Author Guidelines (PDF)

Manuscripts should be 

Submitted only via the online submission system. You should register/log in and select your role as "Author" to start submission of your manuscript.

The authors are kindly asked to follow the Author Guidelines. If guidelines have not been followed, the paper may be returned with a request for changes. The editorial review process will not start unless the paper has been revised to meet the author guidelines. The JMLIS publishes original/research articles, review articles, letters to the editor, commentary, and case report. Other types of articles are also accepted.

The authors must confirm the instruction below.

Title page

 The title page should be supplied and submitted as a separate file. Please include the following:

• Full article title should not normally exceed 15
• A running title not more than 40 characters, including
• Each author's complete name, institutional affiliation(s), e-mail, and ORCID ID (if available).
• Corresponding author (name, address, phone/fax, e-mail, ORCID ID)
• The declaration including acknowledgements, conflicts of interest, ethical statement, funding and support, and authors' contributions.

Abstract

The structured abstract (maximum 250 words) is to contain the following major subheadings: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. The Introduction subheading reflects the introduction as well as the purpose of the study, that is, the hypothesis being tested. The Methods should include the setting for the study, the subjects (number and type), the treatment or intervention, and the type of statistical analysis. The Results include the outcome of the study and statistical significance if appropriate. The Conclusion states the significance of the results. Clinical trials should include the trial registration number on the last line of the abstract.

Manuscript

The manuscript should be written in English (American).

• The manuscript should be in Times New Roman12 considering the font style and size.
• The titles should be in Times New Roman, size 12 pt. and bold typeface.
• Indent the first word of each paragraph (0.5 inch).
• Insert a double-spaced blank line between all titles and paragraphs.
• Use single line spacing in the text (1.0). 

Tables

Tables should be

• Integrated into the submitted manuscript at the proper place.
• Captioned above the table in Times New Roman11 , with half-single line spacing (0.5).
• Used font size 11 for table captions, legends and entries according to the caption.
• Submitted as Word/RTF Table. Do not copy tables from other software (SPSS, Excel, ...).
• Numbered consecutively.
• Cited in the text as (Table 1).

Figures, Photos, Illustrations

 Figures, photos, illustrations and so forth should be 

• In (JPEG) format of reproducible quality that have a   minimum resolution of 300 dpi.
• Integrated into the submitted manuscript at the proper
• Numbered consecutively.
• Presented with metric
• Captioned below the figures in Times New Roman11 , with half-single line spacing (0.5).
• Cited in the text as (Figure 1).

Guidelines for Article Types:

Original/Research Article

Original/Research articles employ any type of quantitative or qualitative method of analysis. Examples include surveys, content analyses, qualitative case studies, bibliometric, and scientometric analyses. The word count in an original article must be between 3500 -5500 words, including abstract and references. Up to 8 figures and/or tables are included in the main text; additional figures and/or tables can be included as supplemental appendices. The abstract is a short structure resume (not exceeding 250 words) of the paper, including Introduction, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. Up to eight essential words, Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) keywords are recommended. The original/research article should be presented in the Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion sections.

Review Articles

Review articles include categories of a systematic review, meta-analysis, meta-synthesis, narrative review, and scoping review. This type of article summarizes the current state of understanding on a topic. Review articles have a short, structured abstract (not exceeding 250 words), including Introduction, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. The word count in reviews must be up to 5,000 words, including abstract and references. Up to eight figures and/or tables are included in the main body of the manuscript; additional figures and/or tables can be included as supplemental appendixes. The review articles should be presented in the Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion sections.

A systematic review uses a well-planned rigorous methodology to answer specific research questions. It uses a systematic and explicit methodology to prevent shortcuts and bias in conducting a review. Meta-analysis is a statistical method to integrate the results of the selected studies included in a systematic literature review. The authors must briefly describe the characteristics of the literature searched and included in the review, following the PRISMA reporting guidelines. In addition, a completed PRISMA checklist (http://prisma- statement.org/prismastatement/Checklist.aspx) should be submitted for the items completed that apply to systematic reviews (the checklist items that apply to meta-analyses do not need to be completed for systematic reviews without meta-analysis). The checklist will be used during the review but will not be published. A PRISMA-style flow (http://prisma- statement.org/documents/PRISMA%202009%20flow%20diagram.pdf) diagram should also be included as an online-only supplement. The title should identify the report as a systematic review, meta-analysis, or both.

Narrative reviews are most useful for obtaining a broad perspective on a topic. The authors of narrative overviews are often acknowledged experts in the field and have conducted research. Narrative reviews do not require a rigorous literature search but should rely on evidence and should be written by established experts in the field. The titles for these narrative reviews should include a concise description of the main topic. The word "narrative" is not included in the subtitle. Narrative reviews should be presented in the Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion sections.

Commentary

Commentaries represent viewpoints on topics of interest to health sciences libraries and health information experts. A commentary may draw attention to current advances and speculate on future directions of a certain topic and may include original data as well as state a personal opinion. The author of a commentary probably has in-depth knowledge of the topic and is eager to present a new and/or unique viewpoint on existing problems, fundamental concepts, or prevalent notions, or wants to discuss the implications of a newly implemented innovation. Commentaries have an unstructured abstract of up to 200. The main body of the manuscript should comprise no more than 2,000 words and six references. Up to two figures and/or tables are included in the main text; additional figures and/or tables can be included as supplemental appendixes.

Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor contains constructive criticism on recent JMLIS's articles. Letters should use a respectful tone. Letters are sent to the authors of the original article to request a response. A letter should convey its message shortly and definitively. Letters should include no more than 500 words and contain up to 6 references.

Case Report

Case Reports are peer-reviewed articles describing the development, implementation, and appraisal of a new service, program, or initiative. They are different from case studies (published as original articles); they do not employ restrict qualitative case study methodology. The word count in a Case report must be up to 3,000 words, including abstract and references. Up to four figures and/or tables are included in the main body of the manuscript; additional figures and/or tables can be included as supplemental appendixes. Case reports should be presented in the Introduction, Case Presentation, and Discussion sections.

Declarations

The declaration including acknowledgements, conflicts of interest, ethical statement, Funding and support, and authors' contributions should be mentioned in title page and should be in Times New Roman, size 12 pt. and bold typeface and font size 10 for the subtitles.  

Acknowledgements

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, or a department chair that provided only general support. Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text (in the title page) to facilitate anonymous peer review.

 In case the article is previously approved by an organization, the approval number and the funding organization have to be mentioned in the acknowledgement. In case the article is a part of an educational proposal, the educational rank, the name of the university, the faculty, and the related department have to be mentioned. In case the authors have received no specific funding for their work, they should state it.

Any change in authorship (i.e. order, addition, and deletion of authors) after initial submission must be approved by all authors via written confirmation, in line with COPE guidelines. It is the corresponding author's responsibility to ensure that all authors confirm they agree with the proposed changes. If there is disagreement amongst the authors concerning authorship and a satisfactory agreement cannot be reached, the authors must contact their institution(s) for a resolution. It is not the journal editor's responsibility to resolve authorship disputes. A change in authorship after publication of an article can only be amended via publication of an Erratum.

Conflict of Interest

Conflicts of Interest may include any commercial associations or sources of support that might influence the manuscript. JMLIS requires a declaration of any Conflict of Interest to be included in the manuscript upon submission.

Ethical Statement

• The authors should follow all the ethical requirements in the articles.
• An ethical statement should be included in the title page or at the end of article just before references indicating followings:
• Upon submission, by checking off predesigned statements, author(s) should certify that neither the submitted manuscript nor another one with substantially similar content under their authorship has been published in any language or being considered for publication elsewhere.
• Author(s) should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to published article
• Author(s) should guarantee that data are available and will be provided if anyone needs them.
• In the event that an author is added or removed from the list of authors, written acceptance, signed by author(s), must be submitted to the editorial office.
• If the study involves human subjects, the author(s) must include a statement that the study was approved by the local ethical committee and that written informed consent was obtained from the study participants. For those who do not have formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975, as revised in 2000, should be followed. Also, the compliance of maintenance and care of experimental animals with National Institutes of Health guidelines for the human use of laboratory animals should be declared in text.
• All relevant permissions to use unpublished observations of others must be obtained by the manuscript author(s) and stated in the text. The names of the original author(s) should be declared. Also, permission must be obtained to reproduce or adapt any figures or tables that have been published previously and declared in the legend/footnote.
• Author(s) should certify that their research study is in agreement with the regulations of their institution(s) and generally accepted guidelines governing such work; contains no violation of any existing copyright or other third party right; and is free of any obscene, indecent, libelous, or otherwise unlawful material. (Ethical code is required)

Funding and Support

All funding sources supporting the work must be declared in the declaration section at the end of the manuscript. If no funding is provided, the authors should indicate: "No funding has received for this work."

Authors' Contribution

The statement of Authors' contributions of all authors must be described.

Data Availability

Author(s) should guarantee that data of the study are available and will be provided if anyone needs them.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Manuscript Preparation

Authors are permitted to use AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT) to assist with writing or editing their manuscripts, provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Transparency:

The type of AI tool used and the purpose of its use must be clearly stated in the Acknowledgments section.

2. Accountability:

Authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, citations, and ethical integrity of the content. AI tools cannot be listed as co-authors.

3. Prohibited Misconduct:

Fabrication of data, misleading use of AI, or generation of false content constitutes research misconduct.

4. Originality and Intellectual Property:

 Content generated with AI must not infringe on copyright or constitute plagiarism.

  Referencing Style

• References are a valuable part of papers. All references must be cited in the paper and adhere to the Vancouver style.
• References are listed in numerical order, and in the same order in which they are cited in the The reference list appears at the end of the paper.
• The reference list should include all and only those references you have cited in the text. (However, do not include unpublished items such as correspondence).
• In the text, number the references consecutively in the order in which they first appear, using Arabic numerals in curved brackets, for example, (3), (2-4).
• Abbreviate journal titles in the style used in the NLM Catalog (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals).
• You are indicating that you have read a source when you cite it. So, check the reference details against the actual
• The authors are responsible for the accuracy of the bibliographic
• Be consistent with your referencing style across the
• Referencing should be done with reference manager software such as Endnote, Mendeley,
• If your article has DOI, it should be mentioned at the end of

Example of a Reference Llist:

 Printed journal article with 1 to 6 authors:

• • Wang X, Liu C, Mao WE, Fang The open access advantage considering citation, article usage and social media attention. J Informetr. 2015;103(2):555- 64.
• Printed journal article with more than 6 authors:
  • Winnik S, Raptis DA, Walker JH, Hasun M, Speer T, Clavien P, et al. From abstract to impact in cardiovascular research : factors predicting publication and Eur Heart J. 2012; 33(1):3034-45.
• E- journal article:
  • Adams J. The use of bibliometrics to measure research quality in UK higher education institutions. Arch Immunol Ther Exp [Internet]. 2009 [cited 2013 Feb 19]; 57(1):19-32. Available from: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00005-009- 0003-3
  • Camiller M, Parkman HP, Shafi Clinical guideline: management of gastroparesis.Am J Gastroenterol. Am J Gastroenterol. 2013 January;108(1):18- 38. doi: 10.1038/ajg.2012.373
• Article in other languages
  • Gholami A, Barati M, Vahdani M, Vahdani H, Karimi M. Pattern of empirical antibiotic administration in emergency department of an educational hospital in Razi J of Med Sci. 2011; 18(82):17-23. [In Persian].
• Web page:
• The top 10 causes of death [Internet]. World Health Organization. [cited 2019 Mar 6]. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the- top-10-causes-of-death
• Book:
  • Carlson BM. Human embryology and developmental biology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby;
• eBooks Publically Available on the Internet:
  • Foley KM, Gelband H, eds. Improving palliative care for cancer [book on the Internet]. Washington: National Academy Press; 2001 [cited 2013 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309074029/html/.
• Book chapter:
  • Kone BC. Metabolic basis of solute transport. In: Brenner BM, Rector FC, eds. Brenner and Rector's the kidney. 8^th Philadelphia: Saunders Elsevier; 2008. p. 130-55.
• Chapter by a Contributing Author in a Publically Available eBook
  • Shrader-Frechette K. Ethical issues in environmental and occupational health. In: Jennings B, Kahn J, Mastroianni A, Parker LS, editors. Ethics and public health: model curriculum [book on the Internet]. Washington: Association of Schools of Public Health; 2003 [cited 2006 Nov 20]. 159-92. Available from: http://www.asph.org/UserFiles/EthicsCurriculum.pdf
• Paper from Print Conference Proceedings:
  • Grassby AJ. Health care in the multi-cultural society. In: Walpole R, editor. Rural Proceedings of the Rural Health Conference of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners; 1978; Melbourne. Melbourne: The Royal Australian College of Practitioners; 1979. p. 49-50.
• Paper from Publically Available Online Conference Proceedings:
  • Paris L, Koenig SP. What does it mean to be a complement? In: Muller S, ed. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar; 2003 Jul 18-20; East Lansing (MI) [conference proceedings on the Internet]. Stanford (CA): CSLI Publications; 2003. [cited 2013 Jun 26]. 298-313. Available          from:      URL: http://csli- publications.stanford.edu/HPSG/4/paris-koenig.pdf
• Thesis:
  • Kay JG. Intracellular cytokine trafficking and phagocytosis in macrophages. [Thesis]. St Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland; 2007
• Thesis retrieved from full-text database or internet:
  • Pahl Preventing anxiety and promoting social and emotional strength in early childhood: an investigation of risk factors [dissertation on the Internet]. St Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland; 2009 [cited 2017 Nov 22]. Available from: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:178027

Publication Fee:

For providing researchers with Open Access and freely available contents publishing an article in JMLIS no fees or article processing charges is received from the author(s) for article submission, review, or publication in this journal.

Delay for Submitting the Revisions by Author

Please note that the manuscript will be archived if the authors do not submit a revised version within 3 months of receiving the request for revision.

Additionally, if a revised version is submitted after the end of the three-month period and acceptable reasons are provided for the delay, re-activation of the submission will depend on the decision of the editorial board.