Journal of All India Institute of Speech and Hearing : Instructions for authors

A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to Journal of All India Institute of Speech and Hearing alone at that point in time and has not been published anywhere, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere. The journal expects that authors would authorize one of them to correspond with the Journal for all matters related to the manuscript. All manuscripts received are duly acknowledged.

Once received, all manuscripts will be subjected to a technical test to see if the manuscript has been prepared in the manner the journal has prescribed. Manuscripts meeting this condition will be sent for a double-blinded peer-review where the identity of the authors will not be revealed to the reviewers in any manner. The Associate Editors in charge of a sub-specialty and the Editor in Chief will also conduct their own review following the double-blind review. Once a decision has been made to accept the manuscript for publication, the manuscript will go through a test for technical compliance and copy writing before it is sent for online publication.

Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within three days. It may not be possible to incorporate corrections received after that period. The whole process of submission of the manuscript to final decision and sending and receiving proofs is completed online. To achieve faster and greater dissemination of knowledge and information, the journal publishes articles online as Ahead of Print immediately on acceptance.

Manuscripts submitted by the staff members of AIISH will be subjected to the same rigorous double-blind review like any other manuscript. Such members of the editorial board who submit a manuscript to the journal will be kept away from editorial work for that particular issue.

The authors do have the right to appeal if they have a genuine cause to believe that the editorial board has wrongly rejected the paper. If the authors wish to appeal the decision, they should email the editorial office (email: [email protected]) explaining in detail the reason for the appeal. The appeals will be acknowledged by the editorial office and will be investigated in an unbiased manner. The processing of appeals will be done within 6 - 8 weeks. While under appeal, the said manuscript should not be submitted to other journals. The final decision rests with the Editor in Chief of the journal. Second appeals are not considered.

It will be ensured that the reviewers will carry out the reviews most objectively without any prejudice. They shall declare any conflict of interest (if they are aware of) arising from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers before they review any given manuscript. They shall not indulge in personal criticism of the author.

Manuscripts submitted to JAIISH are expected to be new, original work. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right reject a manuscript that contains plagiarism of another’s work or self-plagiarism of one’s own previously published work. Furthermore, the authors themselves are legally liable for any consequences arising out of their plagiarism. Authors are referred to the ‘Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.)’ to know what constitutes plagiarism and self-plagiarism. The authors are encouraged to subject their manuscripts to plagiarism check though the editorial board will also be carrying out this exercise.

Journal of All India Institute of Speech and Hearing favours registration of clinical trials and is a signatory to the Statement on publishing clinical trials in Indian biomedical journals. Journal of All India Institute of Speech and Hearing would publish clinical trials that have been registered with a clinical trial registry that allows free online access to public. Registration in the following trial registers is acceptable: http://www.ctri.nic.in/; https://www.anzctr.org.au/; http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/; http://isrctn.org/; http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/index.asp; http://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr.This is applicable to clinical trials that have begun enrolment of subjects in or after June 2018. Clinical trials that have commenced enrolment of subjects prior to June 2018 would be considered for publication in Journal of All India Institute of Speech only if they have been registered retrospectively with clinical trial registry that allows unhindered online access to public without charging any fees.

Authorship
Authorship has implications for academic, social, and financial reasons. Those individuals who have made substantial contributions to the study are considered authors. All the authors are equally responsible for the submitted and published work. Further, they are accountable in case of any queries with respect to data and interpretations. During the submission of the manuscript, each author needs to disclose their contribution to the research/manuscript. Typically, manuscripts are submitted by the corresponding author responsible for submitting the manuscript, filling the copyright and disclosure agreement form. Further, the corresponding author will be coordinating with the editorial board during the review of the manuscript and future queries related to the paper. Refer to http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html for guidelines on authorship.

Change(s) in authorship
In case of any request by the corresponding author concerning the, an explanation may be sought by the editorial board from the corresponding author. The corresponding author has to write to the Editor-in-Chief for any addition or deletion of authors or change in the order of the listed authors justifying the modification. There should be a signed request from all the authors for a change which needs to be uploaded by the corresponding authors.

Use of Inclusive Language
The journal promotes and believes in the use of inclusive language in letter and spirit. Diversity, respect for all, sensitivity to differences, equal opportunities are the ingredients of inclusive language. The authors are advised to use gender neutrality by using plural nouns and wherever applicable, avoid using the terms him, her, or him/her. They should desist from assumptions, beliefs, or anything that implies an individual’s superiority in gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability, caste, religion, and geographical boundaries. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, and slangs, dominance of culture, religion, and socio-economic status. The journal recommends that personal attributes, unless relevant and valid, should not be disclosed. These guidelines are a mere point of reference but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Author Contribution
All authors need to disclose the type of contribution they have made to their research attempt. A copy of the ‘Author Contribution’ form can be downloaded from here

Copyright Transfer
The authors have to complete and submit a completed Copyright Form, signed by all the authors, at the time of submission of the manuscript. A copy of the Copyright form can be downloaded from here. In addition, if the authors are using any copyrighted work in their manuscript, they need to submit a copy of the written permission from the copyright owners.

Conflict of Interest
All the authors have to disclose, at the time of submission of the manuscript, any conflict of interest in terms of financial, personal, or professional aspects pertaining to their work. A copy of the Conflict of Interest form can be downloaded from here.

Declaration of Funding Source
Authors need to declare the funding source(s) for the research work submitted in terms of grant number, agency, and the role of investigators.

Acknowledgments
This section is optional. Authors may provide acknowledgment.

Authors are requested to submit their manuscripts electronically on the JAIISH online submission and review website (https://review.jow.medknow.com/jaiish). This site provides details about the submission process. Please go through “Instructions to authors” and “Submission procedure” for further details.

Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with "Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (October 2008). The uniform requirements and specific requirement of Journal of All India Institute of Speech and Hearing are summarized here . Before submitting a manuscript, contributors are requested to check for the latest instructions available.

Journal of All India Institute of Speech and Hearing accepts manuscripts written in British English.

It is the responsibility of authors/ contributors to obtain permissions for reproducing any copyrighted material. A copy of the permission obtained must accompany the manuscript. Copies of any and all published articles or other manuscripts in preparation or submitted elsewhere that are related to the manuscript must also accompany the manuscript.

The authors are required to use the downloadable word document templates provided at the end of this page to prepare the manuscripts. The reporting guidelines checklist is provided in these templates which must be duly followed. The authors can also choose the reporting guidelines for the specific study design from the web links provided in the Instructions to prepare manuscript and upload it along with the manuscript.

Submission of a manuscript is taken as evidence that no portion of the text or figures has been previously copyrighted, published, or submitted for publication elsewhere, unless information regarding previous publication is explicitly cited and permission is obtained.

The authors must upload a covering letter in which they should declare that the article submitted to the JAIISH has not been previously published or is under review elsewhere. If a longer manuscript than indicated is necessary, the same has to be justified here.

All manuscripts submitted to the Journal of All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (JAIISH) should adhere to the following general formatting guidelines.

The manuscript must be submitted as a word document in the .doc or .docx format using the Microsoft Office - Versions 2013 or later.

The manuscript should be typed in Times New Roman font with a font size of 12. The entire manuscript should be typed using double line spacing, and must be left aligned. Headings should be bold-faced and sub-headings should be bold-faced and italicized. The subsequent sub-headings (i.e., sub-sub-headings) should be only italicized (do not use bold-face). The authors are encouraged to avoid further levels of sub-headings.

There shall be single space after the period. There should be no space before the punctuation markers such as comma, full stop, colon, semicolon etc.

Use of abbreviations should be limited to improve readability and impact of articles. In case abbreviations are used, they must be expanded at the first citation. The standard units are exceptions to this rule. They can be used in their abbreviated form without requiring expansion on first citation.

The entire manuscript should use continuous page numbers starting from the title page. The manuscript should also use continuous line numbers starting from the abstract.

Page Limit: The manuscript types such as ‘Systematic review and meta-analysis’ and ‘Original research article’ shall have an upper limit of 40 typed pages (all-inclusive from title page to supplements, if any). The authors must make a strong written justification to consider longer manuscripts. The ‘Editorial’, ‘Letter to the Editor’, and ‘Case report’ should adhere to a limit of 2000 words.

The title page should contain the title, list of all contributors (authors) with their affiliations, contact details of the corresponding author.

The title should be short and clear, yet provide a sufficient description of the work. The authors are requested to pay particular attention to the title as it becomes the basis for online search results.

The list of contributors should include the full names (first name, middle name, and last name, or the first name and the last name, in that order) of all authors in the order in which they are desired to be published.

The corresponding author should be clearly identified using a superscript star-symbol (*). This is an author who assumes the responsibility to correspond with the journal team from the time of submission till the final publication of the manuscript. The contact details of the corresponding author should include the address for correspondence along with the PIN code, mobile number, and email Id.

The title page should also have a short title (not more than 6 or 7 words) which would appear on the alternate pages of the published article.

The journal requires the abstract to be brief (not exceeding 250 words), yet sufficiently informative and structured. As far as possible avoid giving any references in the abstract. The abstract must be structured as follows:

Purpose: This sub-section should include a succinct statement about the specific purpose of the study or research question addressed, and/or hypotheses tested.

Methods: This sub-section must clearly state the characteristics and numbers of participants, the design of the study, the tests used, and the methods used for the data collection.

Results: This sub-section should make direct statements about the major findings of the study. If the word limit permits, a summarized version of the statistical outcomes may be presented here; however, the details other than the p-values and the effect sizes should be avoided.

Conclusions: This is the last sub-section of the abstract. Here, the statement(s) regarding the extent to which the stated purposes of the study have been met, should be reported. This section may also include statements regarding the generalizability of the results, further directions, and possible clinical implications.

The authors must provide 3-5 keywords. While the choice of keywords lies with authors, they are encouraged to use the words that do not appear in the title or abstract. Choice of keywords should be made in such a way that it improves the chances of appearance of their paper in digital searches.

The authors should use this section to describe the background information needed to understand their study, the reasons for taking up this research work, and the importance of the work. This section should end with a clear statement of the research question and aims/objectives of the study.

In this section, the authors must present all the details of how they conducted their research. They should provide details about the participants and their characteristics, the techniques used, and the experiments conducted. The methods section must be written with sufficient details to allow for repetition of the experiment so that a reader can determine the validity of the findings of the study.

This section can include sub-sections such as, but not limited to, ‘participants’, ‘equipment and environment’, ‘procedure’, ‘measures’, and ‘statistical analyses’. Wherever a commercially available product is used, its make and place must be specified within parenthesis. This section should also be used to declare the authority which gave ethical approval for the study.

Ethics: When reporting studies on human beings, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (available at https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/). For prospective studies involving human participants, authors are expected to mention about approval of (regional/ national/ institutional or independent Ethics Committee or Review Board, obtaining informed consent from adult research participants and obtaining assent for children aged over 7 years participating in the trial. The age beyond which assent would be required could vary as per regional and/ or national guidelines. Ensure confidentiality of subjects by desisting from mentioning participants names, initials or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institutions or a national research council’s guide for, or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals was followed. Evidence for approval by a local Ethics Committee (for both human as well as animal studies) must be supplied by the authors on demand. Animal experimental procedures should be as humane as possible, and the details of anaesthetics and analgesics used should be clearly stated.

Furthermore, the ethical approval shall be in accordance with either the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research, India, or the Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans. The Indian Council of Medical Research, India guidelines for experiments involving humans can be downloaded from (https://main.icmr.nic.in/sites/default/files/guidelines/ICMR_Ethical_Guidelines_2017.pdf). An identifiable image or video and audio recording can be included as part of the manuscript only if the authors have obtained written permission from any person pictured or appearing in the recording. The authors must include a statement in the manuscript to this effect.

Selection and Description of Participants: Describe your selection of the observational or experimental participants (patients or laboratory animals, including controls) clearly, including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population. Technical information: Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer's name and address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Give references to established methods, including statistical methods (see below); provide references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations. Precisely identify all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration.

Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol, assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding), based on the CONSORT Statement (http://www.consort-statement.org).

The authors are required to use the downloadable word document templates provided at the end of this page to prepare the manuscripts. The reporting guidelines checklist is provided in these templates which must be duly followed. The authors can also choose the reporting guidelines for the specific study design from the web links provided in the table below and upload it along with the manuscript. Manuscripts with the incomplete checklist will be sent back to the authors.

In the results section, the authors should provide details of the findings without making inferences or conclusions based on them. The authors are encouraged to use tables and figures to make the results easily decipherable by the readers. However, tables and figures should not be mere repetitions of what has already been described in the text. At least in the case of statistically significant differences, the statement related to the findings must be supplemented with statistical test values such as the Chi-square value, Z-value, p-value, effect size value, F-value etc., depending on the statistical analyses tool used. The references to Tables and Figures must be consecutively written in this section.

The discussion section should be used to discuss whether or not the findings of this study are in consonance with what has already been reported, and if they are different then explain the same. This section should be used to explain the findings of the study. The authors are encouraged to discuss any unusual/unexpected findings and the reasons for the same. It is also appreciable to write the limitations of the study and any future directions in the discussion section of the study.

The conclusions section should be succinct. It should mention the major outcomes of the study, their possible applications, and the external validity of the findings. Suggestions for future research can also be included.

In this section, the authors can acknowledge any funding source for the study by providing relevant details. In the acknowledgment section, the authors can also acknowledge individuals who were helpful in carrying out the research work, but whose contributions do not merit authorship. The publishers, editors, editorial team, or reviewers should neither be named nor be acknowledged.

A ’Conflict of interest statement’ must be provided. In the case of no conflict of interest among the authors, a statement like ‘Authors report no conflicts of interest’ should be included.

The authors must clearly identify the source of funding for the study within the head of ‘Funding source’ and provide other details such as reference, number, date etc. Details of ethical approval should also be mentioned in this section.

All within the text citations must be present in the reference list and vice versa. Give all references in the APA style (Version 7). The references in the reference list should be arranged alphabetically using the author(s) names. In the case of 2 or more references with the same author’s name, the study published earlier should be listed first. Full names of the journals should be written in italics. References of books, internet sources etc., shall be in APA Manual (Version 7) style. The following examples illustrate reference style of the journal:

• Single author citations should be either in the form (Asuku, 2020) or Asuku (2020).

• Two author citations: In two author citations, both authors must be named at all times as (Amato & Giordano, 2014) or Amato and Giordano (2014).

• Citations of articles with 3 or more authors: List only the first author’s name followed by “et al.” in every citation, including the first, unless doing so would create ambiguity between different sources. e.g.: (Abba et al., 2012) or Abba et al. (2012)

If citing multiple works by similar groups of authors leads to confusion while using “et al.”, avoid ambiguity by writing out more names. For example: Use the in-text citation (Jones, Smith, Liu, et al., 2020) and (Jones, Smith, Ruiz, et al., 2020) instead of (Jones et al., 2020) for both studies. In the Narrative citation use Jones, Smith, Liu, Huang, and Kim (2020), and Jones, Smith, Ruiz, Wang, and Stanton (2020).

Abba, I. S., Gabriel, O., Domnic, M., Godfery, M., Dare, S. S., Mohammed, Y. G., & Okpanachi, A. O. (2012). Assessment of the relationship between digit lengths and circumferences of the waist and hip amongst Ugandans. Asian Journal of Medical Sciences, 4(3): 113-116.

Toma H. (1995). Takayasu’s arteritis. In Novick A, Scoble J, Hamilton G, (Eds.) Renal Vascular Disease (pp. 47-62). WB Saunders.

Stern I. (1994). Hemorrhagic Complications of Anticoagulant Therapy [Doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University].

With DOI: Amato, M. C., & Giordano, C. (2014). Visceral adiposity index: An indicator of adipose tissue dysfunction. International Journal of Endocrinology, Vol.(Issue), 457–460. DOI.

Without DOI: Amato, M. C., & Giordano, C. (2014). Visceral adiposity index: An indicator of adipose tissue dysfunction. International Journal of Endocrinology, Retrieved April 24, 2018, from http://www.amaassn.org/sci-pubs/journals/archive/ajdc/vol_150/no_5/abstract/htm.

Increased discoverability of research and high quality peer review are ensured by online links to the sources cited. In order to allow us to create links to abstracting and indexing services, such as Scopus, Cross Ref and PubMed, please ensure that data provided in the references are correct. Use of the DOI is highly encouraged. A DOI is guaranteed never to change, so you can use it as a permanent link to any electronic article.

Tables should be created in Microsoft word or word processing software. Tables created using Microsoft Excel or any other comparable spreadsheet programs will not be accepted. Tables should also be embedded within the body of the manuscript in their appropriate locations. Each table should be inserted in a fresh page at the end of the manuscript file after the reference list and must include a table title that appropriately describes the content of the table. The table title for a single table should not exceed 300 characters. Additional details that can aid in reading and understanding a table can be supplied as footnotes. Tables should be self-explanatory and their content should not be described in the text. The tables exceeding two manuscript pages must be submitted as separate supplemental materials.

Figures and illustrations must be provided as a standard image in the JPEG format and must have a resolution of at least 300 DPI. All figures must be numbered in the order of their first mention within the running text. It is mandatory to submit all figures digitally as separate upload. Figures should also be embedded within the body of the manuscript in their appropriate locations. Two or more figures should not be combined to make 1 figure.

Legends should be included for all figures. The figure legends must be short (not exceeding 300-400 characters) and specific. All figure legends can appear continuously (one-after-the-other) on a separate page of the manuscript after the tables.

Use footnotes sparingly. Number them consecutively in the article and indicate the position of footnotes in the text. Separately list the footnotes at the end of the manuscript.

A systematic review is an article that answers a well formulated question after searching through published studies. It should present an unbiased summary of the findings of the studies pertaining to the domain of the proposed question. A study can end with a systematic review or the extracted data can be further statistically analysed, in which case it becomes a meta-analysis.

The prescribed word count is up to 3000 - 3500 words excluding tables, references and abstract. The manuscript should have an unstructured Abstract (250 words) representing an accurate summary of the article.

The Journal prefers systematic reviews that have been registered in PROSPERO https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/. The PROSPERO registry number should be provided in the review article under the methodology section.

An original research article is a full-length article which presents new research outcomes. The text of original articles amounting to up to 2500 - 3000 words (excluding Abstract, references and Tables) should be divided into sections with the headings Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Tables and Figure legends.

An editorial is a short-invited opinion. These will be invited to discuss an issue of immediate importance to the research community or a new finding published in this journal or other journals. An editorial will be devoid of abstract, figures or tables, and have less than 5-7 references.

A letter to the editor should communicate views about a published article in the journal. It can also contain the views of author(s) on a contemporary topic. A letter concerning a work published in the journal will be referred to the author(s) of the original article for their response. The response of the author(s) of the original publication may also be published along with the letter to the editor. The letter could have up to 500 words and 5 references.

A case report should describe new and unusual finding or outcomes in a rare condition or disorder. It should be short with not more than 3 figures and tables taken together. These communications could be of up to 2000 words (excluding Abstract and references) and should have the following headings: Abstract (unstructured), Keywords, Introduction, Case report, Discussion, Reference, Tables and Legends in that order.

A short communication can be used to publish the findings from the preliminary data. The abstracts of such papers should be limited to 150 words and, remain unstructured. Such manuscripts should use not more than 2 tables and figures (taken together) and the overall word count should be within 2000 words. The number of references should also be limited to 20.

A perspective article should include a new and unique approach to current problems. It can also include a unique approach to fundamental concepts, or prevalent notions relating to hearing, balance, speech-language and swallowing. The authors may offer new hypotheses or deliberate on the implications of present innovations or applications to the study of hearing, balance, speech, language and swallowing diagnosis or treatment. A perspective article could focus on the current advances and future directions on a given topic, and may include original data. These articles should have an abstract not exceeding 200 words. They should preferably restrict the figures and tables counts to a maximum of 6 (taken together).

Slants or opinions are typically included under the category of a ‘Point of View’ article. This type of article must have a well-reasoned point of view. The idea of having such articles is to kindle and augment the appreciation of the author's area of expertise.

This category will include manuscripts that, in addition to providing a comprehensive review of the literature on a given topic, represent some attempt at preparing a consensus document related to the science or clinical practice in the area of hearing, balance, speech, language and swallowing disorders. Submissions under this category may be invited by the Editor in Chief or may be submitted by authors without an invitation.

Articles that hold relevance to contemporary issues in education, teaching methods and approaches should be included under this type of manuscript. These articles are generally written by experienced speech-language pathologists / audiologists or are invited. The manuscripts submitted under this category should generally adhere to a word limit of 3000 words, excluding the references. Such manuscripts do not require an abstract.

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian, wherever applicable) gives informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients' names from figures even if they have obtained informed consent from the patients in order to protect patient privacy. The journal abides by ICMJE guidelines:

The revised version of the manuscript should be submitted online in a manner similar to that used for submission of the manuscript for the first time. However, there is no need to submit the First Page or Covering Letters file while submitting a revised version. When submitting a revised manuscript, contributors are requested to include, the referees remarks along with point to point clarification at the beginning in the revised file itself. In addition, they are expected to mark the changes as underlined or coloured text in the article.

Journal provides no free printed reprints. Authors can purchase reprints, payment for which should be done at the time of submitting the proofs.

Journal does not charge the authors or authors’ institutions for the submission, processing and/or publications of manuscripts.

The entire contents of the Journal of All India Institute of Speech and Hearing are protected under Indian and international copyrights. The Journal, however, grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International Public License.

These ready to use templates are made to help the contributors write as per the requirements of the Journal.

Save the templates on your computer and use them with a word processor program.
Click open the file and save as the manuscript file.

In the program keep 'Document Map' and 'Comments' on from 'View' menu to navigate through the file.

Download Template for Original Articles/ABSTRACT Reports.

Download Template for Case Reports.

Download Template for Review Articles.

Download Template for Letter to the Editor.