JCHS is a peer reviewed journal that accepts manuscripts for publication in all areas of clinical and health sciences. This journal is published twice per year (1st March and 1st September). The journal endorses the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) Policy Statement on Geopolitical Intrusion on Editorial Decisions. JCHS also endorses the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.
Submission of a manuscript to JCHS implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content and that the manuscript conforms to the journal’s policies.
To give appropriate credit to each author, the individual contributions of authors should be specified in the manuscript.
An 'author' is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study according to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines.
In line with COPE guidelines, JCHS requires written confirmation from all authors that they agree with any proposed changes in authorship of submitted manuscripts or published articles. This confirmation must be via direct email from each author. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that all authors confirm that they agree with the proposed changes. It is not the Editor’s responsibility to resolve authorship disputes. A change in authorship of a published article can only be amended via publication of an Erratum.
The involvement of scientific (medical) writers or anyone else who assisted with the preparation of the manuscript content should be acknowledged, along with their source of funding, as described in the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) guidelines. The role of medical writers should be acknowledged explicitly in the ‘acknowledgements’ or ‘authors’ contributions’ section as appropriate.
JCHS requires authors to declare all competing interests in relation to their work. All submitted manuscripts must include a ‘competing interests’ section at the end of the manuscript listing all competing interests (financial and non-financial). Where authors have no competing interests, the statement should read “The author(s) declare(s) that they have no competing interests”. Editors may ask for further information relating to competing interests.
Editors and reviewers are also required to declare any competing interests and will be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists.
What constitutes a competing interest?
Competing interests may be financial or non-financial. A competing interest exists when the authors’ interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by their personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Authors should disclose any financial competing interests but also any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment if they were to become public after the publication of the article.
Please see Commercial organizations for more information relating to competing interests on manuscripts from commercial organizations.
Financial competing interests include (but are not limited to):
Receiving reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of the article, either now or in the future.
Holding stocks or shares in an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of the article, either now or in the future.
Holding, or currently applying for, patents relating to the content of the manuscript.
Receiving reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that holds or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript.
Non-financial competing interests
Non-financial competing interests include (but are not limited to) political, personal, religious, ideological, academic, and intellectual competing interests. If, after reading these guidelines, you are unsure whether you have a competing interest, please contact the Editor.
Authors from pharmaceutical companies, or other commercial organizations that sponsor clinical trials, should declare these as competing interests on submission. They should also adhere to the Good Publication Practice guidelines for pharmaceutical companies, which are designed to ensure that publications are produced in a responsible and ethical manner. The guidelines also apply to any companies or individuals that work on industry-sponsored publications, such as freelance writers, contract research organizations and communications companies.
All research articles, and most other article types, published in JCHS undergo thorough peer review. This involves review by at least two independent peer reviewers. The reviewing process normally takes 8-10 weeks.
All submissions to JCHS are assessed by its Editorial Board, who will decide whether they are suitable for peer review. Submissions felt to be suitable for consideration will be sent for peer review with appropriate independent experts. The Editorial Board will make a decision based on the reviewers’ reports and authors are sent these reports along with the editorial decision on their manuscript. JCHS operates a closed peer review process. Reviewers will be treated anonymously and the pre-publication history of each article will not be made available.
Authors should suggest potential reviewers, or the individuals they wish to exclude from the review process; however, it remains at the discretion of the Editorial Board whether to invite these reviewers. Authors should not suggest recent collaborators or colleagues who work in the same institution as themselves. Intentionally falsifying information, for example, suggesting reviewers with a false name or email address, will result in the manuscript being rejected and may lead to further investigation in line with our misconduct policy.
Editors will treat all manuscripts submitted to all JCHS in confidence. Reviewers are also required to treat manuscripts confidentially. JCHS will not share manuscripts with third parties except in cases of suspected misconduct. See our Misconduct policy for further information.
All research must have been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. If there is suspicion that work has not taken place within an appropriate ethical framework, Editors will follow the Misconduct policy and may reject the manuscript, and/or contact the author(s)’ institution or ethics committee. On rare occasions, if the Editor has serious concerns about the ethics of a study, the manuscript may be rejected on ethical grounds, even if approval from an ethics committee has been obtained.
Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data
Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. A statement detailing this, including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate, must appear in all manuscripts reporting such research. If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption). Further information and documentation to support this should be made available to Editors on request. Manuscripts may be rejected if the Editor considers that the research has not been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. In rare cases, Editors may contact the ethics committee for further information.
For all research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants (or their parent or guardian in the case of children under 16) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript.
Consent for publication of individual patient data and clinical datasets
For all manuscripts that include clinical datasets, or details, images, or videos relating to individual participants, written informed consent for the publication of these must be obtained from the participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 16) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript. If the participant has died, then consent for publication must be sought from the next of kin of the participant. This documentation must be made available to Editors on request, and will be treated confidentially. In cases where images are entirely unidentifiable and there are no details on individuals reported within the manuscript, consent for publication of images may not be required.
Experimental research on vertebrates or any regulated invertebrates must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines, and where available should have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. The Basel Declaration outlines fundamental principles to adhere to when conducting research in animals and the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) has also published ethical guidelines.
The name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate must be included in the manuscript. If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption and the reasons for the exemption). The Editor will take account of animal welfare issues and reserves the right to reject a manuscript, especially if the research involves protocols that are inconsistent with commonly accepted norms of animal research.
Authors are strongly encouraged to conform to the Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines, developed by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), for reporting animal studies.
In line with ICMJE guidelines, JCHS requires registration of all clinical trials that are reported in manuscripts submitted to its journals. The trial registration number (TRN) and date of registration should be included as the last line of the manuscript abstract.
Registration of systematic reviews
JCHS supports the prospective registration of systematic reviews. Authors should register their systematic reviews in a suitable registry (such as PROSPERO). Authors who have registered their systematic review should include the registration number in the last line of the manuscript abstract.
JCHS advocates complete and transparent reporting of clinical and health sciences research. Please refer to the Minimum Standards Reporting Checklist when reporting your research. Authors should adhere to these guidelines when drafting their manuscript, and peer reviewers will be asked to refer to these checklists when evaluating such studies. Checklists are available for a number of study designs, including:
Randomized controlled trials (CONSORT) and protocols (SPIRIT)
Systematic reviews (PRISMA) and protocols (PRISMA-P)
Observational studies (STROBE)
Case reports (CARE)
Qualitative research (RATS and COREQ)
Diagnostic/prognostic studies (STARD and TRIPOD)
Economic evaluations (CHEERS)
Pre-clinical animal studies (ARRIVE)
Submission of a manuscript to JCHS implies that materials described in the manuscript, including all relevant raw data, will be freely available to any scientist wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without breaching participant confidentiality.
Any manuscript submitted to JCHS must be original and the manuscript, or substantial parts of it, must not be under consideration by any other journal. In any case where there is the potential for overlap or duplication we require that authors are transparent. Authors should declare any potentially overlapping publications on submission and, where possible, upload these as additional files with the manuscript. Any overlapping publications should be cited. Any ‘in press’ or unpublished manuscript cited, or relevant to Editors’ and reviewers' assessment of the manuscript, should be made available if requested by the Editors. JCHS reserves the right to judge potentially overlapping or redundant publications on a case-by-case basis.
In general, the manuscript should not already have been formally published in any journal or in any other citable form. If justified and made clear upon submission, there are exceptions to this rule.
Pre-print servers and author/institutional repositories
Posting a manuscript on a pre-print server such as ArXiv,BioRxiv,Peer J Preprints or similar platforms (both commercial and non-commercial) is not considered to be duplicate publication. JCHS will also consider peer reviewing manuscripts that have been posted on an author's personal or institutional website. Material that has formed part of an academic thesis and been placed in the public domain, as per the awarding institution's guidelines, will also be considered by JCHS.
JCHS also encourages self-archiving by authors of manuscripts accepted for publication.
Authors should comply with the ICMJE guidelines and seek approval from the original publisher to check that they do not breach the copyright terms of the original publication and that they agree to publication of the translation under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.
Authors of non-research articles (usually commissioned reviews and commentaries) can include figures and tables that have been previously published in other journals provided they confirm on submission that permission has been obtained from the original publisher (if applicable) and cite the original article. Documentary evidence to support this permission must be made available to the Editor on request.
In order to avoid the potential for self-plagiarism, inadvertently or otherwise, authors agreeing to write commissioned articles should notify the Editor of any recent publications or invitations to write on a similar topic.
Authors should be aware that replication of text from their own previous publications is text recycling (also referred to as self-plagiarism), and in some cases is considered unacceptable. Where overlap of text with authors’ own previous publications is necessary or unavoidable, duplication must always be reported transparently and be properly attributed and compliant with copyright requirements. Where there is the potential for text recycling, authors should notify the Editor of this on submission.
Research articles and non-research articles (e.g. Opinion, Review and Commentary articles) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Excessive and inappropriate self-citation or coordinated efforts among several authors to collectively self-cite is strongly discouraged.
Copyright of all articles published in Journal of Clinical and Health Sciences (JCHS) will be shared with JCHS and the author(s). JCHS maintains the right to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher. Authors may grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its integrity is maintained and its original authors, citation details and publisher (JCHS) are identified. The Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 formalizes these and other terms and conditions of publishing articles.
I) Open Access Statement
Based on Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publication, an Open Access Publication is one that meets the following two conditions:
II) Creative Common License
With Creative Commons licenses, the author retains copyright, and the public is allowed to reuse the content. The type of Creative Commons license used in JCHS is CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License) which allows users to copy, distribute and transmit an article as long as the author is attributed, the article is not used for commercial purposes, and the work is not modified or adapted in any way.
JCHS takes seriously all allegations of potential misconduct. In cases of suspected research or publication misconduct, it may be necessary for Editors to contact and share manuscripts with third parties, for example, author(s)’ institution(s) and ethics committee(s). JCHS may also seek advice and discuss anonymized cases.
All research involving humans (including human data and human material) and animals must have been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework (see our Ethics policy for further information). If there is suspicion that research has not taken place within an appropriate ethical framework, Editors may reject a manuscript and may inform third parties, for example, author(s)’ institution(s) and ethics committee(s).
In cases of proven research misconduct involving published articles, articles may be retracted. See our Retraction policy for further information.
Image manipulation
All digital images in manuscripts considered for publication will be scrutinized for any indication of manipulation that is inconsistent with JCHS guidelines. Manipulation that violates these guidelines may result in delays in manuscript processing or rejection, or retraction of a published article.
Any questions raised during or after the peer review process will be referred to the Editors, who will request the original data from the author(s) for comparison with the prepared figures. If the original data cannot be produced, the manuscript may be rejected or, in the case of a published article, retracted. Any case in which the manipulation affects the interpretation of the data will result in rejection or retraction. Cases of suspected misconduct will be reported to the author(s)’ institution(s).
If plagiarism is identified, COPE guidelines on plagiarism will be followed.
Rarely, it may be necessary for JCHS to publish corrections to, or retractions of, articles published in its journals, so as to maintain the integrity of the academic record.
In line with JCHS Permanency policy, corrections to, or retractions of, published articles will be made by publishing an Erratum or a Retraction article, without altering the original article in any way other than to add a prominent link to the Erratum/Retraction article. The original article remains in the public domain and the subsequent Erratum or Retraction will be widely indexed. In the exceptional event that material is considered to infringe certain rights or is defamatory we may have to remove that material from our site and archive sites.
It may be possible for minor corrections to published articles to be made by the original author(s) posting a comment on the published article. This would only be appropriate where the changes do not affect the results or conclusions of the article. See our Comments policy for further information on posting comments.
Changes to published articles that affect the interpretation and conclusion of the article, but do not fully invalidate the article, will, at the Editor(s)’ discretion, be corrected via publication of an Erratum that is linked to the original article. Changes in authorship of published articles are corrected via an Erratum. See Changes in authorship for further information.
On rare occasions, when the scientific information in an article is substantially undermined, it may be necessary for published articles to be retracted. JCHS will follow COPE guidelines in such cases. Retraction articles are linked to the original article.
Readers can comment on all articles published in JCHS.
JCHS reserves the right to decline to post a comment deemed inappropriate and the right to remove a comment at any time.
Comments will not be accepted if they appear to be indecent, offensive, or contain negative content of a personal, racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, or religious character. We will not post comments that appear to be libellous or otherwise legally problematic.
We cannot include figures, tables, or equations within a comment, although hyperlinks may be included. If your response is substantial then you may wish to consider submitting an article; in this case you should discuss this with the Editor.
JCHS asks that anyone posting a comment complete a competing interests’ declaration. A competing interest exists when your interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by your personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Those who post comments should disclose any financial competing interests but also any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment if they were to become public after the publication of the comments.
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JCHS is a free open-access peer reviewed journal that accepts manuscripts for publication in all areas of clinical and health sciences. This journal is published twice a year (March and September since 2021, June and December prior to 2021).
The journal does not impose any processing or publication fee for submitted manuscripts. Articles published in this journal are freely available online for downloading and sharing..
JCHS follows the editorial responsibilities as in World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) Policy Statement on The Responsibilities of Medical Editors.
The journal endorses the WAME Policy Statement on Geopolitical Intrusion on Editorial Decisions. JCHS also endorses the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.
JCHS follows the reviewer responsibilities as stated in ICMJE Recommendations for Responsibilities in the Submission and Peer-Review Process.
Reviewers also should ensure the rigorous standards of the scientific process are observed, and provide a thoughtful, fair, constructive, and informative critique in each submitted article reviewed.
JCHS follows the publisher responsibilities as stated in ICMJE Recommendations for Journal Owners and Editorial Freedom.
Submission of a manuscript to JCHS implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content and that the manuscript conforms to the journal’s policies.
During manuscript submission, authors are required to complete the online form, disclose any competing interests, and acknowledge all funding sources supporting the work. The corresponding author must ensure that all authors have disclosed any competing interests.
Authorship
To give appropriate credit to each author, the individual contributions of authors should be specified in the manuscript.
An 'author' is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study according to the ICMJE guidelines.
Changes in authorship
In line with COPE guidelines, JCHS requires written confirmation from all authors that they agree with any proposed changes in authorship of submitted manuscripts or published articles. This confirmation must be via direct email from each author. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that all authors confirm that they agree with the proposed changes. It is not the Editor’s responsibility to resolve authorship disputes. A change in authorship of a published article can only be amended via publication of an Erratum.
Scientific (medical) writers
The involvement of scientific (medical) writers or anyone else who assisted with the preparation of the manuscript content should be acknowledged, along with their source of funding, as described in the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) guidelines. The role of medical writers should be acknowledged explicitly in the ‘acknowledgements’ or ‘authors’ contributions’ section as appropriate.
Conflicts of interest / Competing interests
JCHS requires authors to declare all competing interests in relation to their work. All submitted manuscripts must include a ‘conflicts of interest / competing interests’ section at the end of the manuscript listing all conflicts of interest / competing interests (financial and non-financial). Where authors have conflicts of interest / no competing interests, the statement should read “The author(s) declare(s) that they have no conflicts of interest / competing interests”. Editors may ask for further information relating to conflicts of interest / competing interests.
Editors and reviewers are also required to declare any conflicts of interest / competing interests and will be excluded from the peer review process if a conflict of interest / competing interest exists.
What constitutes a competing interest?
Competing interests may be financial or non-financial. A competing interest exists when the authors’ interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by their personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Authors should disclose any financial competing interests but also any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment if they were to become public after the publication of the article.
Please see Commercial organizations for more information relating to competing interests on manuscripts from commercial organizations.
Financial competing interests include (but are not limited to):
Receiving reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of the article, either now or in the future.
Holding stocks or shares in an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of the article, either now or in the future.
Holding, or currently applying for, patents relating to the content of the manuscript.
Receiving reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that holds or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript.
Non-financial competing interests
Non-financial competing interests include (but are not limited to) political, personal, religious, ideological, academic, and intellectual competing interests. If, after reading these guidelines, you are unsure whether you have a competing interest, please contact the Editor.
Commercial organizations
Authors from pharmaceutical companies, or other commercial organizations that sponsor clinical trials, should declare these as competing interests on submission. They should also adhere to the Good Publication Practice guidelines for pharmaceutical companies, which are designed to ensure that publications are produced in a responsible and ethical manner. The guidelines also apply to any companies or individuals that work on industry-sponsored publications, such as freelance writers, contract research organizations and communications companies.
Peer review
All research articles, and most other article types, published in JCHS undergo thorough double-blinded peer review. This involves review by at least two independent peer reviewers. The reviewing process normally takes 8-10 weeks.
Bottom of Form
All submissions to JCHS are assessed by its Editorial Board, who will decide whether they are suitable for peer review. Submissions felt to be suitable for consideration will be sent for peer review with appropriate independent experts. The Editorial Board will make a decision based on the reviewers’ reports and authors are sent these reports along with the editorial decision on their manuscript. JCHS operates a closed peer review process. Reviewers will be treated anonymously and the pre-publication history of each article will not be made available.
Peer reviewers
Authors should suggest potential reviewers, or the individuals they wish to exclude from the review process; however, it remains at the discretion of the Editorial Board whether to invite these reviewers. Authors should not suggest recent collaborators or colleagues who work in the same institution as themselves. Intentionally falsifying information, for example, suggesting reviewers with a false name or email address, will result in the manuscript being rejected and may lead to further investigation in line with our misconduct policy.
Confidentiality
Editors will treat all manuscripts submitted to JCHS in confidence. Reviewers are also required to treat manuscripts confidentially. JCHS will not share manuscripts with third parties except in cases of suspected misconduct. See our Misconduct policy for further information.
All research must have been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. If there is suspicion that work has not taken place within an appropriate ethical framework, Editors will follow the Misconduct policy and may reject the manuscript, and/or contact the author(s)’ institution or ethics committee. On rare occasions, if the Editor has serious concerns about the ethics of a study, the manuscript may be rejected on ethical grounds, even if approval from an ethics committee has been obtained.
Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data
Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. A statement detailing this, including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate, must appear in all manuscripts reporting such research. If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption). Further information and documentation to support this should be made available to Editors on request. Manuscripts may be rejected if the Editor considers that the research has not been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. In rare cases, Editors may contact the ethics committee for further information.
For all research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants (or their parent or guardian in the case of children under 16) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript.
Consent for publication of individual patient data and clinical datasets
For all manuscripts that include clinical datasets, or details, images, or videos relating to individual participants, written informed consent for the publication of these must be obtained from the participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 16) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript. If the participant has died, then consent for publication must be sought from the next of kin of the participant. This documentation must be made available to Editors on request, and will be treated confidentially. In cases where images are entirely unidentifiable and there are no details on individuals reported within the manuscript, consent for publication of images may not be required.
Experimental research on vertebrates or any regulated invertebrates must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines, and should have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. The Basel Declaration outlines fundamental principles to adhere to when conducting research in animals and the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) has also published ethical guidelines.
The name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate must be included in the manuscript. If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption and the reasons for the exemption). The Editor will take account of animal welfare issues and reserves the right to reject a manuscript, especially if the research involves protocols that are inconsistent with commonly accepted norms of animal research.
Authors are strongly encouraged to conform to the Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines, developed by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), for reporting animal studies.
In line with ICMJE guidelines, JCHS requires registration of all clinical trials that are reported in manuscripts submitted to its journals. The trial registration number (TRN) and date of registration should be included as the last line of the manuscript abstract.
Registration of systematic reviews
JCHS supports the prospective registration of systematic reviews. Authors should register their systematic reviews in a suitable registry (such as PROSPERO). Authors who have registered their systematic review should include the registration number in the last line of the manuscript abstract.
JCHS advocates complete and transparent reporting of clinical and health sciences research. Please refer to the Minimum Standards Reporting Checklist when reporting your research. Authors should adhere to these guidelines when drafting their manuscript, and peer reviewers will be asked to refer to these checklists when evaluating such studies. Checklists are available for a number of study designs, including:
Randomized controlled trials (CONSORT) and protocols (SPIRIT)
Systematic reviews (PRISMA) and protocols (PRISMA-P)
Observational studies (STROBE)
Case reports (CARE)
Qualitative research (RATS and COREQ)
Diagnostic/prognostic studies (STARD and TRIPOD)
Economic evaluations (CHEERS)
Pre-clinical animal studies (ARRIVE)
Submission of a manuscript to JCHS implies that materials described in the manuscript, including all relevant raw data, will be freely available to any scientist wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without breaching participant confidentiality.
Any manuscript submitted to JCHS must be original and the manuscript, or substantial parts of it, must not be under consideration by any other journal. In any case where there is the potential for overlap or duplication we require that authors are transparent. Authors should declare any potentially overlapping publications on submission and, where possible, upload these as additional files with the manuscript. Any overlapping publications should be cited. Any ‘in press’ or unpublished manuscript cited, or relevant to Editors’ and reviewers' assessment of the manuscript, should be made available if requested by the Editors. JCHS reserves the right to judge potentially overlapping or redundant publications on a case-by-case basis.
In general, the manuscript should not already have been formally published in any journal or in any other citable form. If justified and made clear upon submission, there are exceptions to this rule.
Pre-print servers and author/institutional repositories
Posting a manuscript on a pre-print server such as ArXiv,BioRxiv,Peer J Preprints or similar platforms (both commercial and non-commercial) is not considered to be duplicate publication. JCHS will also consider peer reviewing manuscripts that have been posted on an author's personal or institutional website. Material that has formed part of an academic thesis and been placed in the public domain, as per the awarding institution's guidelines, will also be considered for publication by JCHS.
JCHS also encourages self-archiving by authors of manuscripts accepted for publication.
Authors should comply with the ICMJE guidelines and seek approval from the original publisher to check that they do not breach the copyright terms of the original publication and that they agree to the publication of the translation under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.
Authors of non-research articles (usually commissioned reviews and commentaries) can include figures and tables that have been previously published in other journals provided they confirm on submission that permission has been obtained from the original publisher (if applicable) and cite the original article. Documentary evidence to support this permission must be made available to the Editor on request.
In order to avoid the potential for self-plagiarism, inadvertently or otherwise, authors agreeing to write commissioned articles should notify the Editor of any recent publications or invitations to write on a similar topic.
Authors should be aware that replication of text from their own previous publications is text recycling (also referred to as self-plagiarism), and in some cases is considered unacceptable. Where overlap of text with authors’ own previous publications is necessary or unavoidable, duplication must always be reported transparently and be properly attributed and compliant with copyright requirements. Where there is the potential for text recycling, authors should notify the Editor of this on submission.
Research articles and non-research articles (e.g. Opinion, Review and Commentary articles) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Excessive and inappropriate self-citation or coordinated efforts among several authors to collectively self-cite is strongly discouraged.
Copyright Statement
Copyright of all articles published in Journal of Clinical and Health Sciences (JCHS) will be shared with JCHS and the author(s). JCHS maintains the right to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher. Authors may grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its integrity is maintained and its original authors, citation details and publisher (JCHS) are identified. The Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 formalizes these and other terms and conditions of publishing articles.
Open Access Statement
Based on Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publication, an Open Access Publication is one that meets the following two conditions:
The author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship, as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use.
A complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format is deposited immediately upon initial publication in at least one online repository that is supported by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving (for the biomedical sciences, PubMed Central is such a repository).
Creative Common License
With Creative Commons licenses, the author retains copyright, and the public is allowed to reuse the content. The type of Creative Commons license used in JCHS is CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License) which allows users to copy, distribute and transmit an article as long as the author is attributed, the article is not used for commercial purposes, and the work is not modified or adapted in any way.
Misconduct
JCHS takes all allegations of potential misconduct seriously. In cases of suspected research or publication misconduct, it may be necessary for Editors to contact and share manuscripts with third parties, for example, author(s)’ institution(s) and ethics committee(s). JCHS may also seek advice and discuss anonymized cases.
Research misconduct
All research involving humans (including human data and human material) and animals must have been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework (see our Ethics policy for further information). If there is suspicion that research has not taken place within an appropriate ethical framework, Editors may reject a manuscript and may inform third parties, for example, author(s)’ institution(s) and ethics committee(s).
In cases of proven research misconduct involving published articles, articles may be retracted. See our Retraction policy for further information.
Publication misconduct
Image manipulation
All digital images in manuscripts considered for publication will be scrutinized for any indication of manipulation that is inconsistent with JCHS guidelines. Manipulation that violates these guidelines may result in delays in manuscript processing or rejection, or retraction of a published article.
Any questions raised during or after the peer review process will be referred to the Editors, who will request the original data from the author(s) for comparison with the prepared figures. If the original data cannot be produced, the manuscript may be rejected or, in the case of a published article, retracted. Any case in which the manipulation affects the interpretation of the data will result in rejection or retraction. Cases of suspected misconduct will be reported to the author(s)’ institution(s).
Plagiarism
If plagiarism is identified, COPE guidelines on plagiarism will be followed.
The journal plagiarism guidelines are based on the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines for plagiarism, and aim to ensure that submitted manuscripts adhere to academic integrity standards and are free from plagiarism. All manuscripts will be screened for plagiarism, and if detected, the corresponding author will be notified and given an opportunity to respond. Plagiarized manuscripts will be rejected or retracted. The journal will report all instances of plagiarism to the relevant authorities. Adherence to these guidelines will maintain the highest standards of academic integrity and promote ethical research practices
Corrections and retractions
Rarely, it may be necessary for JCHS to publish corrections to, or retractions of, articles published in its journals, so as to maintain the integrity of the academic record.
In line with JCHS Permanency policy, corrections to, or retractions of, published articles will be made by publishing an Erratum or a Retraction article, without altering the original article in any way other than to add a prominent link to the Erratum/Retraction article. The original article remains in the public domain and the subsequent Erratum or Retraction will be widely indexed. In the exceptional event that material is considered to infringe certain rights or is defamatory we may have to remove that material from our site and archive sites.
It may be possible for minor corrections to published articles to be made by the original author(s) posting a comment on the published article. This would only be appropriate where the changes do not affect the results or conclusions of the article. See our Comments policy for further information on posting comments.
Corrections
Changes to published articles that affect the interpretation and conclusion of the article, but do not fully invalidate the article, will, at the Editor(s)’ discretion, be corrected via publication of an Erratum that is linked to the original article. Changes in authorship of published articles are corrected via an Erratum. See Changes in authorship for further information.
Retractions
On rare occasions, when the scientific information in an article is substantially undermined, it may be necessary for published articles to be retracted. JCHS will follow COPE guidelines in such cases. Retraction articles are linked to the original article.
Comments Policy
Readers can comment on all articles published in JCHS.
JCHS reserves the right to decline to post a comment deemed inappropriate and the right to remove a comment at any time.
Comments will not be accepted if they appear to be indecent, offensive, or contain negative content of a personal, racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, or religious character. We will not post comments that appear to be libellous or otherwise legally problematic.
We cannot include figures, tables, or equations within a comment, although hyperlinks may be included. If your response is substantial then you may wish to consider submitting an article; in this case you should discuss this with the Editor.
JCHS asks that anyone posting a comment complete a competing interests’ declaration. A competing interest exists when your interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by your personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Those who post comments should disclose any financial competing interests but also any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment if they were to become public after the publication of the comments.
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| No | Name |
| 1 | Ahmad Fahim Bin Ismail Ibrahim |
| 2 | Ahmad Izuanuddin Ismail |
| 3 | Akmal Zulayla Binti Mohd Zahid |
| 4 | Anis Shah |
| 5 | Anitha Vivekanandan |
| 6 | Anna Krasilnikova |
| 7 | Anuar Zaini |
| 8 | Ashley Edward Roy Soosay |
| 9 | Bahaa Allatef |
| 10 | Bushra Binti Johari |
| 11 | Chua Ang Lim |
| 12 | Damayanthi Durairajanayagam |
| 13 | Effat Omar Abdul Rahman |
| 14 | Fadzilah Mohd Nor Ghazali |
| 15 | Fazah Akhtar Binti Hanapiah |
| 16 | Gabriele Ruth Anisah Fromming |
| 17 | Harbindarjeet Singh |
| 18 | Hardip Kaur a/p Pretam Singh Dhillon |
| 19 | Harissa Husainy Binti Hasbullah |
| 20 | Hassanain I. Yehya Yehya Talib |
| 21 | Igor Iezhitsa |
| 22 | Jafri Abdullah |
| 23 | Jamal Hussaini |
| 24 | Khalid Yusoff |
| 25 | Marymol Koshy |
| 26 | Masri Bin Muhamed |
| 27 | Mohammed Fauzi Abdul Rani |
| 28 | Mohd Ikraam Bin Ibrahim |
| 29 | Mohd Razali Bin Salleh |
| 30 | Mohamad Rodi Bin Isa |
| 31 | Mudiana Muhamad |
| 32 | Muhamad Yazli Yuhana |
| 33 | Musalmah Bt Mazlan |
| 34 | Navindra Kumari AP Palanisamy |
| 35 | Nor Aini Mohd Noor |
| 36 | Nora Julianna Osman |
| 37 | Norashikin Shamsudin |
| 38 | Norazlina Binti Mohamed |
| 39 | Norizal Mohd Noor |
| 40 | Nuraliza Abdul Satar |
| 41 | Omkara Rubini Lingham |
| 42 | Rafiq Ahmed Abdul Karim Vasiwala |
| 43 | Raja Rizal Raja Azman |
| 44 | Rajni Sharma |
| 45 | Ranjit Singh |
| 46 | Renu Agarwal |
| 47 | Rohana Binti Abdul Ghani |
| 48 | Rokiah Ismail |
| 49 | Roland Gamini Sirisinghe |
| 50 | Rusli Nordin |
| 51 | Shahid Hassan |
| 52 | Shamala Durairajanayagam |
| 53 | Sharaniza Ab Rahim |
| 54 | Sharifah Syed Hassan |
| 55 | Sheetal Vyas |
| 56 | Siti Aishah Che Md Ali |
| 57 | Siti Hamimah Binti Sheikh Abdul Kadir |
| 58 | Sivalal Sadasivan |
| 59 | Sivalingam Nalliah |
| 60 | Suthahar Ariaratnam |
| 61 | Suzanna Binti Daud |
| 62 | Syed Hassan Syed Ahmad Almashoor |
| 63 | Yong Chee Meng |
| 64 | Zabidi Azhar Husin |
| 65 | Zainal Abidin Abu Hasan |
| 66 | Zaini Mohd Zain |
| 67 | Zaliha Binti Ismail |
| No | Name |
| 1 | Ahmad Izuanuddin Ismail |
| 2 | Alam Sher Malik |
| 3 | Anis Shah |
| 4 | Ashley E. R. Soosay |
| 5 | Brinnel Caszo |
| 6 | Damayanthi Durairajanayagam |
| 7 | Fadzilah Mohd Nor @ Ghazali |
| 8 | Farhan Hamdan |
| 9 | Fazah Akhtar Hanapiah |
| 10 | Harbindar Jeet Singh |
| 11 | Hardip Kaur Dhillon |
| 12 | Hari Chandran Thambinayagam |
| 13 | Jamal Houssaini |
| 14 | Jo Ee Sam |
| 15 | Marymol Koshy |
| 16 | Mohammed Fauzi Abdul Rani |
| 17 | Mohd Fairudz Mohd Miswan |
| 18 | Muhamad Yazli Yuhana |
| 19 | Musalmah Mazlan |
| 20 | Norfilza M Mokhtar |
| 21 | P. Ravi Shankar |
| 22 | Rahimah Zakaria |
| 23 | Rajni Sharma |
| 24 | Ranjit Singh |
| 25 | Renu Agarwal |
| 26 | Rohana Abdul Ghani |
| 27 | Rokiah Che Ismail |
| 28 | Shamala Durairajanayagam |
| 29 | Sharifah Majedah Idrus Al-Habshi |
| 30 | Sivalingam Nalliah |
| 31 | Suzana Makpol |
| 32 | Suzanna Daud |
Criteria
Reviews are summaries of insights or advances in specific research areas within the scope of JCHS. Key aims of the reviews are to provide timely, systematic and substantial coverage of a mature topic, to evaluate progress in specified areas, and/or to provide critical assessments of emerging technologies.
Reviews should provide a balanced overview of the field and not to focus on the authors’ own work or that of their close colleagues.
Submission process
Manuscripts must be submitted by one of the authors of the manuscript, and should not be submitted by anyone on their behalf. The corresponding author takes responsibility for the article during submission and peer review.
To facilitate rapid publication and to minimize administrative costs, JCHS only accepts online submission. The main manuscript should be in Microsoft Word (DOC, DOCX) file formats. Tables and figures should be submitted as separate files.
During submission provide a cover letter explaining why your manuscript should be published in the journal, elaborate on any issues relating to our editorial policies and declare any potential competing interests.
Preparing main manuscript text
General guidelines of the journal's style and language are given below.
Length of article
Reviews should not exceed 5000 words (excluding references).
Overview of manuscript sections for Reviews
Manuscripts for Reviews submitted to JCHS should be divided into the following sections (in this order):
The Accession Numbers of any nucleic acid sequences, protein sequences or atomic coordinates cited in the manuscript should be provided, in square brackets and include the corresponding database name; for example, [EMBL:AB026295, EMBL:AC137000, DDBJ:AE000812, GenBank:U49845, PDB:1BFM, Swiss-Prot:Q96KQ7, PIR:S66116].
Title page
The title page should:
- provide the title of the article
- list the full names, institutional addresses and email addresses for all authors
- indicate the corresponding author
- abbreviations within the title should be avoided
Abstract
A short, unstructured, single paragraph summary, no more than 250 words, of the major points raised, making evident the key work highlighted in the article.
Keywords
Ten keywords representing the main content of the article.
Introduction
This section should put the subject matter in adequate context and should be comprehensible to non-experts.
Review
This should contain the body of the article, and may also be broken into subsections with short, informative headings.
Conclusions
This should state clearly the main conclusions of the review and give a clear explanation of their importance and relevance.
Competing interests
A competing interest exists when your interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by your personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Authors must disclose any financial competing interests; they should also reveal any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment were they to become public after the publication of the manuscript.
Authors are required to complete a declaration of competing interests. All competing interests that are declared will be listed at the end of published articles. Where an author gives no competing interests, the listing will read 'The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests'.
When completing your declaration, please consider the following questions:
Financial competing interests
Non-financial competing interests
Are there any non-financial competing interests (political, personal, religious, ideological, academic, intellectual, commercial or any other) to declare in relation to this manuscript? If so, please specify.
If you are unsure as to whether you, or one your co-authors, has a competing interest please discuss it with the editorial office.
Authors' contributions
In order to give appropriate credit to each author of a paper, the individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section.
According to ICMJE guidelines, An 'author' is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. To qualify as an author one should 1) have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) have been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3) have given final approval of the version to be published; and 4) agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. All authors should have read and approved the final manuscript.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, a department chair who provided only general support, or those who contributed as part of a large collaboration group.
Acknowledgements
Please acknowledge anyone who contributed towards the article by making substantial contributions to conception, design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, or who was involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content, but who does not meet the criteria for authorship. Please also include the source(s) of funding for the study. Please also acknowledge anyone who contributed materials essential for the study. If a language editor has made significant revision of the manuscript, we recommend that you acknowledge the editor by name, where possible.
Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgements section
References
All references, including URLs, must be numbered consecutively, in square brackets, in the order in which they are cited in the text, followed by any in tables or legends. Each reference must have an individual reference number. If automatic numbering systems are used, the reference numbers must be finalized and the bibliography must be fully formatted before submission.
Only articles, clinical trial registration records and abstracts that have been published or are in press, or are available through public e-print/preprint servers, may be cited; unpublished abstracts, unpublished data and personal communications should not be included in the reference list, but may be included in the text and referred to as "unpublished observations" or "personal communications" giving the names of the involved researchers. Obtaining permission to quote personal communications and unpublished data from the cited colleagues is the responsibility of the author. Journal abbreviations must follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE. Citations in the reference list should include all named authors.
Any in press articles cited within the references and necessary for the reviewers' assessment of the manuscript should be made available if requested by the editorial office.
Examples of the JHCS reference style are shown below. Please ensure that the reference style is followed precisely; if the references are not in the correct style they may have to be retyped and carefully proofread.
Examples of the JCHS reference style
Article within a journal
Agarwal R and Agarwal P. Glaucomatous neurodegeneration: TNF-alpha. Ind J Ophthalmol. 2012;60(4):255-61.
Article within a journal by DOI(ahead of print)
Khan MS, Gan C, Ahmed K et al. A single-centre early phase randomised controlled three-arm trial of open, robotic, and laparoscopic radical cystectomy (CORAL). Euro Uro. 2015;doi: 10.1016/j.eururo.2015.07.038
Article within a journal supplement
Rajikin MH, Kamsani YS, Chatterjee A et al. Gamma-tocotrienol supplementation improves embryo development and fetal survival rate in nicotine-treated pregnant mice. Hum Repro 2013; 28 Suppl 1: 232-33.
Book chapter, or an article within a book
Harbindar JS. Close relationship between bone strength and mass in jumping exercised rats. Physical activity and exercise: health promotion and disease prevention. Aitner: 2012. p. 201-227.
Online First chapter in a series (without a volume designation but with a DOI)
Mokhtar SS, Marshall CR, Phipps ME et. al. Novel population specific autosomal copy number variation and its functional analysis amongst negritos from peninsular Malaysia patient. PLoS One. 2014. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0100371.
Complete book, authored
Yusoff K. Panduan elektrokardiografi. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia; 1993.
Online document
Rani MFA. COPD: what is it and do you suffer from it. Expat Go Malaysia. 2013. http://www.expatgo.com/my/2013/06/12/copd-what-is-it-and-do-you-suffer-from-it/. Accessed 23 Aug 2013.
Online database
Ribavirin. American Society of Health System Pharmacists. DynaMed, EBSCO Information Services. 1995. http://search.ebscohost.com. Accessed 15 May 1996.
Supplementary material/private homepage
Zudrop J. High performance computing. 2014. http://www.jenszudrop.de/research/. Accessed 19 Sep 2015.
University site
Ismail, K: Center for coal and biomass energy. http://fsg.uitm.edu.my/v1/research/research-news/202-center-for-coal-and-biomass-energy.html (2016). Accessed 24 Jan 2016.
FTP site
Schrier, RW: Atlas of diseases of the kidney. ftp://ftp.cap.org/superlinks/ref.html (1999). Accessed 9 Feb 2001.
Organization site
IFLA Metadata Newsletter. http://www.issn.org/ifla-metadata-newsletter (2016). Accessed 20 Jan 2016.
Dataset with persistent identifier
Kluver N, Konig M, Ortmann J et al. Fish embryo toxicity test: identification of compounds with weak toxicity and analysis of behavioral effects to improve prediction of acute toxicity for neurotoxic compounds. Env Sci & Tech. 2015. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.5b01910.
Preparing illustrations and figures
Illustrations should be provided as separate files, not embedded in the text file. Each figure should include a single illustration and should fit on a single page in portrait format. If a figure consists of separate parts, it is important that a single composite illustration file be submitted which contains all parts of the figure.
Please read our figure preparation guidelines for detailed instructions on maximising the quality of your figures.
Formats
All figures should be submitted in TIFF or JPEG formats.
Figure legends
The legends should be included in the main manuscript text file at the end of the document, rather than being a part of the figure file. For each figure, the following information should be provided: Figure number (in sequence, using Arabic numerals - i.e. Figure 1, 2, 3 etc); short title of figure (maximum 15 words); detailed legend, up to 300 words.
Please note that it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures or tables that have previously been published elsewhere.
Preparing a personal cover page
If you wish to do so, you may submit an image which, in the event of publication, will be used to create a cover page for the PDF version of your article. The cover page will also display the journal logo, article title and citation details. The image may either be a figure from your manuscript or another relevant image. You must have permission from the copyright to reproduce the image. Images that do not meet our requirements will not be used.
Images must be 300dpi and 155mm square (1831 x 1831 pixels for a raster image).
Allowable formats -, TIFF & JPEG.
Preparing tables
Each table should be numbered and cited in sequence using Arabic numerals (i.e. Table 1, 2, 3 etc.). Tables should also have a title (above the table) that summarizes the whole table; it should be no longer than 15 words. Detailed legends may then follow, but they should be concise. Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
Smaller tables considered to be integral to the manuscript can be pasted into the end of the document text file, in A4 portrait or landscape format. These will be typeset and displayed in the final published form of the article. Such tables should be formatted using the 'Table object' in a word processing program to ensure that columns of data are kept aligned when the file is sent electronically for review; this will not always be the case if columns are generated by simply using tabs to separate text. Columns and rows of data should be made visibly distinct by ensuring that the borders of each cell display as black lines. Commas should not be used to indicate numerical values. Color and shading may not be used; parts of the table can be highlighted using symbols or bold text, the meaning of which should be explained in a table legend. Tables should not be embedded as figures or spreadsheet files.
Preparing additional files
Although JCHS does not restrict the length and quantity of data included in an article, we encourage authors to provide datasets, tables, movies, or other information as additional files.
Please note: All Additional files will be published along with the article. Do not include files such as patient consent forms, certificates of language editing, or revised versions of the main manuscript document with tracked changes.
Results that would otherwise be indicated as "data not shown" can and should be included as additional files.
Certain supported files formats are recognized and can be displayed to the user in the browser. These include most movie formats (for users with the Quicktime plugin), mini-websites prepared according to our guidelines, chemical structure files (MOL, PDB), geographic data files (KML).
If additional material is provided, please list the following information in a separate section of the manuscript text:
- File name (e.g. Additional file 1)
- File format including the correct file extension for example .pdf, .xls, .txt, .pptx (including name and a URL of an appropriate viewer if format is unusual)
- Title of data
- Description of data
Additional files should be named "Additional file 1" and so on and should be referenced explicitly by file name within the body of the article, e.g. 'An additional movie file shows this in more detail [see Additional file 1]'.
Style and language
General
Currently, JCHS only accepts manuscripts written in English. Spelling should be US English or British English, but not a mixture.
The total number of figures, and tables must not exceed eight (8). Figures and tables should be numbered in the order in which they are referred to in the text.
Help and advice on scientific writing
American Scientist provides a list of resources for science writing.
Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be used as sparingly as possible. They should be defined when first used.
Typography
Units
SI units should be used throughout (liter and molar are permitted, however).
Editor-in-Chief
Rohana Abdul Ghani, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
Scopus ID: 55737626400
Senior Editors
Mohd Zamrin Dimon, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
Scopus ID: 25958964000
Harbindar Jeet Singh Gurcharan Singh, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0805-0614
Renu Agarwal, International Medical University, Malaysia.
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3050-7449
Anis Safura Ramli, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
Scopus ID: 24367362200
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-9517-1413
Mohammad Hanafiah Kreah, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4791-497X
Damayanthi Durairajanayagam, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
Scopus ID: 55520166400
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-9049-0215
Igor Nikolayevich Iezhitsa, International Medical University, Malaysia.
Scopus ID: 6701491713
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2852-8486
Editors
Heo Chong Chin, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6171-1023
Zahir Izuan Azhar, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-7505-0438
Technical Editors
Norhafiza Razali, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
Scopus ID: 56490397200
Amirah Abdul Rahman, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
Scopus ID: 57189288606
Nasibah Azme, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-0044-2477
Yuhaniza Shafinie Kamsani, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
Scopus ID: 55860959300
Azdayanti Muslim, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1351-2526
Siti Norsyafika Kamarudin, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4636-5342
Dzikri Asmawi, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
Azhar Ahmad, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
Managing Editor
Nurul Alimah Abdul Nasir, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4285-7059
Editorial Members
Suneet Sood, Monash University, Malaysia
International Advisors
N Sreeharan, King’s College, London, United Kingdom
Jeffery K Tomberlin, Texas A&M University, United States of America
Alexander Spasov, Volgograd State Medical University, Russia
David Whitford, RCSI & UCD, Malaysia
JCHS is a free open-access peer reviewed journal that accepts manuscripts for publication in all areas of clinical and health sciences. This journal is published twice a year (March and September since 2021, June and December prior to 2021).
The journal does not impose any processing or publication fee for submitted manuscripts. Articles published in this journal are freely available online for downloading and sharing..
JCHS follows the editorial responsibilities as in World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) Policy Statement on The Responsibilities of Medical Editors.
The journal endorses the WAME Policy Statement on Geopolitical Intrusion on Editorial Decisions. JCHS also endorses the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.
JCHS follows the reviewer responsibilities as stated in ICMJE Recommendations for Responsibilities in the Submission and Peer-Review Process.
Reviewers also should ensure the rigorous standards of the scientific process are observed, and provide a thoughtful, fair, constructive, and informative critique in each submitted article reviewed.
JCHS follows the publisher responsibilities as stated in ICMJE Recommendations for Journal Owners and Editorial Freedom.
Submission of a manuscript to JCHS implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content and that the manuscript conforms to the journal’s policies.
During manuscript submission, authors are required to complete the online form, disclose any competing interests, and acknowledge all funding sources supporting the work. The corresponding author must ensure that all authors have disclosed any competing interests.
To give appropriate credit to each author, the individual contributions of authors should be specified in the manuscript.
An 'author' is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study according to the ICMJE guidelines.
In line with COPE guidelines, JCHS requires written confirmation from all authors that they agree with any proposed changes in authorship of submitted manuscripts or published articles. This confirmation must be via direct email from each author. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that all authors confirm that they agree with the proposed changes. It is not the Editor’s responsibility to resolve authorship disputes. A change in authorship of a published article can only be amended via publication of an Erratum.
The involvement of scientific (medical) writers or anyone else who assisted with the preparation of the manuscript content should be acknowledged, along with their source of funding, as described in the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) guidelines. The role of medical writers should be acknowledged explicitly in the ‘acknowledgements’ or ‘authors’ contributions’ section as appropriate.
Conflicts of interest / Competing interests
JCHS requires authors to declare all competing interests in relation to their work. All submitted manuscripts must include a ‘conflicts of interest / competing interests’ section at the end of the manuscript listing all conflicts of interest / competing interests (financial and non-financial). Where authors have conflicts of interest / no competing interests, the statement should read “The author(s) declare(s) that they have no conflicts of interest / competing interests”. Editors may ask for further information relating to conflicts of interest / competing interests.
Editors and reviewers are also required to declare any conflicts of interest / competing interests and will be excluded from the peer review process if a conflict of interest / competing interest exists.
What constitutes a competing interest?
Competing interests may be financial or non-financial. A competing interest exists when the authors’ interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by their personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Authors should disclose any financial competing interests but also any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment if they were to become public after the publication of the article.
Please see Commercial organizations for more information relating to competing interests on manuscripts from commercial organizations.
Financial competing interests include (but are not limited to):
Receiving reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of the article, either now or in the future.
Holding stocks or shares in an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of the article, either now or in the future.
Holding, or currently applying for, patents relating to the content of the manuscript.
Receiving reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that holds or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript.
Non-financial competing interests
Non-financial competing interests include (but are not limited to) political, personal, religious, ideological, academic, and intellectual competing interests. If, after reading these guidelines, you are unsure whether you have a competing interest, please contact the Editor.
Authors from pharmaceutical companies, or other commercial organizations that sponsor clinical trials, should declare these as competing interests on submission. They should also adhere to the Good Publication Practice guidelines for pharmaceutical companies, which are designed to ensure that publications are produced in a responsible and ethical manner. The guidelines also apply to any companies or individuals that work on industry-sponsored publications, such as freelance writers, contract research organizations and communications companies.
All research articles, and most other article types, published in JCHS undergo thorough double-blinded peer review. This involves review by at least two independent peer reviewers. The reviewing process normally takes 8-10 weeks.
All submissions to JCHS are assessed by its Editorial Board, who will decide whether they are suitable for peer review. Submissions felt to be suitable for consideration will be sent for peer review with appropriate independent experts. The Editorial Board will make a decision based on the reviewers’ reports and authors are sent these reports along with the editorial decision on their manuscript. JCHS operates a closed peer review process. Reviewers will be treated anonymously and the pre-publication history of each article will not be made available.
Authors should suggest potential reviewers, or the individuals they wish to exclude from the review process; however, it remains at the discretion of the Editorial Board whether to invite these reviewers. Authors should not suggest recent collaborators or colleagues who work in the same institution as themselves. Intentionally falsifying information, for example, suggesting reviewers with a false name or email address, will result in the manuscript being rejected and may lead to further investigation in line with our misconduct policy.
Editors will treat all manuscripts submitted to JCHS in confidence. Reviewers are also required to treat manuscripts confidentially. JCHS will not share manuscripts with third parties except in cases of suspected misconduct. See our Misconduct policy for further information.
All research must have been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. If there is suspicion that work has not taken place within an appropriate ethical framework, Editors will follow the Misconduct policy and may reject the manuscript, and/or contact the author(s)’ institution or ethics committee. On rare occasions, if the Editor has serious concerns about the ethics of a study, the manuscript may be rejected on ethical grounds, even if approval from an ethics committee has been obtained.
Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data
Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. A statement detailing this, including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate, must appear in all manuscripts reporting such research. If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption). Further information and documentation to support this should be made available to Editors on request. Manuscripts may be rejected if the Editor considers that the research has not been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. In rare cases, Editors may contact the ethics committee for further information.
For all research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants (or their parent or guardian in the case of children under 16) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript.
Consent for publication of individual patient data and clinical datasets
For all manuscripts that include clinical datasets, or details, images, or videos relating to individual participants, written informed consent for the publication of these must be obtained from the participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 16) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript. If the participant has died, then consent for publication must be sought from the next of kin of the participant. This documentation must be made available to Editors on request, and will be treated confidentially. In cases where images are entirely unidentifiable and there are no details on individuals reported within the manuscript, consent for publication of images may not be required.
Experimental research on vertebrates or any regulated invertebrates must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines, and should have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. The Basel Declaration outlines fundamental principles to adhere to when conducting research in animals and the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) has also published ethical guidelines.
The name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate must be included in the manuscript. If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption and the reasons for the exemption). The Editor will take account of animal welfare issues and reserves the right to reject a manuscript, especially if the research involves protocols that are inconsistent with commonly accepted norms of animal research.
Authors are strongly encouraged to conform to the Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines, developed by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), for reporting animal studies.
In line with ICMJE guidelines, JCHS requires registration of all clinical trials that are reported in manuscripts submitted to its journals. The trial registration number (TRN) and date of registration should be included as the last line of the manuscript abstract.
Registration of systematic reviews
JCHS supports the prospective registration of systematic reviews. Authors should register their systematic reviews in a suitable registry (such as PROSPERO). Authors who have registered their systematic review should include the registration number in the last line of the manuscript abstract.
JCHS advocates complete and transparent reporting of clinical and health sciences research. Please refer to the Minimum Standards Reporting Checklist when reporting your research. Authors should adhere to these guidelines when drafting their manuscript, and peer reviewers will be asked to refer to these checklists when evaluating such studies. Checklists are available for a number of study designs, including:
Randomized controlled trials (CONSORT) and protocols (SPIRIT)
Systematic reviews (PRISMA) and protocols (PRISMA-P)
Observational studies (STROBE)
Case reports (CARE)
Qualitative research (RATS and COREQ)
Diagnostic/prognostic studies (STARD and TRIPOD)
Economic evaluations (CHEERS)
Pre-clinical animal studies (ARRIVE)
Submission of a manuscript to JCHS implies that materials described in the manuscript, including all relevant raw data, will be freely available to any scientist wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without breaching participant confidentiality.
Any manuscript submitted to JCHS must be original and the manuscript, or substantial parts of it, must not be under consideration by any other journal. In any case where there is the potential for overlap or duplication we require that authors are transparent. Authors should declare any potentially overlapping publications on submission and, where possible, upload these as additional files with the manuscript. Any overlapping publications should be cited. Any ‘in press’ or unpublished manuscript cited, or relevant to Editors’ and reviewers' assessment of the manuscript, should be made available if requested by the Editors. JCHS reserves the right to judge potentially overlapping or redundant publications on a case-by-case basis.
In general, the manuscript should not already have been formally published in any journal or in any other citable form. If justified and made clear upon submission, there are exceptions to this rule.
Pre-print servers and author/institutional repositories
Posting a manuscript on a pre-print server such as ArXiv,BioRxiv,Peer J Preprints or similar platforms (both commercial and non-commercial) is not considered to be duplicate publication. JCHS will also consider peer reviewing manuscripts that have been posted on an author's personal or institutional website. Material that has formed part of an academic thesis and been placed in the public domain, as per the awarding institution's guidelines, will also be considered for publication by JCHS.
JCHS also encourages self-archiving by authors of manuscripts accepted for publication.
Authors should comply with the ICMJE guidelines and seek approval from the original publisher to check that they do not breach the copyright terms of the original publication and that they agree to the publication of the translation under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.
Authors of non-research articles (usually commissioned reviews and commentaries) can include figures and tables that have been previously published in other journals provided they confirm on submission that permission has been obtained from the original publisher (if applicable) and cite the original article. Documentary evidence to support this permission must be made available to the Editor on request.
In order to avoid the potential for self-plagiarism, inadvertently or otherwise, authors agreeing to write commissioned articles should notify the Editor of any recent publications or invitations to write on a similar topic.
Authors should be aware that replication of text from their own previous publications is text recycling (also referred to as self-plagiarism), and in some cases is considered unacceptable. Where overlap of text with authors’ own previous publications is necessary or unavoidable, duplication must always be reported transparently and be properly attributed and compliant with copyright requirements. Where there is the potential for text recycling, authors should notify the Editor of this on submission.
Research articles and non-research articles (e.g. Opinion, Review and Commentary articles) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Excessive and inappropriate self-citation or coordinated efforts among several authors to collectively self-cite is strongly discouraged.
Copyright of all articles published in Journal of Clinical and Health Sciences (JCHS) will be shared with JCHS and the author(s). JCHS maintains the right to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher. Authors may grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its integrity is maintained and its original authors, citation details and publisher (JCHS) are identified. The Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 formalizes these and other terms and conditions of publishing articles.
Based on Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publication, an Open Access Publication is one that meets the following two conditions:
The author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship, as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use.
A complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format is deposited immediately upon initial publication in at least one online repository that is supported by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving (for the biomedical sciences, PubMed Central is such a repository).
With Creative Commons licenses, the author retains copyright, and the public is allowed to reuse the content. The type of Creative Commons license used in JCHS is CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License) which allows users to copy, distribute and transmit an article as long as the author is attributed, the article is not used for commercial purposes, and the work is not modified or adapted in any way.
JCHS takes all allegations of potential misconduct seriously. In cases of suspected research or publication misconduct, it may be necessary for Editors to contact and share manuscripts with third parties, for example, author(s)’ institution(s) and ethics committee(s). JCHS may also seek advice and discuss anonymized cases.
All research involving humans (including human data and human material) and animals must have been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework (see our Ethics policy for further information). If there is suspicion that research has not taken place within an appropriate ethical framework, Editors may reject a manuscript and may inform third parties, for example, author(s)’ institution(s) and ethics committee(s).
In cases of proven research misconduct involving published articles, articles may be retracted. See our Retraction policy for further information.
Image manipulation
All digital images in manuscripts considered for publication will be scrutinized for any indication of manipulation that is inconsistent with JCHS guidelines. Manipulation that violates these guidelines may result in delays in manuscript processing or rejection, or retraction of a published article.
Any questions raised during or after the peer review process will be referred to the Editors, who will request the original data from the author(s) for comparison with the prepared figures. If the original data cannot be produced, the manuscript may be rejected or, in the case of a published article, retracted. Any case in which the manipulation affects the interpretation of the data will result in rejection or retraction. Cases of suspected misconduct will be reported to the author(s)’ institution(s).
The journal plagiarism guidelines are based on the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines for plagiarism, and aim to ensure that submitted manuscripts adhere to academic integrity standards and are free from plagiarism. All submitted manuscripts will be screened for plagiarism using plagiarism detection software ‘ouriginal”. If the manuscripts are found to be over 30% in similarity, the corresponding author will be notified and given an opportunity to respond. Authors will be required to revise their manuscript until its similarity score is lower than 30%.
In our communications to the reviewers when requesting for review, we also request them to alert the editorial board of any evidence of plagiarism. Plagiarized manuscripts will be rejected or retracted. The journal will report all instances of plagiarism to the relevant authorities. Adherence to these guidelines will maintain the highest standards of academic integrity and promote ethical research practices.
Rarely, it may be necessary for JCHS to publish corrections to, or retractions of, articles published in its journals, so as to maintain the integrity of the academic record.
In line with JCHS Permanency policy, corrections to, or retractions of, published articles will be made by publishing an Erratum or a Retraction article, without altering the original article in any way other than to add a prominent link to the Erratum/Retraction article. The original article remains in the public domain and the subsequent Erratum or Retraction will be widely indexed. In the exceptional event that material is considered to infringe certain rights or is defamatory we may have to remove that material from our site and archive sites.
It may be possible for minor corrections to published articles to be made by the original author(s) posting a comment on the published article. This would only be appropriate where the changes do not affect the results or conclusions of the article. See our Comments policy for further information on posting comments.
Changes to published articles that affect the interpretation and conclusion of the article, but do not fully invalidate the article, will, at the Editor(s)’ discretion, be corrected via publication of an Erratum that is linked to the original article. Changes in authorship of published articles are corrected via an Erratum. See Changes in authorship for further information.
On rare occasions, when the scientific information in an article is substantially undermined, it may be necessary for published articles to be retracted. JCHS will follow COPE guidelines in such cases. Retraction articles are linked to the original article.
Readers can comment on all articles published in JCHS.
JCHS reserves the right to decline to post a comment deemed inappropriate and the right to remove a comment at any time.
Comments will not be accepted if they appear to be indecent, offensive, or contain negative content of a personal, racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, or religious character. We will not post comments that appear to be libellous or otherwise legally problematic.
We cannot include figures, tables, or equations within a comment, although hyperlinks may be included. If your response is substantial then you may wish to consider submitting an article; in this case you should discuss this with the Editor.
JCHS asks that anyone posting a comment complete a competing interests’ declaration. A competing interest exists when your interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by your personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Those who post comments should disclose any financial competing interests but also any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment if they were to become public after the publication of the comments.
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