Information For Authors

Interested in submitting to the JPP? We recommend that you review the About the Journal page for the journal's section policies first. Authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the submission process.

AUTHORS GUIDELINES

All CORRESPONDENCE for the journal should be sent to the following physical or electronic address. Please include the manuscript ID with all correspondence (example: JPP-2017-0059): The JPP Editorial Office, Phone: (994) 50 349-29-48; E-mail: submissions@jpp.az 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Manuscripts must be submitted to JPP via www.jpp.az portal. Please contact the JPP Editorial Office at (994) 50 349 29 48 or submissions@jpp.az if you have any questions about submitting your manuscript online. 

• In some exceptional cases manuscripts may be submitted by e-mail.
• Submit text files only as .DOC, .DOCX, or .RTF file formats. Other file formats are not permitted and should be converted to .DOC or .DOCX.
• Authors are required to email or upload any permissions that may have been obtained for figures or tables or any permissions required for patient consent.
• Please include the permanent manuscript ID on all correspondence (example JPP-2017-0059).

Article Processing Fees

In order to sustain the open access policy the special fee is charged for accepted article (manuscript) to pay for maintaining published articles in online repositories. In addition, articles need graphics, formatting, and the editing services we provide, in order to meet rigorous academic standards. Like any other open access publishing company, Uptodate In Medicine Health Sciences Publishing has dedicated staff of professionals working to maintain the journal and advance the open access platform for scientists and clinicians from all over the world. It is for the above reasons that we charge article processing fees. Article processing fees are fixed based on number of criteria including country of origin, status of the lead author, and type of article. Average article processing fee is: for article in Azerbaijani language - 50 AZN; for English language article - 100 AZN; for Russian language article - 50 AZN. 

We do have a waiver and reduced fee policy for authors from countries of FSU and low income countries who cannot pay. Consideration of research articles is not related to ability to pay the fee and we ask authors not to discuss with editors any issues concerning payment at any stage of the peer review process. Any communications related to fees are handled by administrative staff not involved in decisions about manuscripts.

The JPP publication licence allows each author to post their article's URL (provided above) on either their own or their organization's website, thereby giving users free access to the full text of the article on jpp.az. Alternatively, authors can post the full text of their published article on their own website or their employer's website.

Peer review process

Author Withdrawal Policy
From time to time, an author may wish to withdraw a manuscript after submitting it. It is an author’s prerogative and we respect that decision. And an author is free to withdraw an article at no charge – as long as it is withdrawn within 15 days of its initial submission. If you have concerns or questions about it, please contact us for details.

Presubmission Inquiries
Due to the high volume of submissions we receive, JPP considers presubmission inquiries on case-by-case basis. Instead, please submit full manuscripts online at www.jpp.az and we will assist you in every way we can.

Tobacco Policy
The JPP will not consider any work that is funded directly or indirectly by tobacco companies or their affiliates. Any such work will be editorially rejected. 

Copyright

Upon receipt of accepted manuscripts at JPP, authors will be required to complete an copyright licence to publish form. Authors are hereby informed that by submitting an article for publication they confirm being the corresponding/submitting author and that Azerbaijan Journal of Perinatology and Pediatrics (JPP) may retain their email address and other contact details for the purpose of communicating with them about the article. Authors shall agree to notify JPP immediately about changes in their contact details. If article is accepted for publication, JPP will contact corresponding authors initially using the email address that was used in the registration process. JPP allows the author(s) to hold the copyright without restrictions. 

Required Materials
The following items are required to be included with the online submission:

• Cover letter that describes the significance and novelty of the work and includes the statements ‘‘All authors have read and approved the manuscript’’ and “This manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere” as well as any additional information that may impact the review process.
• Corresponding author’s complete contact information to include address, phone number, and e-mail address(es).
• Manuscript type (eg, Editorial, Review Article, Original Article, Case Report, Letters to Editor, Research Article, etc.)
• Running head of maximum 45 characters
• Abstract of no more than 300 words for Original and Review Articles
• The discipline best suited for the Original article and Review article
• Condensed abstract of 3 short sentences
• 5 keywords
• Full names and affiliations of all authors, complete with first and middle names or initials, and e-mail addresses of each
• Reviewer suggestions that include names and e-mail addresses (if any)
• Funding and conflict of interest information
• Listing of individual author contributions to the work
• Indication of whether or not the paper was invited 

Manuscript Types
Papers that exceed the length limitations as described in this guide will not be considered for review.

• Original (Clinical Research) Articles: Scientific reports of the results of original clinical research. The text is limited to 5000 words including the title page, abstract, text, references, and tables. Abstracts are limited to 250 words.
• Original (Public Health Research) Articles: original research, including evaluations of public health interventions or programmes, and public health practice original work on audit, workforce or resource development. The text is limited to 5000 words including the title page, abstract, text, references, and tables. Abstracts are limited to 250 words.
• Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses: The review should be less than 5000 words (not including abstract, references, and tables). There should be a structured abstract of up to 300 words (using the headings: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions). There should be upto 5 keywords and up to 40 references. 
• Review Articles: A timely, in-depth and detailed review and discussion of a particular health issue, medical problem or disease. Review articles are generally solicited by the editors. JPP would on case-by-case basis but unsolicited materials will be considered. Review articles must be no longer than 5000 words including title page, abstract (no more than 250 words), text, tables, and references.
• Clinical case / Short reports: Short reports follow the same format as original articles. However, the short reports should contain less than 1200 words, and also maximum one table or figure. Abstracts are required with short reports, but should not be structured, and be no longer than 100 words. Maximum number of allowed references is 10 per each short report.
• Editorials: Opinions of recognized leaders in various fields of medical and public health specialties. Editorials are usually solicited by the Editor-in-Chief and in some circumstances by section editors and are related to a manuscript in the same issue. Length should not exceed 1500 words with no more than 15 references.
• Commentaries: Presents a point of view of general interest not related to an article in the same issue of JPP issue.
• Letter to editor. Letters to the Editor discuss a specific publication by the Journal.

Manuscript Style

Prepare the manuscript using spelling and grammar in the language of submission. The following sources should be used as guidelines during manuscript preparation:

• Matters of spelling, capitalization, punctuation, hyphenation, reference format, and general style: AMA Manual of Style, 10th ed.
• Citing cancer stages: UICC TNM Classification of Malignant Tumors
• Histologic classification of tumors: World Health Organization International Histological Classification of Tumours
• Drug naming: International Drug Names, 2009
• Terms relating to diseases, operations, and procedures: ICD-O-3, ICD-10
• Units of measure: Systéme International (SI) or metric system.

Manuscript Format
The following components are required for a complete manuscript:

• cover letter,
• title page (including all disclosure and support statements),
• abstract,
• text,
• references,
• figure legends,
• publication quality figures,
• and tables.

Page numbers shall be included on the document, beginning with the title page as number 1. Please use standard 12-point font size. Manuscript should be double spaced.

Title Page
The following items are required on the title page:

• Manuscript title
• Running title: a short version of the title (up to 40 characters including spaces)
• Each author's name, academic degrees, and affiliation (all affiliations must be translated into English).
• Complete mailing address, telephone, fax number and e-mail for correspondence and reprints.
• Total number of: 1) text pages, including title page, references, and figure legends; 2) tables; and 3) figures.
• Information about any funding sources for the submitted work. All financial and material support for the research and the work, inclusive of source and number of grants for each author, should be listed. If the research and work was conducted with no specific funding, this should be explicitly stated. Sample: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [P50 CA098252 and CA118790 to R.B.S.R.] and the Alcohol & Education Research Council [HFY GR667789].
• All conflict of interest disclosures. If there are no conflict of interest disclosures from any authors, this shall be clearly stated.
• Author contributions section to include details of each author's contributions to the work.
• Abstract: Original and Review Articles must contain an abstract of approximately 250 words. Abstracts should have four specified subtitles: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusion(s). Abstracts are not required for Editorials, Commentaries and Case reports.
• Keywords: 5 key words or terms to be used as index terms. 

Protection of Human and Animal Subjects
JPP endorses the principles embodied in the Declaration of Helsinki and expects that all investigations involving humans will have been performed in accordance with these principles.

All manuscripts reporting human experimentation must include:

• A statement that the human investigations were performed after approval by an institutional review board or ethics committee and in accordance with national legislation and/or regulations of country's health authorities where appropriate. In case of absence of or inaccessability of formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki should be followed.
• A statement confirming that investigators obtained informed consent from each participant (or guardian in relevant cases).

When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.

Photographs With Identifiable Patients
In photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., the physical identification of a patient should be masked whenever possible. If a patient is identifiable, written permission to use the photograph must be obtained from the patient(or guardian) and sent to the JPP's Editorial Office during manuscript submission.

Clinical Trial Registry

JPP requires that all prospective, randomized, controlled trials with patient enrollment starting on or after September 1, 2015, be registered in a public database that meets the requirements of the World Health Organization. Currently, such registries include the following:  actr.org.au,  clinicaltrials.gov, ISRCTN.org,  and trialregister.nl.

Upon submission, please provide the registration identification number and the web link for the trial’s registry in cover letter submitted wit your manuscript.

Randomized Controlled Trials
Reports of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) must include clear information on generation of comparison groups. In the title, conclusions and abstract, it shall be specified that the manuscript is a report of an RCT. Prior to submitting an RCT manuscript, authors should refer to the CONSORT checklist. A copy of the 25-item checklist should be uploaded along with your submitted paper.

Observational Studies
Observational studies (cohort, case-control, or cross-sectional designs) must be reported according to the STROBE statement. A completed STROBE checklist should be uploaded along with your submitted paper.

Statistical Analysis

The following guidelines should be followed:

• Report the sample size for each study and each analysis
• Describe the power analysis to justify the sample size if appropriate
• Identify all statistical methods and verify the assumptions for all statistical tests
• Provide alpha (the probability of a Type I error) for all statistical tests
• Specify whether tests are one- or two-sided
• Report the descriptive statistics (n, mean, median, and standard deviation) for all continuous variables
• Explain complex statistical procedures such a multivariate logistic regression and the Cox proportional hazard regression model
• Report the actual P-values and explain what is meant by statistical significance

Drugs and Devices

Use generic drug name (or generic name followed by trade name in parentheses). 

Abbreviations

Use only standard abbreviations and provide spelling of all abbreviations at first use in the text followed by the abbreviation in parentheses.

References

Submit references as outlined below:

• List references in separate section immediately following the text.
• Verify all references prior to submission.
• References shall be numbered and put in the list according to the order they appear in the text. 
• References shall not be alphabetized; they need to be numbered manually. 
• Reference to an article or report accepted but not yet published in any peer reviewed journal can be listed as ‘‘in press.’’ These references shall be updated by the authors as soon as the articles have been published.
• Provide names of all authors in a reference when there are five or fewer; if there are six or more authors, list only the first three, followed by ‘‘et al."
• Reference types. Please follow the requirements and use below examples for common reference types: 
• Journal references include the specified information listed in the following order—authors, article title and subtitle, journal abbreviation, year, volume number in Arabic numerals, and inclusive pages. Example 1: Maggie C Louie, Mary B Sevigny: Steroid hormone receptors as prognostic markers in breast cancer. Am J Cancer Res 2017;7(8):1617-1636.
• Book references should follow these order: authors, title, edition, volume (if more than one), city, publisher, and year of publishing.

Additional samples for references:

• Article in a foreign language: As above. Include an English translation in parentheses after the original title.
• Book Chapter: Weinstein L, Swartz MN. Pathologic properties of invading microorganisms. In: Sodeman WA Jr, Sodeman WA, editors. Pathologic physiology: mechanisms of disease. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1974:457-72.
• Conference paper: Harley NH. Comparing radon daughter dosimetric and risk models. In: Gammage RB, Kaye SV, editors. Indoor air and human health. Proceedings of the Seventh Life Sciences Symposium; 1984 Oct 29-31; Knoxville (TN). Chelsea (MI): Lewis, 1985:69-78.
• Dissertation: Youssef NM. School adjustment of children with congenital heart disease [dissertation]. Pittsburgh (PA): Univ of Pittsburgh, 1988.
• Website: Federal Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs, Austria: http://www.bmags.gv.at Accessed [Date (i.e. date reference item accessed on organization website)].

Tables

• Tables should be submitted single-spaced on separate pages in the word processing program. If the table is imported from spreadsheet programs, like Ms Excel, they should be left in table format and not to be converted to text or submitted as picture.
• All tables shall be cited in the text. Number tables consecutively, using Arabic numerals, in the order cited in the text. The table number needs to be followed by a brief descriptive title.
• If table continued to next page of manuscript, please include table number followed by "continued.  
• All abbreviations used in the table shall be explained in footnotes to the table.

Figures and Legends

• Submit only publication quality figures in TIFF or EPS file format. JPEG and GIF files are not permitted.
• The following resolutions are required to ensure print quality: 1200 dpi for line art; 300 dpi for halftones/color (RGB); 600 dpi for combination halftones/color.
• Figures should be sized to one-column width (19 picas, 3.25 inches), or two-column width (40 picas, 6.75 inches), as appropriate.
• Name all figures in the text. Number all figures sequentially with Arabic numerals in the order cited in the text.
• Do not use overall background shading in figures. Do not use gray-shaded bars in graphs—use bars with solid, open, or hatched fill.
• Figures with multiple parts should be labeled and referred to as (a), (b), (c), etc.
• Obtain written permission to reproduce previously published figures.
• Do not embed figures in word processing programs (eg, Microsoft Word).
• Mask any patient identification in photographs; otherwise, a signed permission statement is required.

Supplementary material

Supplementary material is one that is not crucial for inclusion in the full text of the manuscript. It is merely intended to provide additional information to the reader. JPP can make supplemental materials available only as online content, linked to the online manuscript. There is no charge for the publication of such a supplementary data/tables/figures. However, it shall be emphasized that such material should not be essential to understanding the conclusions of the paper.

Please check that…

1. … there is a minimum font size of 12 throughout the contribution, including the reference list, the tables and figures.
2. …the text has double line spacing (2.0) throughout the contribution, including the reference list, the tables and figures.
3. … the word count and maximum number of references are within the limits for the contribution type, in accordance with the quidelines above.
4. … there is a maximum of 4 medium-sized tables/figuresin total (additional tables figures can be added as online-only supplementary files).
5. … there is a title page in the main document, including the information stated in the Instructions to authors.
6. … the abstract is structured under the following headings: Background, Methods, Results, Conclusion.
7. … the main text is structured under the following headings: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion.
8. … there are conflict of interest and funding statements under the subheadings Conflict of interest and Funding. They are placed after the main text, before the references
9. … there are three to five bulleted key points after the main text, before the references. 
10. ... any figures are uploaded in separate files, using the file formats specified in the online submission guide in the Instructions to Authors.
11. … the tables and figures are appearing only once throughout the documents (no duplicates allowed). 

Permissions

Use of previously published or copyrighted material

Information obtained and used from another source must be properly cited. The submitting author is responsible for obtaining written permission from the appropriate authors and/or copyright holders to use previously published or copyrighted material. Signed permission statements from the authors or copyright holders of original text or information shall be sent to the JPP's Editorial Office along with manuscript submission.

AUTHORSHIP

Authorship Responsibility

Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. Authorship credit should be based on the following criteria 1) Substantial contributions to idea of research/work and its design, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3) Final approval of the version to be published; and 4) Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work. All four conditions must be met.

Large group of authors sign the authorship on behalf of the group with/without specifying the names of each of them. In this case, the manuscript is authorized by the responsible author, and the group is given a name. The list of names of non-authors, but persons who contributed to the submitted work, do not meet the criteria of authorship is presented separately. 

Non-authors and contributors do not meet all four authorship criteria. Their functions may be: funding, management of the research team, general administrative support, participation in writing, technical revision of the text, scientific revision of the text, correction and proofreading. Their contribution is noted individually or as part of a group in the Acknowledgements section, their contribution to the work must be defined in writing (scientific consultant, critical data analysis, data collection, etc.)

License Agreements

If your paper is accepted, the corresponding author will receive an email prompting them to complete the appropriate license agreement on behalf of all authors on the paper.

Conflicts of Interest

At the time of manuscript submission, the Journal requires corresponding authors to summarize all authors' conflict of interest disclosures. This conflict of interest information is provided to editors and peer reviewers. 

Language editing

If English is not your first language, before submitting your manuscript you may wish to have it edited for language. This is not a mandatory step, but may help to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers. Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication. There are many specialist language editing companies that offer this service and you can use any of these. Authors are liable for all costs associated with such services. JPP uses the Medical Translation Services for translation and editing services.