African Journals Online
West African Journal of Medicine

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

The West African Journal of Medicine (WAJM) like any other medical Journal has adopted the “Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals” established by editors in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom (N. Engl J. Med 1997; 336: 309- 315).

Papers for publication in this Journal include: Original Scientific Articles, Collective Reviews, and Letters to the Editor, Medical Education, medical research and any aspect of diseases.

All manuscripts are peer-reviewed and accepted with the understanding that the work has not been published or being considered for publication or accepted for publication elsewhere. Articles should be brief and should normally not exceed 300 words at most.

While every effort shall be made to see that no inaccurate or misleading data, opinion or statement appears in this Journal, it is emphasized that the data and opinion appearing in the articles and advertisements are the responsibilities of the contributors or advertisers concerned. Accordingly, the publishers and the editorial Committee and their respective officers, employees or agents do not accept any liability whatsoever of the consequences of any such inaccurate or misleading data, opinion or statement.

Manuscripts

Three (3) copies including tables and Illustrations should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief. A diskette may be submitted with the final accepted manuscript.

a)      Original articles: the format for this should be: title page, summary/abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgement, references, tables, legends to figures and figures arranged in that order.

b)      Review articles and special articles: These are usually by invitation.

c)      Case reports

d)      Book reviews

e)      Correspondence

f)        Notices and

g)      Letters to the Editor are also accepted.

Manuscripts should be typed double-spaced on one side of size A4 (210 x 295mm) paper.

Title page should include the title of the article, authors’ names and initials, institution where work was done, the name and address of the corresponding author.

Structured abstract

Abstracts should not contain more than 250 words and must conform to the “Uniform requirements”. It should carry the following headings: Background, Study design, Results and Conclusion.

Key words: At the end of the abstracts include not more than 10 key words or phrases to be used for indexing.

Illustration

Figures should be professionally drawn and photographed. Glossy black and white photographs are

 requested. Authors shall be requested to pay for coloured illustration. Submit three sets of figures; do not use free hand or typewritten lettering. Each figure should have a label pasted on the top back of the figure providing figure number and author’s name, and indicating “Top”. Remove all patient identifying marks (Protection of patients’ right to privacy).

Legends to each figure should be typed on a separate sheet of paper. One or two sentences should suffice to explain the figure.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations should immediately follow the words for which they stand, and must be spelled out completely at first use. Standard abbreviations and Standard International units should be used in the Text, Tables, and Figures.

References

These should be numbered consecutively in order mentioned in text. Citation number is placed in the text after the name when the reference is cited e.g. “Jolly and Thomas³ have shown that…”. If no name is mentioned, the citation is placed in the text at the end of the statement e.g. “It has been shown that it is common in Nigeria³”. Abstracts are not acceptable as references. References of unpublished but accepted articles can be designated as “WAJM. In Press 2002”.

Personal communication can be cited within the text, but not in references. Written evidence of accuracy of personal communication must be presented by the author. Authors are responsible for completeness and accuracy of all citations.

A maximum of three authors should be quoted but if there are more, only the first three should be listed followed by et al.

In the list of references, all references in the text are numbered consecutively in the order they appear in the text and Journal Abbreviations should conform to Index Medicus National Library of Medicine. The references should include author(s) name(s), title of article, name of the Journal, year of publication, volume of the Journal and first and last pages of the article in that order e.g. Jolly BM, Thomas HO. Non-infantile idiopathic intussusceptions in Western Nigeria. West Afr. Med. J. 1954; 3: 2 – 16.

References to Books should in addition include the names of the author(s), edition number (where appropriate), town or origin and names of publishers e.g. Badoe EA, Archampong EQ, da Rocha-Afodu JT (Editors). Venomous Bites and stings: In Principles and Practice of Surgery, Third Edition, Ghana Publ. Corp, 2000; 77-80.

Galley proofs

Corrections of the galley proofs should be strictly restricted to Printer’s error only. Orders for offprints should be made when the corrected proofs are being returned by the authors. Articles accepted for publication remain the property of the Journal and may not be reproduced elsewhere without the written permission of the Editor-in-Chief.