SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
All articles submitted to the Journal must comply with these instructions. Failure to do so will result in return of the manuscript and possible delay in publication. Where contributions are judged as acceptable for publication on the basis of scientific content, the editor or the publisher reserves the right to modify the manuscript to eliminate ambiguity and repetition and improve communication between author and reader. If extensive alterations are required, the manuscript will be returned to the author for revision.
Submission
The original manuscript should be submitted online via: https://www.asn-ng.com/journal/ or journalofanatomicalsciences@gmail.com
Statement of Author’s Contribution
Papers are accepted for publication in the Journal based on the understanding that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. This must be stated in the covering letter. The covering letter must contain an acknowledgement that all the authors have contributed significantly and that all authors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript. In keeping with the latest guidelines of the international committee of International Journal Editors, each author’s contribution to the paper is to be quantified. Authors must also state that the protocol for the research project has been approved by a suitably constituted ethic committee of the institution within which the work was undertaken and that it conforms to the provision of the declaration of Helsinki in 1995 (as revised in Edinburgh, 2000). All investigations on human subject must include a statement that the subjects gave informed consent and patient anonymity should be preserved. Any experiment involving animals must be demonstrated to be ethically acceptable and where relevant, conform to the national guidelines for animal usage in research. Authors should declare any financial support or relationships that may pose conflict of interest.
Copyright
Papers accepted for publication becomes a copyright of the Anatomical Society of Nigeria and authors will be asked to sign a transfer of copyright form. In signing the copyright assessment form, it is assumed that authors have obtained permission to use any copyrighted or previously published material. All authors must read and agree to the terms and conditions outlined in and must sign the form or agree that the corresponding author can sign on their behalf. Articles cannot be published until a signed copyright assessment form has been received.
Preparation of the Manuscript
The Journal of Anatomical Sciences publishes research articles, reviews case report and other related research papers. Submissions should be written using Times New Roman font size 12, double-spaced and on A4-size word document with margins 30 mm. All pages should be numbered consecutively in the top right hand corner beginning with the title page. Research articles should not exceed 6000 words, including tables, figures/illustrations and references (maximum of 50 references). Review articles should not exceed 9000 words, including tables, figures/illustrations and references (maximum of 100 references). Case report should be 1500-3000 words, including tables, figures/illustrations and references (maximum of 15 references).
The Journal uses US spellings and authors should therefore follow the latest edition of the Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary. All measurements must be given in standard international (SI) units. Abbreviations should be used sparingly and only to reduce repetition of long technical terms. Initially use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter, use the abbreviation. Upon its first use in the title, abstract and text, the common name of a species should be followed by the scientific name (genus, species and authority) in parentheses. However, for well-known species, the scientific name may be omitted from the article title. If no common name exists in English, the scientific name should only be used. Drugs should be referred to by their generic names rather than brand names.
PARTS OF THE MANUSCRIPT
The manuscript should be divided into the title page and main text; both are submitted as individual files. The title page should consist of the title of the manuscript, name and affiliation(s) of author(s), email of the corresponding author, conflict of interest, source of funding, acknowledgement and authors’ contributions, while the main text should comprise only the title of the article, abstract and main text.
Title page
The title page should contain:
- Title of manuscript: The title should be short and concise. It should be written in bold and sentence case. Scientific names appearing in the title should be italicized with the genus starting with an upper case and the specie with lower case (Abbreviations within the title should be avoided). Title should not be more than 20 words.
- Names and affiliations of author(s): The first name, middle initial and surname of all authors and their affiliations denoted by superscript numbers should be provided
- ORCID of all contributors
- Email address and telephone number of the corresponding author.
- Conflict of Interests: Any personal or financial relationship with funders that may affect the outcome of the research should be disclosed. If there is no conflict of interests, authors should simply write “The authors have no conflict of interests to declare”
- Acknowledgements: All individuals who made substantial contributions to the manuscript in any of the following ways but does not meet the authorship criteria should be acknowledged. If there is no such, write “None”.
- Authors’ Contribution: Each author’s role in the study should be stated using authors’ initials and credit role(s). Such roles include research conception, design, data acquisition/collection/analysis/interpretation, drafting and revising the manuscript, etc.
NB: Authors are advised to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submission of manuscript as any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list would result in rejection of the paper, irrespective of the stage it has reached in the review process
The main text should consist of the following:
Research article: Title, Abstract and Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results
(including tables and figures), Discussion, Conclusion and References.
Review: Title, Abstract and Keywords, Introduction, Review section (including tables and
figures), Conclusion and References.
Case report: Title, Abstract and Keywords, Introduction, Case Presentation (including tables
and figures), Conclusion and References.
- Title of manuscript: The title should be as earlier stated above.
- Abstract and Keywords: An unstructured abstract not exceeding 250 words (Research/Reviews) and 150 words (Case report) should be provided with a maximum of five keywords. The abstract should summarize the manuscript by providing the aim of the study, methodology, key findings and conclusion. References should not be cited within the Abstract.
- Introduction: Provide an appropriate background of the work that can be comprehended by all readers including those that are not experts in the field of study.
- Materials and Methods: Describe the methods used in details so that the work can be reproduced. Already established protocols should be properly cited. All researches involving animals and humans must be approved by ethical committee (the name and approval number should be included). Only specific materials used (with their model/catalogue number, manufacturer and place of manufacture) are essential
- Results: All the results should be presented and explained in detail. Tables and Figures should be placed at the appropriate place in the manuscript (immediately after their citation)
- Discussion: The explanations/rationale for the results/analysis should be included here. Provide appropriate literature to support your findings and compared to existing literature, especially to assertions/postulations.
- Review/Case Presentation: Reviews and case presentations should be written using appropriate subheadings as the case may be.
- Conclusion: State the main conclusion of the work with clear explanations. This should not exceed two sentences
- References: Vancouver referencing style should be used. Citations in the text should be indicated by the use of a superscript number. Sequentially numbered reference should be provided at the end of the manuscript providing full details of the in-text citations.
Paragraphs and Headings Paragraphs and Headings should not be numbered. Each paragraph should be longer than a single sentence but not longer than one manuscript page. The levels of headings should accurately reflect the organization of the paper. All headings of the same level should appear in the same format. All headings/subheadings should be written in sentence case.
References The Vancouver style for biomedical journals is used. In the text each reference is numbered chronologically with a superscript. Do not use parenthesis. This number corresponds to the list of authors which also appears chronologically at the end of the paper. The list of references is thus not in alphabetical order, but in the order in which the author(s) are cited in the text. If a reference to the same author is cited again, the number is merely repeated. Only the first six authors are listed, thereafter, use et al. Omit the month and day. Use a sentence case for the article title or book. Names of journals should be abbreviated in the style used in the index medicus. Only published or ‘in press’ articles from journals, books, published reports should be listed. All references should include a digital identifier such as a DOI. Online sources that are not paginated must include a DOI or URL and the date accessed online.
Journal article Journal article references should contain in order: Author(s), Article title (using a sentence case), Journal Title, Date of Publication, Volume and Issue number, Location (Pagination). Note t
Example:
- Smith SD, Jones AD. Organ donation. N Engl J Med. 2001; 657:230-5
- Dibal NI, Garba SH, Jacks TW. Morphological assessment of epididymal sperm in Wistar rats using different histological stains. Acta Vet Eurasia 2020;46(3): 132–136
- Nakazawa E, Maeda S, Yamamoto K, Akabayashi A, Uetake Y, Shaw MH, et al. Reuse of cardiac organs in transplantation: an ethical analysis. BMC Med Ethics. 2018;19(1):77. doi: 10.1186/s12910-018-0316-z.
Preprint, early view, Epub ahead of print, etc.,)
Muldoon K, Towse J, Simms V, Perra O, Menzies V. A longitudinal analysis of estimation, counting skills, and mathematical ability across the first school year. Developmental Psychology. 2012. Epub ahead of print. doi:10.1037/a0028240
Book
Carlson BM. Human embryology and developmental biology. 5 th ed. St Louis: Elsevier; 2014
Chapter in Book
Forrest JL, Miller SA. Evidence-based decision making. In: Bowen DM, Pieren JA, editors. Darby and Walsh dental hygiene theory and practice. 5th ed. Maryland Heights: Elsevier; 2020. p. 25-33.
Website Reference
This should contain, in order: Author(s). Title [Internet]. Place of Publication: Publisher; Date of Publication [Date of Citation]. Available from: URL
Example:
Marchildon GP, DiMatteo L. Health care cost drivers: the facts [Internet]. Canadian Institute for Health Information; 2011 Oct [cited 2015 Jan 15]. Available from: https://secure.cihi.ca/free_products/health_care_cost_drivers_the_facts_en.pdf
Others:
- Chandler N. What’s the difference between Sasquatch and Bigfoot? howstuffworks. https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vsmyth/strange-creatures/sasquatch-bigfootdifference.htm. Accessed April, 2020
- World Health Organization. Mercury and Health. 2017 Available from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mercury-and-health. Accessed on 17/08/2024.
Tables: Tables should be self-contained and complemented, but not duplicate information in the original text. Tables should have a title, written above each Table. Tables are to be incorporated within the manuscript as close as possible to where they are first mentioned and numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals (e.g. Table 1, Table 2, etc.). Only one table per page. Every table column should have a heading. Only the top, second and last horizontal line should be in the table. All vertical table lines should be omitted. All tables mentioned in the text must be numbered in the order in which they are mentioned.
All abbreviations should be defined in footnotes. Footnotes symbols: †, ‡, §, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measurements such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings. The tables and its footnotes should be understandable without reference to text.
Figures: All illustrations (line drawings and paragraphs, charts, histological sections, images, pictures, etc.) are classified as figures. Figures should be cited in consecutive order in the text and incorporated within the manuscript as close as possible to where they are first mentioned and numbered with Arabic numerals (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.). Only one figure per page, alongside a caption, a short title and legend. Magnifications should be indicated using a scaler bar on the illustration. Graphics should be supplied as high resolution (at least 600dpi) files, saved in JPEG or TIF format. Each figure must be properly labelled. Figures for a particular experiment should be grouped together as one image, differentiated by letters.
Figure Legends: Legends should be self-explanatory and written below the respective Figure. The legend should incorporate definitions of any symbols used and all abbreviations and units of measurements must be explained so that the figure and its legend should be understandable without reference to the text. Provide a letter stating copyright authorization, if the figures have been reproduced from another source.
Page Charges Upon acceptance of a manuscript for publication, authors will be required to pay charges of ₦40,000.00 (for members); ₦50,000.00 (for non-members); $100 (for International), as article publishing charges. This is to ensure prompt and regular publication of the Journal.
Payments can be made into the Journal’s account with details as follows:
Galley Proof
Once a manuscript is accepted for publication, the proof will be sent to the corresponding author for final corrections before publication. Alterations to the text and figures (other than the essential correction of errors) are unacceptable at proof stage and authors may be charged for excessive alterations.
Subscription Information
The Journal of Anatomical Sciences is published twice a year, in March and September. The cost, which is subject to review by the Editorial Committee, is as stated below:
Contact details for purchase:
Editor-in-Chief,