Instruction for Authors

The Ethiopian Journal of Public Health and Nutrition (EJPHN) is a multi-disciplinary peer-reviewed publication of the Ethiopian Public Health Institute. Types of papers published by the Ethiopian Journal of Public Health and Nutrition

1. Research Articles: report the results of original public health research in up to 3500 words in the text, a structured abstract with up to five tables and/or figures, and no more than 35 references. The text must have an introduction and separate sections for Methods, Results, Discussion, and, Conclusion.

2. Brief Articles: present preliminary findings or novel findings in up to 1200 words in the main text, a structured (except if justified otherwise in the cover letter) abstract, up to 1 table or figure, and no more than 12 references.

3. Research Brief: Articles must have an introduction and separate sections for the Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. Some policy-focused Brief Articles which are short essays and do not report study results do not require the “method, results, discussion, public health implications” format subheadings.

4. Systematic Reviews and meta-analyses: including quantitative, meta-narrative, and qualitative reviews, have clearly formulated questions and use systematic and explicit methods to identify, select, and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect and analyze data from the studies that are included in the reviews. The recommended text word limit is up to 4000 words. Statistical methods (meta-analysis) may or may not be used to analyze and summarize the results of the included studies. EJPHN recommends using these headings-Title, Abstract, Methods, Results, Discussion, Funding-in an expanded research article format, with flexibility when needed for clear assessment and presentation. References, tables, and figures ought to be pertinent to the topic at hand.

5. Rapid Communication: up to 1000-3000 words including tables, figures and references). Papers representing concise and original studies of scientific importance are considered. In the cover letter the author should justify the request for Rapid Communication. The review process is 10 days, authors are allowed one revision if accepted, and the final version of the paper appears in the next available issue of the journal.

6. Letters to the Editor: are encouraged if they directly concern articles previously published in this journal or subjects related to the matters discussed. The Editor reserves the right to submit copies of such letters to the authors of the articles concerned prior to publication in order to permit them to respond in the same issue of the journal (max.500 words).

7. Case Report: up to 2500 words including tables, figures, and references. Case Reports include case studies of 4 or fewer patients that describe a novel situation or add important insights into mechanisms, diagnosis or treatment of diseases.

8. Editorials: are usually invited by the Editor (max. 1,000 words). Please send suggestions to the Editor. Manuscript rejection points A peer review system involving two or three reviewers is used to ensure high quality of manuscripts accepted for publication. The EJPHN have the right to decline formal review of the manuscript when it is deemed that the manuscript is:

  1. On a topic outside the scope of the Journal,

  2. Lacking technical merit,

  3. Plagiarized manuscript as evaluated based on international standards,

  4. Did not pass through appropriate ethical review procedures, or

  5. Fragmentary and provides marginally incremental results, or

  6. Is poorly written.

Manuscript preparation and submission Please note that original articles must contain the following components:

  1. Cover letter

  2. Title page

  3. Abstract (structured)

  4. Introduction

  5. Materials and Methods

  6. Results

  7. Discussion

  8. Acknowledgements

  9. Conflict of Interest

  10. References

  11. Tables

  12. Figures

In-Text Citations and references

All in-text citations must be in name/date form. Place the citation immediately after the textual information cited, placing name and date within parentheses without a comma.Ethiop. j. public health nutr. Example: Single author: (Wing 2002); (Wing and Wolf 2000). Book with author(s): Example: Luna LG (1968). Manual of Histopathologic Staining Methods of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. Example: Shalloway A & Trott J (2001). Design patterns explained: a new perspective on object- oriented design. London: Addison Wesley.

Chapter in an edited book Example: Gurevitch J & Hedges LV (1993). Meta- analysis: combining the results of independent experiments. In: The Design and Analysis ofEcological Experiments (Scheiner SM & Gurevitch Jeds). New York: Chapman & Hall, 378–398. Print Journal article: Examples: Livney YD (2010). Milk proteins as vehicles for bioactives. Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science, 15: 73–83.

Abdul-Hamid A & Luan YS (2000). Functional properties of dietary fiber prepared from defatted rice bran. Food Chemistry, 68: 15–19. Bangoura ML, Nsor-Atindana J, Zhu K, Tolno MB, Zhou H & Wei P (2013). Potential hypoglycaemic effects of insoluble fibers isolated from foxtail millets

[Setaria italica (L.) International Journal of Food Science & Technology, 48: 496–502.

Submissions: Original manuscripts in three hard copies and its electronic version must be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief by mail and should be accompanied by a covering letter signed by the author(s) provided that they have not been published previously and are not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Manuscript: Authors will be instructed to submit the electronic version of the manuscript during the process of review. Typescripts: Submissions should be typed on one side of an A4 paper, with double spacing and with a margin of 25 mm (1 inch). Tables and Figures: These should be presented on separate sheets and should be numbered with Arabic numerals consecutively in the order of their citation in the text. Only up to five tables and or figures are accepted in one manuscript. Abbreviations and symbols: Only standard abbreviations should be used. Abbreviations must be avoided in the title and abstract sections. Abbreviations must be preceded by their full description in the first use. Ethics: All studies on human subjects must have been conducted in accordance with national and international ethical standards. Patients' names, initials or hospital numbers must be removed when submitting a manuscript. Conflict of interest: Authors are responsible for declaring any conflict of interest related to the submitted research work. The source of funding for the research work should be acknowledged.

Authorship: Authorship credits should be based only on substantial contributions to the manuscript. Acknowledgments: These should be limited to most important contributions and must be placed on a separate page.

Galley Proofs: Galley proofs will be sent to the corresponding author and must be returned to the editorial office within 72 hours of receipt. At this stage, corrections must only be limited to essential and editorial mistakes. Rejected manuscripts: Manuscripts not accepted for publication will not be returned to authors. They will be destroyed according to the schedule of the Editorial office. Reprints: Thirty reprints of the paper are supplied free of charge to the corresponding author.

Copyright: It is a condition of publication that authors transfer copyright of their articles, the Ethiopian Public Health Institute, Addis Ababa. Authors may use their article elsewhere after publication provided that proper acknowledgment is given to the Journal as the original source of publication, and the Editor-in-Chief is notified.