All manuscripts should be prepared in Microsoft Word format, in Times New Roman, font size
12 for English, typed in double space and one-inch margins on single-sided A4 paper. In case
of quantitative/experimental work, the author(s) must specify the purpose of the study. The
text of observational and experimental articles should usually be divided into the following
sections with the headings, such as Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion to
clarify their content. All pages of the manuscript should be numbered consecutively at the
right corner of the page.
The Title page (page-1) must contain title of the article, name(s) of the corresponding
author(s) telephone, and email address of the author responsible for correspondence. It must
also contain the source(s) of support if any received in the form of grants, equipment,
drugs. The word count should include text of the article only (excluding abstract,
acknowledgements, figure legends, and references). This page should also indicate the number
of figures used in the article. Page-2, must contain only title of the article, abstract and
keywords. Page-3 onwards must contain the actual article beginning with the Title and ending
with References.
Abstract: An abstract is a succinct (one paragraph) summary of the entire
paper. A concise
and factual abstract is required (maximum length of 250 words). The abstract should state
briefly the aims, methods, results and major conclusion of the research. From the abstract,
a reader should be able to make out the content of the article. Hence, it requires special
attention of the author. An abstract is often presented as separate from the article, so it
must be able to stand alone. References should be avoided.
Keywords: Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 8 keywords,
avoiding general
and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, ‘and’, ‘of’).
Introduction: The main purpose of the introduction is to provide the
necessary background or
context of the study (i.e the nature of the problem and its significance). State the
specific purpose or objective of the study. Provide a brief but appropriate historical
backdrop and the contemporary context in which the proposed research question occupies the
central stage.
Methods: Methods section must succinctly describe what was actually done.
Describe the
source population and the selection criteria for study participants. Identify the methods,
apparatus, and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the
results. Authors submitting review manuscripts should describe the methods used for
locating, selecting, extracting and synthesizing data. Describe statistical methods with
enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify
the reported results.
Results: Authors must avoid repeating in the text, all the data provided in
the tables or
illustrations and graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries or duplicate data in
graphs and tables. This section must focus on scientifically appropriate analyses of the
salient data.
Discussion: This section must emphasize the new and important aspects of
the study and the
conclusions that follow from them. For experimental studies it is useful to begin the
discussion by summarizing briefly the main findings, and then explore possible mechanisms or
explanations for these findings. Compare and contrast the results with other relevant
studies, state the limitations of the study, and explore the implications of the findings
for future research and clinical practice.
References: References must be written according to the guidelines of
Publication Manual of
the American Psychological Association (6th edition). Responsibility for the accuracy of
bibliographic citations lies entirely with the authors.
Use the author/date system of reference in the text (e.g., Chomsky, 1997). Gather the
references alphabetically after the text, using last names and first initials.
Original Articles: Original articles must report research work which has not been published
and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.