Instructions for contributors

About the journal


Journal of Postgraduate Gynecology and Obstetrics (JPGO) is a monthly peer-reviewed journal published under the auspices of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai, India. The journal’s full text is available online at http://www.jpgo.org The journal is open access. It is indexed with Ulrich, Google Scholar, Caspur, Academic Keys, HINARI-WHO, Scientific Indexing Services, Research Bible, Citefactor, Advanced Science Index, and International Innovative Journal Impact Factor.


Scope of the journal


The journal covers case reports, innovative ideas, new techniques, new instrumental designs, new images, and innovations in medical education, especially those related to Gynecology and Obstetrics. Papers related to needs in India and neighboring countries are given preference.


The Editorial Process


All communications related to the publication process are online. Manuscripts are received electronically with the assurance that they are being submitted to JPGO alone and have not been submitted to any other journal or are not already accepted for publication anywhere else, or have not been published anywhere else. The first author will correspond with the Journal for all matters related to the manuscript. Authors are required to check the manuscripts for spelling and grammar before submission to the journal. All manuscripts received are duly acknowledged. The editors review all submitted manuscripts initially. Manuscripts considered unsuitable for the journal or unlikely to be of interest to the JPGO readers are rejected. Others are sent to two or more referees who are experts in that field for review. The selection of these referees is at the sole discretion of the editors. The referees and authors are unaware of each other’s identity. Articles not approved by the referees are rejected, and the reasons for rejection are communicated to the author. If an article is considered to be possibly suitable for the journal after clarifications and/or amendments by the authors, the comments and suggestions received from reviewers are conveyed to the first author, and a point by point response to referees’ comments is sought in a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated until reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript. After checking the manuscript for plagiarism and editing it for spelling, grammar, punctuation, print style, and format, it will be sent to the first author for corrections. The corrected manuscript should be returned to the journal within three days.


Authorship Criteria


Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to concept, design, intellectual content, literature search, clinical management and studies, data collection, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing and manuscript review. Participation only in the collection of data does not justify authorship. Participation of each contributor in the work should be sufficient to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content of the manuscript. Contributors should provide a description of contributions made by each of them towards the manuscript. The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor. This order cannot be changed after submission of the manuscript.


Conflicts of Interest


All authors must disclose all conflicts of interest they may have with publication of the manuscript or an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented or products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.


Submission of Manuscripts


All manuscripts must be submitted online by email to jpgyob@gmail.com. The manuscript should be submitted in the form of two separate Microsoft Word files (do not compress files or password protect them). All files should be scanned for viruses and any viruses found should be removed before sending the files. Manuscripts not in compliance with JPGO's  requirements will be returned to the corresponding author.
1.         Title Page: it should provide the following details. (Click here for a template of the title page)
a)       Title of the manuscript
b)       The type of manuscript
c)        Names of all authors/contributors (with their highest academic degrees, designation and affiliations) and name(s) of department(s) and/ or institution(s) to which the work should be credited.
d)       Word count
e)        Number of images
f)        Source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, and/or drugs.
g)        Acknowledgement: contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, technical help and financial and material support.
h)        If the manuscript was presented as part at a meeting, the organization, place, and exact date on which it was read.
i)         All submissions and previous reports that might be regarded as redundant publication of the same or very similar work. Any such work should be referred to specifically, and referenced in the new paper.
j)        Conflicts of interest of each author/contributor.
k)       Criteria for inclusion in the authors’/contributors’ list
l)         A statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, that the requirements for authorship as stated earlier in this document have been met, and that each author believes that the manuscript represents honest work, if that information is not provided in another form (a scanned image of a document with signatures of all authors)
m)      The name, address, e-mail, and telephone number of the corresponding author, who is responsible for communicating with the other authors about revisions and final approval of the proofs, if that information is not included on the manuscript itself.
n)        Permissions for reproducing any copyrighted material. A copy of the permission obtained must accompany the manuscript as a scanned image(s) of the document(s). The hard copies of the same should be sent to: Editor, JPGO, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Seth G. S. Medical College and K.E.M. Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, 400012, India.
o)        The contributors' /copyright transfer form (as per template provided below) as a scanned image of a document with signatures of all authors. The hard copies of the Contributors’ form / copyright transfer form should be sent to: Editor, JPGO, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Seth G. S. Medical College and K.E.M. Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, 400012, India.
2.         Blinded article file: without any mention of the authors' names or initials or the institution at which the study was done. It should contain the main text of the article, beginning from Abstract till References (including tables). Images should not be incorporated in the file. Their captions should be written at the places where the images should appear in the final print. The pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the first page of the blinded article file.
3.         Images: these should be sent as attachments (maximum two per article) as jpg or png files. In certain types of case reports where images form an important part of the article, more images may be accepted at the discretion of the Editor.


Preparation of Manuscripts


Formatting


Page should be A4 size, with 2.5 cm margin on all sides. Paragraphs should have justified alignment, with no extra spaces before or after, single spacing, and no special indent. The font should be size 12, Times New Roman. Page numbers should be placed in the footer of the document, aligned at the center.


Language and grammar


The language should be American English. Sentences should be grammatically complete. Full term for each abbreviation should be at its first use in the article and the abbreviation should be printed in parentheses immediately after that. These abbreviations can then be used in the remaining text. Abbreviations for standard units of measure may be used without this procedure. Numerals at the beginning of the sentence should be spelt out. Generic names should be used rather than brand names.


Types of articles

1.         Case report: New, interesting and rare cases can be reported. They should describe a great diagnostic and/or therapeutic challenge and provide a learning experience for the readers. The word count should be up to 800 words and should have the following headings: Abstract, Introduction, Case report, Discussion, and References, in that order. Historical information should be avoided. The discussion should be very brief, restricted to the points of interest, and without general information or review of the literature. Case Reports can be authored by up to four authors.
2.         Innovation: New and original ideas on diagnostic or therapeutic aspects, including clinical and laboratory tests, new design of instruments, medical and operative techniques can be reported. Any experimental work should have a permission from the Ethics Committee of the institute. The article should explain the principle and technique, but not statistical data as found in original articles based on studies. The word count should be up to 1000 words and should have the following headings: Abstract, Introduction, Innovation, Discussion, and References, in that order. The article can be authored by up to two authors.
3.         Medical education: Medical education at present involves a lot of technology which keeps changing constantly. New ideas in conventional as well as modern methods of medical education can be published under this heading. The article should explain the principle and technique. The word count should be up to 1000 words and should have the following headings: Abstract, Introduction, Technique, Discussion, and References, in that order. The article can be authored by up to two authors.
4.    Image: Images showing significant features of new, unique or rare clinical or imaging material can be reported. The manuscript should include a short history, legend for the image, analysis of the image, differential diagnosis, and discussion. The article can be authored by up to two authors. It can have up to six references. It should not be of more than 800 words excluding references.  
5.         Letter to the Editor: A letter should be brief and to the point. It should be related to articles previously published in the Journal, within the preceding two months. It should not include preliminary observations that need a later paper for validation. The word count should be up to 500 words and there can be up to five references. It can be authored by up to two authors.
6.         Book review: books on Gynecology and Obstetrics, and biomedical engineering will be reviewed in JPGO. The editors will invite experts in the field to review books received by the journal for review. The review should be precise, objective, nonjudgmental, and include both positive and negative features of the book. The word count should be up to 500 words.


References


References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text , and not in alphabetic order. They should be placed in text and/or tables as Arabic numerals in square bracket after the punctuation marks. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the Vancouver style or Pubmed style. If the journal is a non-indexed journal, its complete name should be written. Citing a "personal communication" should be avoided. Examples of commonly cited types of references are shown below.
1.         Journal articles: Diamond MP. Reduction of adhesions after uterine myomectomy by Seprafilm membrane (HAL-F): a blinded, prospective, randomized, multicenter clinical study. Fertil Steril 1996;66:904
2.         Personal author(s)' books: Parulekar SV. Practical Gynecology and Obstetrics. 5th ed. Mumbai: Vora Medical Publications; 2011.
3.         Chapter in a multiauthor book: Breech LL, Rock JA. Leiomyomata uteri and myomectomy. In Rock JA, Jones HW III, editors. Te Linde’s Operative Gynecology. 10th ed. New Delhi: Wolters Kluwer Health – Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2008; pp. 687-726.
4.         Journal article on the Internet: C M Tarney, C Berry-Caban, K Berryman, P Whitecar. Effects of Military Deployment on Pregnancy Outcomes. The Internet Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics. 2013 Volume 17 Number 3. Available from: http://ispub.com/IJGO/17/3/14509
5.         Website article: Inside Knowledge Campaign.Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/knowledge/
If there are many authors, the first six names should be included, followed by et al.


Illustrations


Images should be in jpg or png format. Animated image files will not be accepted. The image files should be named as Figure 1, Figure 2 etc. All images should have a date stamp. If labels or arrows are put within the images, they should be put with a transparent background, color contrasting with the images, and should not obscure the details of the images in any way. JPGO reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size. The captions of the images should be precise, explanatory and related only to the images, not other sections of the article.

Protection of Patients' Privacy


The patient’s identity should not be revealed in any part of the article, including the text, tables, and illustrations.



Informed Consent 


The authors must provide a statement that informed consent of the study subjects has been obtained in case of studies on live human beings. They should produce a copy of these documents if asked for. They should submit a copy of the permission of the institutional ethics committee for conducting the study.


Human and Animal Rights 


Articles with any violation of Human and Animal Rights are not published in the journal.

Submission of revised manuscript


Only the blinded article file should b resubmitted after making the necessary changes. It should be named as original_ver1.doc, original_ver2.doc etc, if the original file name was original.doc. The areas with changes should be highlighted yellow.


Charges


There are no charges for submission, processing, and publication of articles in the journal.


Copyrights


All the content of the JPGO is protected under Indian and international copyright laws. The Journal grants permission to all users a free access to its content for academic and non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. Reproduction of the content in any form, including posting on websites requires prior permission from JPGO. Please see Legal Notice of JPGO for details.


Contributors' Form


A template of this form is as follows. It should be modified as applicable. A hard copy signed by all contributors should be submitted to the journal’s office, and a scanned image of the copy (jpg or png format) should be sent with the article online.

Manuscript Title  _______________________________________________________

I/we certify that I/we have participated sufficiently in contributing to the concept, design, intellectual content, literature search, clinical management and studies, data collection, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing and manuscript review of the article. The manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors. I/we take public responsibility and all liability for it and have agreed to have my/our name(s) listed as a contributor(s). We guarantee that the entire content of this manuscript is of our creation and does not infringe the copyright of any other person(s) and/or bodies. I/we indemnify the editors of Journal of Postgraduate Gynecology and Obstetrics (JPGO), JPGO, and Seth G. S. Medical College and K. E. M. Hospital of all liability arising out of any legal action by anyone in connection with infringement of copyright or plagiarism. I/We hereby transfer, assign, and/or convey all copyright ownership, including all rights exclusively to Journal of Postgraduate Gynecology and Obstetrics (JPGO), in the event that this work is published by the Journal of Postgraduate Gynecology and Obstetrics. The Journal of Postgraduate Gynecology and Obstetrics (JPGO) will own the work, including the copyright, the right to grant permission to republish the article in whole or in part, with or without fee, the right to produce reprints and translate into languages other than English for sale or free distribution, and the right to republish the work in any format. We give the rights to the corresponding author (first author) to do all of the correspondence on our behalf, to make necessary changes as requested by the journal and act as the guarantor for the manuscript on our behalf. All persons who have made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript, but who are not contributors, are named in the Acknowledgment and have given me/us their written permission to be named. If I/we do not include an Acknowledgment that means I/we have not received substantial contributions from non-contributors and no contributor has been omitted. In case of any dispute on this issue, we will be solely liable for the commission/omission.



Name
Signature
Date