Journal of Innovation in Health Sciences Education: Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines

Manuscript Guidelines

The Journal of Innovation in Health Sciences Education (JIHSE)  accepts submissions on a rolling basis. All original research articles, analysis, commentary, issues articles, or editorials will be considered for publication. All work must be original, should be the product of the authors submitting the work, and should not have been published previously in any peer-reviewed journal. Original work can be submitted at any time using the online Article Submission Form.

Note that for the purposes of submission evaluation, prior sharing of a dissertation or capstone work through a university repository is not considered to be prior publication. Similarly work presented as a working paper or a conference presentation may also be submitted, provided they have not been published in their final form through conference proceedings publications.

Please read the Aims and Scope,  Journal Policies, and Manuscript Submission Guidelines carefully and completely before submitting your work. Submissions that do not meet the scope of the journal, or that do not follow the submission guidelines outlined here, may be rejected without review. Authors also may wish to refer to the Peer Reviewer Feedback Form, which will be used by reviewers to evaluate submissions.

Cover Letter

A separate cover letter is required with each submission and must be uploaded separately from the manuscript submission through the submission page.

The cover letter must contain the title of the article and state the purpose of the article. To facilitate double-blind peer-review, identifying information such as author names and biographical statements should be included only in the cover letter, not in the complete manuscript. The cover letter should also include a listing of each contributor’s roles, a statement of ethics review, and any necessary disclosure of competing or financial interest or grant funding. See below for details.

A single corresponding author should be identified in the cover letter for the purpose of post-publication correspondence with readers. However, our editorial team will communicate by email with all listed authors to ensure that they remain equally informed throughout the publication process.

CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy

JIHSE requires that standardized contributor roles (CRediT roles), as outlined by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), be described for each author and for non-author contributors. This helps to ensure appropriate listing of authorship and to give appropriate credit to contributors who do not meet the ICMJE criteria for listed authorship.

This description of contributor roles should be included in the cover letter and can be abbreviated, e.g., “Mary Smith: Conceptualization, Methodology, Project Administration, Formal Analysis, Writing – original draft.”

Note that listed authors will have fulfilled various roles, which should be outlined, and a contributor need not qualify for authorship to be acknowledged for their role(s).

Please see the NISO Contributor Roles Taxonomy for the full list and description of the various CRediT roles.

Ethics Review

For all original research, the cover letter should also include an explicit statement that the study has been reviewed by a named human subjects or ethics committee or institutional review board (IRB). Additionally, all subjects must have completed informed consent documentation to take part in the study. If an IRB has deemed that no ethics review was necessary, please state this in your letter.

Conflict of Interest Statement

A  complete statement describing any conflict of interest or financial interest held by any of the authors should be included in the cover letter. Please provide details of any such conflict here. A limited statement, absent identifying information, should also be included in the complete manuscript. If no conflict exists for any of the authors, please provide an explicit statement to that effect.

Grant Funding Statement

Any statement of grant support for research should be included in the cover letter to avoid the potential for disclosure of author identity. This information should NOT appear in the complete manuscript. Typical information would include the funding agency and grant award numbers but may also include project information or other specific identifying information.

Complete Manuscript Preparation

This section provides details on organization, typesetting, and layout requirements pertaining to complete manuscript submission to JIHSE. Please read these guidelines closely, as manuscripts that do not adhere to them may be rejected.

The complete manuscript submission will include the abstract, body of the manuscript, references, figures and tables, and any necessary appendices as a Microsoft Word document (.doc/.docx) or Rich Text File (.rtf).

Do NOT include a title page listing authorship or institutions. 

The full title of the article should be located at the top of the first page, followed by the abstract, body, references, and any included appendices, in that order. The manuscript should not include page numbers. The submission system will add these to the manuscript automatically.

Anonymity

To ensure double-blind review, there should be no information included in any portion of the complete manuscript that would identify the authors or their research institutions. Should such references appear in the manuscript, these should be recast with language such as "the authors....", "the institution...", etc.

Abstract

The abstract must be no more than 250 words for all original research articles, theory pieces, analysis, and educational practice articles. The abstract should be written in a narrative style describing the key concepts and findings of the article. For abstracts of original research articles, the IMRAD format (introduction, methods, results, and discussion) should be used. The abstract submission must be included both in the submission form and as a part of the body of the manuscript.

Keywords

Provide 3-5 keywords for indexing purposes and to aid in findability of the text for readers. Authors may choose their own keywords but are asked to give preference to common parlance in their field. The ERIC Thesaurus is an excellent source of standard keyword descriptors for the field of education.

Minimal Statement of Conflict or Financial Interest

Beneath the abstract should be included a minimal statement of existing conflict of interest (COI) or financial interest disclosure. To eliminate author-identifying information, a simple positive or negative assertion of such interest is sufficient here (either "The authors declare the existence of a financial/non-financial competing interest." OR "The authors declare no competing interests."). A complete statement of disclosure should be included in the cover letter.

Body of Manuscript

For all original research articles, the manuscript should follow the IMRAD format (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion).

This format may be deemed inappropriate for other article types such as analysis, commentary, issue papers, or editorials, and authors are encouraged to take advantage of a more open organization system where necessary. In all cases, the organization should be clear, concise, and facilitate the communication of the argument of the paper.

Article Length

All information should be presented in a succinct and professional manner. Unless the author has received prior editorial approval, all submitted manuscripts should meet the constraints for maximum length given in the table below.

Article Type	Max. Length
Original research papers, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses	8,000 words
Literature reviews	6,000 words
Analysis papers, practice guidelines, position papers, and case reports	4,000 words
Commentaries and letters	1,000 words

Margins

There should be one-inch margins on all four sides of the manuscript.

Spacing

The manuscript should be double spaced. All paragraphs should be left-justified, with no indentation of the first line. Headings should follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition, with all headings in bold and title case, and utilizing centering, italics, indentations, and ending periods to indicate successive sub-headings.

Font

All text should be presented in Times New Roman, 12-point font. Please note that the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition, does allow for three new fonts (including Arial); however, JIHSE requests that all submissions be completed in Times New Roman to maintain consistency and ease of layout during publication.

Spelling, Grammar, and Punctuation

Authors are responsible for ensuring their manuscript has undergone full copyediting to correct for errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Manuscripts that appear not to have undergone copyediting may be rejected without review. 

All questions regarding grammar and punctuation should be referred to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition.

Notable changes between the 6th and 7th editions of the APA manual are listed below:

All headings and sub-headings should be bold and title case.
All language used throughout the manuscript must be bias-free and respectful to all.
Use only one space after a period.
Capitalization should not be used for diseases, therapies/treatments, concepts, or models, but ensure all proper nouns that occur within the article are capitalized.
If three or more authors appear in a citation, upon first citation use “et al.” after the first author (or after the necessary number to distinguish the work in the reference list).
All DOIs should be referenced using the URL link format (i.e., https://doi.org/…). For references with no DOI, include the publisher URL, but do not include “Retrieved from”; simply list the direct link, including “https://...”. An access date may be included where the content is likely to change often.

Emphasized Text

Whenever possible use italics rather than underlining to indicate text that you wish to emphasize. The use of color to emphasize text is discouraged.

Color

Set the font color to black for the entirety of the text. We encourage authors to take advantage of the ability to use color in the production of figures, maps, images, etc. However, authors must appreciate that this may cause problems for readers when they print the document on a black & white printer. For this reason, you are advised to avoid the use of colors in situations where translation to black and white would render the material illegible or incomprehensible.

Reference Style

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition, should be followed for all quotations, citations, and references.

Figures, Tables, and Images

All figures and tables should be part of the complete manuscript and should be included after their first callout within the text. They should be numbered in the order in which they appear in the text.

Please ensure that each figure or table has been referred to at its appropriate location in the text. Figures and tables should not substitute for exposition of data or concepts within the text but should serve to clearly illustrate expositive statements. Authors should not include tables or figures that are not clearly explored within the text of the article.

Do not include figures or tables from third-party sources unless the express permission of the copyright holder has been obtained for reprinting. Material that includes an appropriate Creative Commons license is acceptable.