Submissions

Author Guidelines

Instructions to Authors
Benue Journal of Medicine (BJM) will publish quarterly (One volume with Four issues) each year in all fields of Medical, Allied and Molecular sciences such as Human Anatomy, Biochemistry, Physiology, Haematology and Blood Transfusion, Chemical Pathology, Immunology, Anatomic Pathology, Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Community Medicine, Preventive medicine, Psychiatry and Mental Health, Ophthalmology, Otorhynolaryngology, Anaesthesia, Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Urology, General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Nursing Sciences, Medical Laboratory Sciences, Pharmacy and Pharmacology, Radiodiagnosis and Imaging Sciences, Toxicology, Molecular studies and Genetics, Telemedicine, Geriatrics, Clinical trials among others. We intend to give a speedy editorial review process to all articles submitted to BJM and communicate them back to the author(s) as soon as possible.
Articles submitted to BJM will first be screened by the editor to ensure they meet the general criteria and scientific significance of the journal. Thereafter successful articles will be sent to at least three experts in that field for a comprehensive double-blind peer-review process and a decision of two out of three of the reviewers is upheld by the editor. Where the editor is still having a challenge arriving at a concrete decision on an article, opinions of experts within specific sub-specialties who have exceptional micro-skills or have unique expertise relevant to sections of the article will be consulted to aid in taking the final decision on such an article.
All articles submitted to BJM should be in the English language clearly written and should not be more than 5000 words including references. It is however the policy of Benue Journal of Medicine not to reject articles purely on their novelty, linguistic or grammatical disposition but more on the core scientific content and relevance of inferences advanced by the authors to readers. Articles should be well supported by comprehensive tables, figures, and pictures as well as other relevant materials so as not to leave readers in no doubt about the information author(s) want(s) to pass across.
BJM will receive articles only by the online process through our online manuscript submission and manuscript management system or by email attachment to bjm.editors@gmail.com or bnejmed@gmail.com. Notice of acknowledgment will be sent to the author(s) on receipt of every manuscript within 24 hours from the Editor-In-Chief.

Cover Letter
All manuscripts submitted to BJM should be accompanied by a cover letter of not more than 500 words stating the significance of the study, the specific roles performed by the co-author(s), and clearly stating that all the Co-authors have read the final draft and are in agreement with all the contents. The cover letter which should be duly signed by the corresponding author should be accompanied by email addresses of all co-authors and any other relevant material related to the manuscript.

Guidelines For Manuscript Preparation
A full original article submitted to BJM should contain the following key sections outlined below. This may not strictly apply to other submissions such as case reports, methodologies, short communications among others. Authors are however advised to adhere strictly to the journal policy guidelines on the preparation of all manuscripts.
Title: The title of the manuscript should be a brief phrase that captures the whole essence of the study and should not be more than 25 words; it should be concise and there should be no abbreviations or short words.
Author(s) Information: The Surname followed by initials of all authors is required, the initials should not be more than three for each author. Each author should have a clear institutional address location, E-mail address, and Telephone number. The Corresponding author should state clearly his/her institutional address, E-mail address, Fax, and Telephone number, and should indicate clearly as the Corresponding author.

Abstract: Abstract should be comprehensive, clearly written to describe the entire study and its findings. It should be written in form of a documentary in past tense and unstructured; and should contain important key highlights of the study including Background, Aim of the study, Materials, and Methods, Method of Data analysis, Key findings, Conclusion, and Recommendations. The abstract should blend smoothly from the beginning to the end summarise the entire article in not more than 300 words.
Key Words: There should be Three to Six Key Words at the end of the abstract. These should be arranged in alphabetical order and should consist of the words in the article around which the research centers. Keywords should be in such a way that they could be used to bring out the article from a pool of others.

Main Text: The text of the manuscript should consist of the following sections. This may however not apply to all articles.
Introduction: This gives a brief overview and background to the study the author wants to carry out. The introduction should bring out the general contemporary information on the topic and where relevant historical trajectory on the topic. It should state clearly the challenges or findings from other well-researched and published works on the topic, and in the most captivating way, the author(s) should state clearly what they intend to do and how to go about it. This section should be presented in such a way as to raise the interest of readers after reading it to continue reading the article to the end however without exaggeration.
Materials and Methods: Author(s) should describe in detail the procedure used in carrying out the research, the materials, and equipment used, sampling method(s), sample size, methods of data collection, methods of analysis of data, degrees of significance, inclusion and exclusion criteria. Authors are to note that it only new procedures that need to be written in detail as studies based on already established procedures should only cite those procedures from credible research sources. If there are modifications of such established procedures, then the modifications in the new study by the author(s) should be spelled out clearly. Manufacturers’ names and addresses should be well spelled out while all trade names should be capitalized.
Results: The main findings of the research should be crystalized and presented in a manner that could easily be understood in line with the aims and objectives of the study. This section should describe all the tables, figures, pictures, and all other materials that are products of the study in chronological form and in the order they are presented in the article and properly-referenced. All the tables, figures, and other materials as captured in the results should then follow after the results narrative.
Discussion: The main findings of the research should be brought out here, and sufficient and comprehensive explanations provided as to such outcomes. Discussion should also compare findings of the present study with that of similar studies elsewhere and proffer convincing explanations for both similarities and differences observed taking into cognizance the methodologies, sampling and other demographic indices. Author(s) should bring out limitations to the study and the degree to which they adversely affected the outcome of the research findings.
Conclusion: The overall main study findings of the present study results as analysed against other similar studies are summarily brought out here.
Recommendation: Recommendations should therefore be made from the conclusions drawn from the entire study.

Disclosure of Conflict of Interest: Author(s) should declare if they have any conflict of interest concerning the research in any form such as economic, social, or religious of any type.

Acknowledgment: Author(s) should acknowledge all including institutions and individuals that played a significant role in the successful completion of the study and this should be brief.

Figures: Figures should be submitted in Microsoft word format in the body of the text and should not be presented in a separate file. Each figure or table should appear on a fresh page alone and be sufficiently titled. They should be cited in the manuscript in a consecutive manner they are listed. The journal will also receive figures in vector art formats such as Illustrator, EPS, WMF, FreeHand, CorelDraw, PowerPoint, Excel, and also in bitmap formats such as Photoshop, TIFF, GIF, JPEG.

Tables: Tables should be neatly prepared and comprehensive enough using SI units where applicable, should be listed consecutively as they appear in the text. Each table should be on a separate page.

Supplementary materials: BJM welcomes supplementary materials such as datasets, audio files, and video clips that authors feel might interest readers and make the article more comprehensive and interesting.

References
BJM will only accept references from published or accepted works of highly credible sources. References from first or second quartile journals are preferable. Articles submitted for publication, abstracts, conference proceedings, conference talks, Seminars that have not yet been published should not be cited.
The journal referencing style is Vancouver and the numbers should appear consecutively as superscripts in the write-up. DOIs and website links should be included where available. Where more than six authors are involved, only the first six should be listed and then followed by et al. Please check: https://guides.lib.monash.edu/citing-referencing/vancouverhttps://guides.lib.monash.edu/citing-referencing/vancouver.

Examples:
i. An Original article
Shambe I, Shehu N. Novel Corona Virus Disease: A Narrative Review of the Guidelines and Protocol for Obstetric Care in the Context of a Pandemic. Western J of Medical and Biomedical Sci 2020;1(2), 121–124. https://wjmbs.com.ng/index.php/wjmbs/article/view/19.
ii. A Book
Darwin C. On the Origin of Species by means of natural selection or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life [book on the Internet]. London: John Murray; 1859. Chapter 5, Laws of Variation [cited 2013 Apr 22]; about 10 screens. Available from: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/origin/chapter5.html.
iii. Chapter In An Edited Book
MacDougall C, Chambers HF. Aminoglycosides. In: Brunton LL, Chabner BA, Knollman BJ, eds. Goodman & Gilman’s the pharmacological basis of therapeutics. 12th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2011. p. 1505-20.
iv. Chapter by the Book Author
Ansel HC. Pharmaceutical measurement. 13th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2010. Chapter 3: Pharmaceutical measurement; p.35-47.
v. A Website
Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. COVID-19 dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. 2020 (https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html. opens in new tab)

Ethics on Research
Author(s) are to adhere strictly to the WMA Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects. https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/.
For studies involving animals, national and international laws and treaties governing animal safety should be strictly adhered to. https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalwelfare/sa_awa/ct_awa_program_information; https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1993/2103/made; Nigeria, Anti-cruelty, protection and welfare: https://www.globalanimallaw.org/database/national/nigeria/.
Ethical approvals should be obtained from accredited ethics Review Committees/boards before studies on humans and animals are carried out and evidence of approval made available to the journal. The issue of consent, confidentiality, and data management and storage will be handled in strict compliance with standard practices.

Ethics on Publication
BJM expects authors to adhere to strict ethical standards required in carrying out scientific research and reporting research findings. For details refer to the benchmark composed by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Authors are advised to go through the COPE document and be conversant with aspects such as Allegations of misconduct, Authorship and contributorship, Complaints and appeals, Conflicts of interest, Data and reproducibility, Ethical oversight, and Intellectual property. Please check https://publicationethics.org/.

Editorial Policy
Benue Journal of Medicine has a policy on publications that strives to adhere to international best practices. In doing so we adhere to the standards prescribed by the following documents. World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) http://www.wame.org/; International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM) https://www.stm-assoc.org/; International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) http://www.icmje.org/; and Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) https://publicationethics.org/. Articles submitted to the BJM with whole or partial violation of these prescriptions may be rejected.

Plagiarism
BJM will subject all articles submitted to integrity check using high precision anti-plagiarism checkers to ensure that there is no plagiarism. Different types of plagiarism include:
i. Complete plagiarism is when a researcher replaces a complete work done by another person with his name. It is also called intellectual theft.
ii. Source-based plagiarism is when a researcher cites an incorrect source, or cites a source that does not exist, or uses information from a secondary source to cite a primary source. Data fabrication involves making up data or findings and falsification is altering or omitting data.
iii. Direct Plagiarism is copying verbatim a text belonging to another person without the use of quotation marks or attribution.
iv. Self-plagiarism is when an author uses substantial copies of his already published work, also called self-duplication.
v. Paraphrasing plagiarism involves making minor changes in someone’s work turning it into ours still preserving the meaning.
vi. Inaccurate Authorship is either when an individual contributes to work without getting any credit for it, or another who gets credit without contributing to the work.
vii. Mosaic plagiarism is when it interlays someone else’s phrases or text within its own research
viii. Accidental plagiarism is plagiarism that occurs out of neglect, mistake, or unintentional paraphrasing.

Copyright and License
The journal will always strive to ensure the accuracy of every data published at the time of going to the press; however published articles are the views of the respective authors and not that of the Editorial board or publisher. Neither the authors, editors nor publisher shall be held liable for any omission or error in any published article of the journal. Authors still retain the copyright of their articles published in Benue Journal of Medicine in line with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License. This gives free and unhindered access to the work by the public provided it is properly cited, and the authors also have the right to publish a part or whole work into a book. Please Check https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

Publication Fee
The publication fee is paid only after the manuscript is accepted for publication in the Benue Journal of Clinical Medicine and Biomedical Research as the journal does not request handling charges.

Authors will be required to pay a publication fee of N30,000.00 (Thirty Thousand Nigerian Naira) or USD 120,00 (One Hundred and twenty US Dollars) or 120.00 euros (One Hundred and twenty euros), or 120.00 GBP (One Hundred and twenty Great Britain Pounds).

Journal Account Details

Account Name: Nigeria Medical Association
Account Number: 1012088158
Bank Name: United Bank for Africa, plc

After the payment, kindly send scanned evidence of payment to bjm.editors@gmail.com

Acceptance
Upon acceptance of an article, a galley proof is produced and sent to authors for final corrections and vetting and then an Acceptance letter is issued to the Corresponding author. Accepted articles will normally be published within 28 days after acceptance.

Units of Measurements
Authors while preparing their manuscripts for submission to the BJM should use International Standard Units (SI) of measurements and such should be written in full before any form of abbreviation. Other units used other than SI should be properly explained.

Reprints
BJM shall produce reprints on request from authors. All reprints shall attract USD20.00 per article.

Rapid Review
BJM will strive to respond to requests of authors concerning rapid review. Based on the degree of the scientific, social, or economic importance of such requests as determined by the editorial board, the journal will accelerate the review process to completion within 48 to 72 hours and issue out acceptance letters.