Submissions

Author Guidelines

I. ABOUT THE JOURNAL

• ISSN - 2958-9584

The Pan African Journal of Emergency medicine and Critical care (PAJEC) is the official Journal of the Ethiopian Society of Emergency and Critical Care professional (ESEP) devoted to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge pertaining to the broad field of Emergency medicine and critical care in Ethiopia, Africa and other developing countries. Corresponding authors who are submitting to the Journal should take note of the instructions of Manuscript preparation and submission to PAJEC as outlined below.

II. Article types acceptable by PAJECC

1. 1. Original Articles
   2. Brief Communications
   3. Case Series
   4. Case Reports
   5. Editorials, Review or Teaching Articles: by invitation of the Editorial Board.
   6. Book reviews
   7. Perspectives
   8. Letter to the Editor
   9. Commentaries
   10. Advertisements
   11. Community and stakeholders   

III. Preparation of manuscript

General Formatting

1. Manuscripts must be prepared in English, the official language of the Journal.
2. Font size should be 12pt Times New Roman
3. Double Space between lines
4. The absolute word limit, excluding abstract, is 5,000 words for Original Article and perspectives, 3,000 for case reports, 2, 000 for brief communication and commentary, 750 for letters to the editor excluding the title page, abstract, tables and illustrations.
5. The main manuscript should include continuous line and page number
6. The full document should contain the following in the following order:Title page; Abstract and key words; Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion,Conclusion,  Acknowledgements, Conflict of interest and Funding, Authors contribution, Abbreviations ,References, Tables and figures
7. The submission should not be previously published or not submitted to other journals.

IV. Title page(different from the manuscript)

1. 1. Title of article
   2. List all authors names, Department, institutional affiliations and ORCID ID if available
   3. Corresponding author
   4. Word count for abstract and manuscript

VI. Manuscript

The manuscript for original article should contain the following parts.

        A.Title without author list

       B. Abstract

The abstract should be concise (maximum of 500 words). This should stand-alone and should not be part of the manuscript.

1. Background: What concerns prompted this research? What is the context in which this work is interesting or significant? The study's goal or objective should be mentioned
2. Methods: how the study was done (setting, sources of data, collection, analysis etc.)
3. Results: What were the main findings of the study?
4. Conclusions: What is the main result of the study in summary?
5. Key words: words or phrases that you believe best capture the key points of your paper:3–5

1. Introduction

 Identify a gap, pose a research topic, or show a challenge to past research in this area.

 State the goal and introduce the current study, emphasizing what is new and why it is important.

Don't give unneeded background information or exaggerate the relevance of job.

Describe the main objective of the study.

2. Methods/Materials

Describe how the results were obtained in sufficient detail for an independent researcher (in the same field) to be able to replicate the findings and validate the conclusions.

The authors must provide detailed information about the study's setting, period, type of research, design, participants sampling, inclusion and exclusion criteria, data collection, measurements, data analysis and statistical approaches and tools.

Ethical Statement should be included and described clearly

3. Results

Present the results of the paper, in logical order with text, tables and figures Cross-check if objectives of the study are all addressed

Consider use of tables, graphs and illustrations as necessary not more than six

Tables/Figures should be presented after reference with appropriate link.

4. Discussion

Select key results to examine and clarify in order to shed light on the significance of the conclusion. What does this signify in relation to different evidences?

 Make sure the study's limitations are properly mentioned.

5. Conclusions

Provide a very brief summary of results and discussion without repetition of results

6. Acknowledgment:Acknowledge persons who have contributed to the scientific content or provided technical support.
7. Conflict of interest statement,and funding
8. Contribution of authors-check editorial policy
9. Abbreviations –list all abbreviations
10. References make sure to follow Vancouver style:
    1. Included current citations that provide enough contexts to permit critical analysis.
    2. Have citations that provide context information to the reader.
    3. References with six or less authors should all be listed. If more than six names, list the first three, followed by et al.
    4. Use Vancouver referencing style (for more information http://guides.lib.monash.edu/citing-referencing/vancouver)
11. Figures and Tables
    1. Provide appropriate titles that best describe the content
    2. Figures and Tables should appear in the last page of the document
    3. Total number of combined Tables and Figures should not exceed six

 Case reports
Case reports are limited to 3000 words (excluding tables, figures, and references) with a 150-word unstructured Abstract and 3–5 key words. A title without author list, abstract, brief introduction, case(s) report(s), discussion and reference will be the outline of submission of case report. There should be separate title page as mentioned above. A maximum of three figures or tables are permitted. The patient(s) on whom the report is based must give written permission.

Reviews
On the editorial board's request, review articles are published. The Reviews begin with an unstructured Abstract of no more than 200 words, followed by 3-5 key words/phrases, then a main body of up to 3.000 words (excluding tables, figures, and references).Introduction, objective, review methods, findings, and conclusion are among the manuscript's headings.

Editorials and Letters
Editorials and Letters, which do not have an Abstract, have an unstructured Body text of up to 1000 words, and may have one Figure, and a maximum of five references.

VII. Submission

Only our online manuscript submission system (http://journal.esep.org.et) accepts manuscripts.

Please do not send manuscripts as attachments to emails or via conventional mail.

Authors should include a copy of the original study protocol and any other extra data to their papers if they believe it would assist the editors or reviewers better understand the work.

Authors should always submit trial protocols, which should ideally follow the SPRIT guidelines (http://www.spirit-statement.org/).

Submission checklist

One author as corresponding author should be assigned.

Check general formatting.

Title page, abstract and manuscript should be complete.

Journal policies should be followed.

Funding and conflict of interest should be clearly mentioned.

Manuscript should be grammar and spell checked.

VIII. Review Process and decision

The managing editor will check the general format of the submission. The Cheif editor and/ or at least one Associate Editor read each manuscript at the request of the managing editor. Papers not suitable or out of scope for publication are rejected outright.

They determine whether or not to transmit the manuscript to outside reviewers as a group.

Authors are notified electronically within 1 to 2 weeks after receipt if their manuscript is rejected without external review.

Rejected manuscripts are kept on file for 60 days before being deleted from our system.

Papers accepted for peer review are then assigned to an associate editor who takes responsibility for assigning at least two peer reviewers and providing a synthesis of reviews to the chief editor for a decision. All original content submitted to the PAJEC is peer reviewed by a minimum of two reviewers with in 4 weeks. Editorials, commentaries, perspectives, letter to editors are reviewed by a single expert reviewer, usually an associate editor of the journal. Peer review is double blinded, which means the identities of the authors are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa. Therefore, title page should be submitted separately from manuscript and manuscript should not have name of authors during submission by corresponding authors.

Reviewers will review based on journal policy and reviewers guideline of the journal.

Editors assess the material's potential value and novelty, as well as its scientific rigor, following established methodological standards and reviewers recommendation.

They choose submissions based on the paper's strength in comparison to other articles in the review process, the requirement for PAJEC to give a fair image of key developments in health care, and the number of approved papers in the paper's category and topic area.

Editors may ask researchers to share raw data for their studies during review or at any time up to 5 years following publication in PAJEC to examine or clarify analyses and conclusions.

We will transmit the reviewers' comments to the authors whether or not the manuscript is accepted.

IX. Proof reading and Publication

After manuscript acceptance, manuscript will be copyedited and proof reading will be done. 

During the copy editing process, authors will have the chance to approve corrections.

PAJEC has the right not to publish an article if discussions with the author do not result in a satisfactory solution for the editors.

We notify authors when they can expect to receive proofs and also inform after released online.