1. General rules for manuscripts

Manuscripts should be submitted in triplicate (1 original and 2 photocopies of the whole manuscript) to The Editor, Seychelles Medical & Dental Journal, Victoria Hospital, Seychelles. All manuscripts will be reviewed by the editorial board. Acceptance of manuscripts is based upon the significance, originality and validity of the material presented.

Submitted manuscripts can pertain to one of the following sections:

Editorials

Original articles

Short reports

Review articles

Medical quiz

Practical procedures

News and views

Book-shelf, literature review, drawings

Letters

Original articles should not exceed 3000 words (typically about 10 A4 pages, double spaced) and may include tables and illustrations necessary to clarify information. Short articles, case reports and reviews should not exceed 1000 words and should be accompanied by no more than three tables or illustrations, in general. Letters to the Editor should not exceed 500 words.

Manuscripts must be written either in English (abstract in French may be provided). All abbreviations should be first defined. No abbreviation should appear in titles and in tables and illustrations.

The manuscript should be typewritten, on one side of the paper only, with wide margins. Line spacing should be double-spaced throughout the text. The pages should be numbered consecutively with each component beginning on a new page in the following sequence: title page, abstract, text, acknowledgments, references, tables, illustrations.

We strongly encourage authors to prepare their manuscripts using a computer and provide the journal with a diskette containing the file corresponding to the manuscript. This diskette should be provided after the paper has been accepted for publication by the Journal. Any commercial word-processor can be used. In addition to greatly help authors themselves at the time they prepare their manuscript, it also much speeds publishing of the manuscript by the Journal. Authors who do not have a computer and/or who do not know how to use a computer may be provided with a computer and/or advise for word-processor utilization by the Journal (authors should contact one of the editors of the Journal for further information). Never computer-users should know that they will need only about one hour initial assistance to be able to use a modern word-processor by themselves.

When using a word-processor, authors should apply the simplest format and layout to their text and tables as the layout and format will be taken care of by the Journal at the time a revised manuscript is accepted. In particular, empty spaces, tabulations, and underlined words should be avoided as much as possible. The manuscript should be typed in capital and lowercase letters.

2. Organization of original manuscripts

Original articles must be arranged within following sections:

The title page should include the complete title, the surname(s), initial(s), and qualifications of the author(s), their place(s) of work, and the name and location of the institution where the research was carried out. The name, address, telephone, telex and telefax number of the author responsible for correspondence about the manuscript should be typed at the bottom of the title page.

The manuscripts must be preceded by an abstract (maximum 250 words), summarizing the main problem, methods, results and conclusion. Following the abstract, up to 5 key words are to be given for subject indexing. They should be taken from Index Medicus or composed on similar lines.

An introduction should state the purpose of the investigation and give a short review of pertinent related literature.

A section of methods should provide appropriate information about study design, patients or experimental animals, and statistical procedures used for analysis.

Results should be reported concisely and regarded as the important part of the manuscript. No interpretation or discussion of the findings should take place in this section.

The discussion section should include an interpretation of the results and their significance with reference to pertinent work by other authors. Recommendations may be included in this section provided that they are clearly supported by the findings of the authors.

Acknowledgment of supporting bodies or personal not formally related to the author(s) should be placed at the end of the text.

References must conform to the Vancouver style (see below).

Tables, graphs, and figures are optional (see below).

3. References

References should be listed and numbered on a separate sheet of paper in the order in which the references are first cited in the paper. In the text, references should appear as a number between brackets corresponding to the order in which the references are first cited. The reference format should conform to the Vancouver style, which is used in most medical journals. All authors should be listed. We provide two examples hereafter.

Journals. Include all authors’ names and initials separated by a comma (abbreviated names not followed by a period and the last name followed by a period), title of article (only first character is in capital), abbreviated journal name (abbreviated words with capital for first character, without period after abbreviation), year, volume (without month), first and last pages. For example:

Brown J, Hoareau P, Marie L. A case-control study of risk factors for breast cancer. Int J Epidemiol 1982;15(1):156-186.

Books. Authors’ names and initials, title, (editors), publisher, city of publication, year. For example:

Bracken M. Perinatal epidemiology. Oxford University Press, New York, 1984.

4. Tables, graphs and figures

Each table, graph, and figure should be printed on a separate page and should be numbered in order in which they are first mentioned in the text. This material should be supplementing but not duplicating the text. All tables and illustrations should be properly labeled and must include a legend which should be concise and self-explanatory (e.g. abbreviations should be avoided or be defined). For illustrations, legends must appear either on separate sheets or appear at some distance (>5 cm) from the illustration. Tables should include only horizontal lines and no vertical lines. Artwork and all lettering must be done professionally. As illustrations are published in black and white in the Journal, authors should only submit black and white illustrations, preferably only with outlines (i.e., without grey shadows). X-rays (negative prints) can be submitted provided they have been converted to positive prints by the authors. In case any such material does not originate from the primary data, the exact source of information must be provided.

5. Letter of submission

When a paper is submitted, it should be accompanied by a covering letter signed by all authors. This letter should state about any previous submissions and reports that might be regarded as a prior or duplicate publication of the same, or similar work. Copies of such material should be included with the submitted paper to help the editors decide how to deal with the matter. The letter should also state that "the copyright of the submitted manuscript will be entirely conveyed to the SMDJ in case the manuscript is published in the Journal".

6. Check list