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As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  • Please be sure to include a separate title page with all authors listed and all their affiliations noted as well as any funding and acknowledgements.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
  • Like most Open Access titles, the IJMSCH applies an Article Processing Charge (APC), only after the manuscript has been peer reviewed and accepted by the editor. The author will be sent an invoice for the Article Processing Charge. Letters to the Editor, short commentaries and select invited articles will not be charged an APC. The APC for the International Journal of Mens Social and Community Health is US $399, The Journal will provide the highest level of editorial service for the author, including a rigorous peer review process, expert editing and production editing, and excellent design services. All articles are archived through Portico and will be assigned a unique DOI (Digital Object Identifier) through Cross Ref. Article will also be archived and available on the Directory of Open Access Journals and ScienceOpen. An author’s ability to pay APCs is not a consideration in the decision of whether to publish.  Authors living in one of the United Nations' list of Least Developed Countries may request a fee waiver.  See UN country list list for full details. Authors living in countries not considered "least developed" who do not have the ability to pay the APC's may be eligible for a reduced rate. Please contact the publisher directly at jbirkby@dougmargroup.com.

Original Research 

Manuscripts submitted to the journal must be original, have not been previously published and will be verified for plagiarism. In-house submissions, i.e., papers authored by Editors or Editorial Board members of the Journal, will be sent to Editors unaffiliated with the author or their institution and monitored to ensure there is no peer review bias.

Manuscript Categories and Structure:

Research articles critical reviews (scoping, systematic, realist) and service evaluation should conform to the following structure

  • Abstract
  • Introduction/Background (separate or combined) – clearly stating the study/review aim/question
  • Methods/Design (separate or combined)
  • Ethics statement – If ethical review was not required (for example for a critical review) this should still be clearly stated.
  • Results & Discussion (separate or combined) – this should normally include study/review limitations
  • Conclusion/Implications (separate or combined)

Opinion/commentary pieces, reports of men’s health status/policy at national level, and studies analysing innovative intervention strategies should, at minimum, conform to the following structure

  • Abstract
  • Introduction/Background (separate or combined) – clearly stating the purpose of the paper and setting any necessary context
  • Main text – making the argument if opinion piece, providing policy practice detail if describing the national state of men’s health in a country or providing the detail of the intervention if discussing and innovation
  • Conclusion

General Instructions:

Word count

The word count includes the body of manuscript, references, notes and captions. The word count excludes any acknowledgements and declarations of funding. Authors cannot exceed the 8,000 word limit without prior approval of the Editor-in-Chief. 

References
References should be numbered consecutively in the text by superscript numerals. Corresponding references should be listed at the end of the text. Unpublished sources such as personal communications should be cited within the text and not included in the reference list.
The Journal of Mens Health uses a slightly modified version of the Vancouver style for references. When there are more than 4 authors, shorten to 3 and add “et al.” Journal titles should be abbreviated as in PubMed.

Journal article:
Abate M, Salini V, Rimondi E, et al. Post-traumatic myositis ossificans: sonographic findings. J Clin Ultrasound 2011;39(3):135–40.
Book: Cardenosa G. Breast Imaging Companion, 3rd edition. Philadelphia (PA): Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2007.

Chapter in a book: Galloway AC, Colvin SB, Grossi EA, et al. Acquired heart disease. In: Schwartz SI, Shires GT, Spencer FC, eds. Principles of Surgery, 6th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill; 1994:845–99.
Web page: Breast Cancer Society of Canada. Breast cancer statistics. Sarnia (ON): The Society, 2012; http://www.bcsc.ca/p/46/l/105/t. Accessed November 13, 2012.

Abbreviations
Authors are encouraged to apply commonly abbreviated words within the text, figures and/or tables. All abbreviations should be spelled out at the first mention in the text and abbreviations should be listed in a key.

Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined as the presentation of work of another in such a way as to give the reader reason to think it is the author’s own work. Plagiarism is a form of academic fraud and is considered a serious academic offense. Any paper submitted to the IJMSCH will be checked for originality to confirm that it has not been plagiarized from other sources. 
Self-plagiarism: refers to the practice of an author using portions of their previous writings on the same topic in another of their publications, without specifically citing it formally in quotes. Authors are required to disclose information and cite references about reused content from previously published work.


Incorrect authorship: Excluding authors, wrongly presenting the same material as original in more than one publication, inclusion of authors who have not made a definite contribution to the work published; or submission of articles without the concurrence of all authors.

Misappropriation of the ideas of others: an important aspect of scholarly activity is the exchange of ideas among colleagues. Scholars can acquire novel ideas from others during the process of reviewing grant applications and manuscripts. However, improper use of such information can constitute fraud. Wholesale appropriation of such material constitutes misconduct.
Digital image editing ethics          

No particular feature within an image may be introduced, moved, enhanced, obscured, or removed. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are allowed if they are applied to the whole image and do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original image. Adjustments such as changes to settings must be disclosed in the figure legend.

Also, the author(s) must ensure that all possible patient identifying markers on any images is removed before submission to the journal.

Permissions/Copyright
Written permission must be obtained for material that has been published in copyrighted material; this includes tables, figures, and quoted text that exceeds 150 words. A copy of all permissions must accompany the manuscript. Ownership of submitted manuscripts must be clearly stated. Authors must clearly indicate that approval for publication has been received in cases of institutional ownership. All submitted material remains the property of the journal and will be returned to the author; however, the publisher and the journal reserve the right to reprint all or portions of the article and to post all or part of the article online. IJMSCH reserves the right to edit manuscripts as required to publish in the journal.

Tables and illustrations 
Tables and Figures can be embedded in the text or included in a separate document and should have a legend  indicating the information contained and should supplement the text. Each illustration should be clearly labeled with the title, figure number, and indication as of the correct position of viewing of the image. Labels or arrows may be used to point out areas of interest and should be detailed in the legend. Patient identification MUST be removed. Video/DVD presentations are also accepted. 

Note: Figure reproduction cannot improve on the quality of the originals

Author Responsibility
The journal accepts only original work that has not been published elsewhere. All authors must confirm that neither the manuscript nor any part of it was written or published or is under consideration for publication elsewhere. Publication of the content as an abstract during the proceedings of meetings is not considered prior publication and can be submitted for publication. 

Authorship Credit 
Should be based on the contributions to any of the three components mentioned below:

  • Concept and design of study, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data
  • Drafting the article or revising it critically for intellectual content;
  • Final approval of the version to be published.

Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests 
All authors of must disclose any and all conflicts of interest they may have with the publication of the manuscript or any institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented.


Institutional Ethics review board approval and informed consent
All prospective and retrospective human studies must have appropriate institutional ethics review board.
Compliance with these rules must be stated in the text, including waiver of consent by the board, if applicable. Manuscripts that do not comply with these rules will not be accepted for publication.  

Author Checklist:

  • Does not exceed 8,000 words (without consent from Editor-in-Chief)
  • Author(s) full name and credentials
  • Author(s) contact information
  • Author affiliation address
  • Word count
  • Grant support