All the authors are requested to go through the guidelines for publication carefully. The JDA Indian Journal of Clinical Dermatology accepts articles under following headings:
1. Original article: These include original researches and surveys written in not more than 3000 words. A structured abstract has to be written along with it in less than 300 words with following headings: Background, Aims, Methods, Results, Limitations, Conclusion and also has to include 3-5 key words. The article should include an introduction, methods, results, discussion, acknowledgement if any, and references. The discussion section should have a separate paragraph explicitly stating the limitations of the study. Authors of randomized control trials are requested to follow the guidelines presented in the CONSORT statement ( http://www.consort-statement.org/). For authors of epidemiologic studies the STROBE statement ( http://www.strobe-statement.org/Checklist.html) guideline to be followed. Permission from ethics committee/ Institutional Review Board (IRB), is mandatory for all studies as are statement of sources of support and conflict of interest.
2. Reviews: Systematic critical assessments of literature and data sources of about 3000 words should be submitted only aftser consulting the Editor regarding the subject. Add an unstructured abstract of 290 words, with key words.
3. Brief Reports: Short reports of preliminary studies may be submitted in the category of Brief Reports with maximum 1500 words. These manuscripts must be structured like Original Articles.
4. Dermatopathology: Articles on specifically histopathological features of any dermatological entity. To be written in less than 1500 words with an abstract of less than 300 words. Also include 3-5 key words.
5. Dermatosurgery: Articles on surgical aspect of dermatology. To be written in less than 1500 words with an abstract of less than 300 words. Also include 3-5 key words.
6. Dermatoscopy: Articles on dermatoscopy. To be written in less than 1500 words with an abstract of less than 300 words. Also include 3-5 key words.
7. Case reports: Reports of an unusual manifestation of a disease or a new disease (1000 words and up to 10 references) should be submitted with photographs. An unstructured abstract of not more than 190 words should be submitted along with 3-5 key words. The article should include introduction, case report(s), discussion and references.
8. Letters to the Editor: These should normally be no more than 750 words in length, may have up to 5 references and a maximum of three photographs. There are no sub-headings within the letter. No abstract is required.
9. Clinical images: This section is dedicated to images of dermatological conditions with the primary emphasis on image quality. Good clinical images of dermatological conditions may be submitted. Histopathological images may be added to illustrate the condition properly. Original, unpublished, high resolution JPEG or TIFF images, not less than 300 dpi at 5 inches are accepted. The file size should not exceed 4MB.
The accompanying text should be a concise description of the condition, and it should not exceed 250 words. Upto five references are allowed.
10. Quiz: Classical cases with one to three good photographs will be considered. A short history, examination and investigation findings (up to 150 words) should be followed by the answer in the form of the diagnosis and a short review of the condition (up to 500 words and up to 5 references), with additional photographs if necessary.
Manuscript Guidelines
Manuscript text should be submitted in word (.doc), rich text format (.rtf) or PDF (.pdf) format. It should include;
1. First-page file: It should be submitted as a separate file with the following headings. Download Template
- Title of the article
- A short running title of not more than 90 characters
- Names of all contributors (first name, middle name initial, and surname in that sequence), highest academic degrees, and their professional affiliations
- Word count (text only, exclusive of title, abstract, references, tables, and figure legends)
- Number of figures
- Number of tables
- Statement of conflict of interest
- Sources of support if any
- Address for correspondence - the name, address, phone numbers, and email address of the corresponding contributor
- Acknowledgment if any
- The corresponding author should promptly inform the editor of any change in the e-mail id or mailing address. You may include a covering letter hereafter on the title page or upload it as a supplementary file.
2. Article file: This should have the main article manuscript without any identifying information about authors or their affiliations. The article file should have sections of Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Limitations, Conclusion, References, Tables, Illustrations (drawings only; do not embed the images in the text file as these have to submit separately online) and Legends for illustrations in that order.
3. Copyright Form: A copyright form, signed by all authors has to be submitted during the submission of the manuscript. The copyright form can be downloaded here.
Tables:
Authors should exercise particular care in the preparation, notation and description of tables and figures. Tables should be included in the article file document. Make self- explanatory tables that do not duplicate the text. Number tables in Arabic numerals consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each. Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain in footnotes all non-standard abbreviations. Obtain permission for all fully borrowed, adapted, and modified tables and provide a credit line in the footnote. For footnotes use the following symbols, in this sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ||, **, ††, ‡‡
Images / Illustrations:
Sketches/charts/flow diagrams should be included in the article file document or as separate images. Clinical and histopathology photographs should be uploaded at the time of manuscript submission as individual high quality JPEG or TIFF files. The size of the files must not exceed 4MB each. If you believe the images would be better as a composite/collage, please submit the images as single images as well as the suggested composite/collage. Do not add borders to the image.
Type concise legends (maximum 20 words) for the illustrations/figures using double line spacing. They should also be incorporated in the article file after the references. The figures must be cited in the text and numbered in the order of mention. Use Arabic numerals for numbering illustrations, which should be referred as "Figure..." in the text.
For clinical images:
• The subjects must not be identifiable, or their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph.
• The images must be submitted as individual high quality images in either high quality JPEG or TIFF format.
• Kindly ensure that the image is clicked with a good quality camera.
• The size of the individual image should not exceed 4 MB.
• The image resolution should not be lesser than 300 DPI at 5 inches, with no significant pixelation.
• Please do not crop the original image unless absolutely necessary, most standard image dimensions are in a 3:2 ratio.
• The image should be centered, clear and sharply focussed. Blurry images may be rejected.
• The background of the image should be clean, with no distracting elements.
• If the image depicts a site of involvement, it must include an anatomical landmark as reference.
• If two images of the same patient are being compared side by side, ensure that the colour balance is similar and the skin tones match .
• If a figure or table has been published before, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. A credit line should appear in the legend for such figures.
For histopathology images:
• Please mention the magnification scale and the method of staining.
• Images with vignetting (circular black borders) are not acceptable.
• Please make sure that images are uploaded with the epidermis oriented towards the top.
• Please upload both low-power magnification (showing the scanner view or silhouette) and high-power magnified images. If deemed unnecessary, they can be removed after the peer-review stage.
• Where immunohistochemistry or special stains are relevant to the diagnosis, histopathological images of the same should be uploaded.
For dermoscopy images:
• Mention the magnification, mode (polarized /non-polarized) and the make of the dermoscope.
• Label relevant dermoscopic structures using appropriately colored arrows, circles or stars.
Please refer to the following article for common errors and suggested tips for improving the quality of images submitted for publication.
Kaliyadan F. Image quality for publication. Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol 2016;82:367-70 Digital adjustments to the image, if any, need to be clearly mentioned while submitting the manuscript for review. Partial adjustment of brightness, contrast, sharpening or colour can be done, as long as it does not highlight, misrepresent or obscure specific elements in the original figure. Cropping can be done for efficient image display or de-identifying patients, but must not misrepresent the image by selectively removing relevant information. The cropping applied to the image must ideally maintain a 3:2 aspect ratio, either vertically or horizontally. The IJDVL reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge images to an acceptable size.
Multimedia:
Video format should be MPEG, QuickTime (MOV), Windows Media Video (WMV) or MP4.
Play on both Windows and Macintosh platforms. The review process will be delayed if the Editorial Office cannot play your video clip.
Individual size should not exceed 30 MB (for Peer Review), if your paper is accepted you may submit high resolution video not more than 100mb. Use video-compression software to reduce video size if necessary.
Optimal video frame dimensions of 480 x 360 pixels and 640 x 480 pixels. Videos of 320 x 240 pixels have inadequate resolution for teaching.
Duration of individual video clip should be less than 1-2 min.
Combinations of clips: If you combine several video clips, please provide adequate time for each segment, and leave a suitable gap between the videos. Use appropriate labelling to ensure that the viewer can understand the timing of separate events. Labelling can be added with video editing programs such as Adobe Premiere or iMovie.
References:
In citing other work, only references consulted in the original should be included. Use the sequential numbering system. Personal communications should not be cited in the reference list but may appear parenthetically in the text. Arrange the reference list in the sequence in which the references are first cited. In the text, references cited should be superscripted and should appear on top of the line after the punctuation. Check all references for accuracy and completeness.
The journal follows the Vancouver system of references.
Format for references:
List the first six authors followed by et al. List the Surname, followed by the initials, for each author; the title of the paper; journal title (abbreviated according to the style of Index Medicus [ www.nlm.nih.gov ]; in case the journal is not listed in the Index Medicus, the full journal title should be given); year of publication; volume number; first and last page numbers. Please observe the interpunctuation most carefully.
Examples of references:
For journal articles:
Rai R, Srinivas CR. Iontophoresis in dermatology. Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol 2005;71:236-41.
For books:
Hunt TK, editor. Wound healing and wound infection: theory and surgical practice. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts; 1980.
For chapters in books:
Callen JP, Kulp-Shorten CL. Methotrexate. In: Wolverton SE. Comprehensive Dermatologic Drug Therapy. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Saunders; 2013. p. 169-81.
For electronic media:
Department of Statistics, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Republic of Singapore. Population Trends; 2015. Available from: https://www.singstat.gov.sg/docs/default-source/default-document-library/publications/publications_and_papers/population_and_population_structure/population2015.pdf. [Last accessed on 2016 Jun 27].
Abbreviations:
Abbreviations should be avoided in the title and abstract. A term or a disease must be spelt out at first mention, with the abbreviation following in parentheses in the text file.
N.B. In case of any doubt, please refer to ‘Uniform requirement for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals’ at the web page www.icmje.org or in the Annals of Internal Medicine (Ann Intern Med 1997; 126:36-47) for more detailed guidelines.
Journal Ethics:
We are committed to meeting and upholding standards of ethical behavior at all stages of the publication process. We follow closely the industry associations, such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), that set standards and provide guidelines for best practices in order to meet these requirements. For a summary of our specific policies regarding duplicate publication, conflicts of interest, patient consent, etc., please CLICK HERE
Open Access Publication and Creative Commons Licensing:
This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
Review Procedure:
This journal is a double blinded peer reviewed journal. All the articles received are first reviewed by the editor. If found suitable for the journal, articles are assigned to reviewers. The reviewers are selected according to the article,i.e., those who have done work in that field. A reviewer template has been designed to assist the reviewers. The comments of reviewers are communicated to the authors. After the review process is complete,i.e., all the corrections have been made by authors according to the reviewers, the articles are again checked by the editor. If the corrections are satisfactory the article is published.