond Author last name> <Second Author initials>, <ALL AUTHORS LAST NAME and INITIALS>. <Title of the article>. <Full Name of the Journal>. <Year> <Month> <Date>; <Volume Number>(<Issue Number>):<Starting Page Number>-<Ending Page Number>

Sample

Quigley HA, Broman AT. The number of people with glaucoma worldwide in 2010 and 2020. British journal of ophthalmology. 2006 Mar 1;90(3):262-7.

Acknowledgment

Acknowledgment should be gathered into a paragraph after the reference section. The author should include the name of any person who provided technical assistance, editorial support, or any type of guidance in writing the manuscript. This section should include the acknowledgment of all non-author contributions, and further providing information such as-

  • Funding information
  • A complete list of authors contributions to the paper

Conflict of Interest (COI)

The competing interests of all authors must be listed relevant to the manuscript. COI can be academic, financial, or personal. If they don’t have one, this should also be declared.

List of Supplementary Materials

Tables and figures should be included after the reference or acknowledgment section and should supplement the text. They should be mentioned within the text and numbered in the order of their citation in the text. The first sentence of the table and figure legend should be a brief descriptive title. Units should not change within a column for the table. Nomenclature, abbreviations, symbols, and units used in tables and figures should match those used in the text. Any individually labeled figure parts (e.g. A, B, etc.) should be specifically described by part name within the legend. For initial submission, figures and tables should be embedded directly in the PDF manuscript file.