Author Instruction

Aim & Scope

Avicenna Journal of Aging and Healthcare (AJAH) aims to improve the health of the elderly in physical, sexual, psychological, spiritual, and social dimensions by publishing the results of applied and basic research in the field of aging. Diagnosis, treatment, etiology, risk factors, early diagnosis, prognosis, clinical interventions, prevention, and new models of providing health services for diseases related to aging are essential topics in this journal. The present journal welcomes original articles, review articles, letters to the editor, short communications, case reports, and case series regarding geriatric health, social welfare, social work and social policy, mental health, diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases, sexual health, and nutrition in the elderly. 

Content coverage

AJAH publishes high-quality papers on aging and healthcare. This Journal is published two times a year and welcomes original articles, review articles, letters to the editor, short communications, case reports, and case series regarding geriatric health, social welfare, social work and social policy, mental health, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic diseases, sexual health, and nutrition in the elderly. AJAH is an open-access journal with no review and publication processing charge and is freely available to any user or institution.

Who is the author?

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;

2. Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content

3. Final approval of the version to be published

4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work. In addition, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors. All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged. These authorship criteria are intended to reserve the status of authorship for those who deserve credit and can take responsibility for the work. The criteria are not intended for use to disqualify colleagues from authorship who otherwise meet authorship criteria by denying them the opportunity to meet the criterion. Therefore, all individuals who meet the first criterion should have the opportunity to participate in the review, drafting, and final approval of the manuscript.

The individuals who conduct the work are responsible for identifying who meets these criteria and ideally should do so when planning the work, making modifications as appropriate as the work progresses. We encourage collaboration and co-authorship with colleagues in the locations where the research is conducted. It is the collective responsibility of the authors, not the journal to which the work is submitted, to determine that all people named as authors meet all four criteria; it is not the role of journal editors to determine who qualifies or does not qualify for authorship or to arbitrate authorship conflicts. If agreement cannot be reached about who qualifies for authorship, the institution(s) where the work was performed, not the journal editor, should be asked to investigate. The criteria used to determine the order in which authors are listed on the byline may vary and are to be decided collectively by the author group and not by editors. If authors request the removal or addition of an author after manuscript submission or publication, journal editors should seek an explanation and signed statement of agreement for the requested change from all listed authors and from the author to be removed or added.

The corresponding author is the one individual who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer-review, and publication process. The corresponding author typically ensures that all the journal's administrative requirements, such as providing details of authorship, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation, and disclosures of relationships and activities, are properly completed and reported, although these duties may be delegated to one or more co-authors. The corresponding author should be available throughout the submission and peer-review process to respond to editorial queries in a timely way and should be available after publication to respond to critiques of the work and cooperate with any requests from the journal for data or additional information should questions about the paper arise after publication. Although the corresponding author has primary responsibility for correspondence with the journal, the ICMJE recommends that editors send copies of all correspondence to all listed authors.

When a large multi-author group has conducted the work, the group ideally should decide who will be an author before the work is started and confirm who is an author before submitting the manuscript for publication. All members of the group named as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, including approval of the final manuscript, and they should be able to take public responsibility for the work and should have full confidence in the accuracy and integrity of the work of other group authors. They will also be expected as individuals to complete disclosure forms. Some large multi-author groups designate authorship by a group name, with or without the names of individuals. When submitting a manuscript authored by a group, the corresponding author should specify the group name if one exists, and clearly identify the group members who can take credit and responsibility for the work as authors. The byline of the article identifies who is directly responsible for the manuscript, and MEDLINE lists as authors whichever names appear on the byline. If the byline includes a group name, MEDLINE will list the names of individual group members who are authors or who are collaborators, sometimes called non-author contributors, if there is a note associated with the byline clearly stating that the individual names are elsewhere in the paper and whether those names are authors or collaborators.

Non-Author Contributors

Contributors who meet fewer than all 4 of the above criteria for authorship should not be listed as authors, but they should be acknowledged. Examples of activities that alone (without other contributions) do not qualify a contributor for authorship are acquisition of funding; general supervision of a research group or general administrative support; and writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, and proofreading. Those whose contributions do not justify authorship may be acknowledged individually or together as a group under a single heading (e.g., “Clinical Investigators” or “Participating Investigators”), and their contributions should be specified (e.g., “served as scientific advisors,” “critically reviewed the study proposal,” “collected data,” “provided and cared for study patients,” “participated in writing or technical editing of the manuscript”). Because acknowledgment may imply endorsement by acknowledged individuals of a study's data and conclusions, editors are advised to require that the corresponding author obtain written permission to be acknowledged by all acknowledged individuals.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)–Assisted Technology

At submission, the journal should require authors to disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)– assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in the production of submitted work. Authors who use such technology should describe, in both the cover letter and the submitted work, how they used it. Chatbots (such as ChatGPT) should not be listed as authors because they cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work, and these responsibilities are required for authorship. Therefore, humans are responsible for any submitted material that includes the use of AI-assisted technologies. Authors should carefully review and edit the result because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors should not list AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. Authors should be able to assert that there is no plagiarism in their paper, including in text and images produced by the AI. Humans must ensure there is appropriate attribution of all quoted material, including full citations.

For more information see https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf 

Types of articles and their structures

Original articles

These articles include randomized controlled trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, outcome studies, cost-effectiveness analyses, case-control series, and surveys with high response rates. The text of original articles amounting to up to  3000 words (excluding Abstract, references, and Tables) should be divided into sections with the headings Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Declarations, References. Tables and Figures must be inserted in the text of the manuscript.

Introduction: State the background, rationale, and the main purpose of the study.

Materials and Methods: It should include and describe the following aspects: Selection and Description of Participants, Technical information, and Statistics.

Study design

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. Identify precisely 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).

Reporting Guidelines for Specific Study Designs

• Randomized trials       CONSORT     https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/consort/
• Observational studies  STROBE         https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/strobe/
• Systematic reviews     PRISMA         https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/prisma/
• Study protocols           SPIRIT            https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/spirit-2013-statement-defining-standard-protocol-items-for-clinical-trials/
• Diagnostic/prognostic studies STARD           https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/stard/
• Case reports    CARE https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/care/
• Clinical practice guidelines     AGREE          https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/the-agree-reporting-checklist-a-tool-to-improve-reporting-of-clinical-practice-guidelines/
• Qualitative research    SRQR https://www.equatornetwork.org/?post_type=eq_guidelines&eq_guidelines_study_design=qualitativeresearch&eq_guidelines_clinical_specialty=0&eq_guidelines_report_section=0&s=
• Animal pre-clinical studies      ARRIVE         https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/improving-bioscience-research-reporting-the-arrive-guidelines-for-reporting-animal-research/
• Quality improvement studies  SQUIRE         https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/squire/
• Economic evaluations CHEERS        https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/cheers/

More information is at https://www.equator-network.org/

Statistics: Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to judge its appropriateness for the study and to verify the reported results. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Avoid relying solely on statistical hypothesis testing, such as P values, which fail to convey important information about effect size and precision of estimates. References for the design of the study and statistical methods should be to standard works when possible (with pages stated). Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Specify the statistical software package(s) and versions used. Distinguish prespecified from exploratory analyses, including subgroup analyses. Avoid non-technical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as 'random' (which implies a randomizing device), 'normal', 'significant', 'correlations', and 'sample'. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Specify the computer software used. Use upper italics (P 0.048). For all P values include the exact value and not less than 0.05 or 0.001. Mean differences in continuous variables, proportions in categorical variables, and relative risks including odds ratios and hazard ratios should be accompanied by their confidence intervals.

Results: Present your results in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations. Extra- or supplementary materials and technical detail can be placed in an appendix where it will be accessible but will not interrupt the flow of the text; alternatively, it can be published only in the electronic version of the journal.

When data are summarized in the Results section, give numeric results not only as derivatives (for example, percentages) but also as the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated, and specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Where scientifically appropriate, analyses of the data by variables such as age and sex should be included.

Discussion: Include a summary of key findings (primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, results as they relate to a prior hypothesis); Strengths and limitations of the study (study question, study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation); Interpretation and implications in the context of the totality of evidence (is there a systematic review to refer to, if not, could one be reasonably done here and now?, what this study adds to the available evidence, effects on patient care and health policy, possible mechanisms); Controversies raised by this study; and Future research directions (for this particular research collaboration, underlying mechanisms, clinical research).
Do not repeat in detail data or other material given in the Introduction or the Results section. In particular, contributors should avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless their manuscript includes economic data and analyses. Avoid claiming priority and alluding to work that has not been completed. New hypotheses may be stated if needed, however, they should be clearly labeled as such.

Conclusion: In this section, you answer the main purpose of the research and provide suggestions for this research and future studies.

About 50 references can be included. These articles generally should not have more than six authors.

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 http://www.wma.net/e/policy/17-c_e.html). For prospective studies involving human participants, authors are expected to mention about approval of (the 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 the 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.

The authors must supply evidence for approval by a local Ethics Committee (for both human and animal studies) on demand. Animal experimental procedures should be as humane as possible and the details of anesthetics and analgesics used should be clearly stated. The ethical standards of experiments must be in accordance with the guidelines provided by the CPCSEA and World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki on Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Humans for studies involving experimental animals and human beings, respectively). The journal will not consider any paper which is ethically unacceptable. A statement on ethics committee permission and ethical practices must be included in all research articles under the ‘Declarations: Ethical Consideration’ section.

Narrative reviews

It is expected that these articles would be written by individuals who have done substantial work on the subject or are considered experts in the field. A short summary of the work done by the contributor(s) in the field of review should accompany the manuscript.

The prescribed word count is up to 3,500 words excluding tables, references, and abstracts. The manuscript may have about 100 references. The manuscript should have an unstructured Abstract (250 words) representing an accurate summary of the article. The section titles would depend upon the topic reviewed. Authors submitting review articles should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data. These methods should also be summarized in the abstract.

The journal expects the contributors to give post-publication updates on the subject of review. The update should be brief, covering the advances in the field after the publication of the article, and should be sent as a letter to the editor, as and when major development occurs in the field.

Systematic reviews and meta-analysis

This article must be written based on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA-2020) and Synthesis without Meta-analysis (SWiM) for only systematic reviews. This type of study can have 3000-8000 words, a maximum of 5 tables and figures, and up to 100 references. Its structure includes Introduction, materials and methods, Results, discussion, and conclusion, declarations (Acknowledgments, ethical considerations, conflict of interest, author contributions, funding)

Case reports or case series

New, interesting, and rare cases can be reported. They should be unique, describing a great diagnostic or therapeutic challenge and providing a learning point for the readers. Cases with clinical significance or implications will be given priority. These communications could have 1500-2000 (excluding Abstract and references), a maximum of 2 tables and figures, and 10 references that should have the following headings: Abstract (unstructured), Key-words, Introduction, Case report, Discussion, Reference, Tables and Legends in the text of the manuscript. Case Reports could be authored by up to four authors.

Letter to the Editor

These should be short and decisive observations. They should preferably be related to articles previously published in the Journal or views expressed in the journal. They should not be preliminary observations that need a later paper for validation. The letter could have 500-1000 words and 5 references. It could be generally authored by not more than four authors.

Other

Editorial, Guest Editorial, Commentary, and Opinion are solicited by the editorial board.

Manuscript preparation

1-Title page

This section contains general information about the article and the authors. It includes the full title of the article, the names of the authors ordered based on their contribution to the article and their affiliations, declarations (Acknowledgments, ethical considerations, conflict of interest, author contributions, funding), number of words in the body of the article, number of tables, figures, diagrams, type of article (original, review, Letter to editor, case report, case series, and short communication), and running title (it is a brief description of the whole article and should include information that, along with the abstract, improves the electronic retrieval of the article). The title of the study should include key variables and a reference to the study method. Maximum title words should be 12 words in Times New Roman with a font size of 14. The Running title is the short form of the main title written at the top and left of the pages of the article with the font Times New Roman with size 10. The number of words used in a Running title is a maximum of 6 keywords.

2-Authors, Affiliation

In this section, authors’ names and surnames, their affiliation (academic rank, department, research center (if there is one) or student research committee, faculty, university, city, country). The ORCID for each author must be provided in the authors’ section of the online submission. It’s required to provide detailed information for the corresponding author including postal address, phone number, and E-Mail. The corresponding is marked with a star, for example, Ali Ahmadi ¹*

Authors' names must be in Times New Roman font with size 10.

Example for the corresponding author (whether a student, faculty member, employee, etc.): 

1* Corresponding author: Associate Professor, Department of Nephrology, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Ghods St., Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tel:+982188765612, abc@gmail.com

Example for Other faculty members:

1. Associate Professor, Department of Nephrology, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of

 Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Example for students:

Medical Student, Student Research Committee, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of

 Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Example for university staff:

M.Sc. of Nursing, Student Research Committee, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Examples for non-faculty, non-students, and non-employees:

M.Sc. of Nursing, Student Research Committee, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Note: Academic degrees from the lowest to the highest level, respectively; Bachelor (B.Sc.), Master (M.Sc.), (Ph.D.), (Pharm. D.), Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), Doctor of Dentistry (D.M.D.), Resident.

3. Abstract

The abstract should reflect the background, the concept of the research, and the most important and latest observations. This section describes the purpose of the study, methods, main findings, and conclusions. After the title and authors' information on the title page, the abstract contains the components mentioned in Table 1 based on the type of manuscript. The keywords selected at the end of the abstract should be based on Medical Subject Heading (MeSH). The method for extracting the MeSH keyword is as follows:

 the PubMed database on the main page of the database, select the MeSH in the database selection toolbar, enter the main study keywords in the MeSH search box, and select a bold word based on the researcher’s desired meaning and concept. For example, for the concept of Cancer in the MeSH, the term chosen would be Neoplasms.

4. Introduction 

This section includes the background of the study, the research problem, the necessity of the study, the research gap, and the aims and hypotheses of the research. It’s required to cite related resources in the introduction section. Avoid mentioning footnotes in all parts of the article. For abbreviations, it must be written the full form of the term and then abbreviation in parentheses. After that, the Acronym alone can be used in the next use cases. The font of the Introduction is Times New Roman with size 12.

In order to prevent misleading readers: Use only standard abbreviations and avoid using abbreviations in the title and abstract of the article.

Note: The difference between Abbreviation and Acronym:

Abbreviation: any shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase that can be the name of a country, organization, or anything else. There are thousands of examples of these abbreviations in every field today. Example: St. Instead of Street

Acronym: a specific type of abbreviation formed from the first letters of a multi-word term, name, or phrase, with those letters pronounced together as one term. Example: UNESCO

Note: Acronym is part of the abbreviation. The opposite is not true.

For more information see https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf

5. Materials and Methods

This section should mention the type and method of conducting the research and how and why the study is conducted. Information about the study population, sample, tools, and methods of data collection and data analysis method (statistical tests used and data analysis software) should be provided. In terms of font and font size, it is similar to the introduction section.

For more information see https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf

6. Results

In this section, the answers to the aims and hypotheses of the research should be provided in a logical order, based on the data obtained from the primary and secondary results. The most important findings should be organized logically through texts, tables, figures, and diagrams. In reporting the study's findings, past tense verbs should be used. Emphasize the most important observations and pay attention to summarizing the findings. Use charts as an alternative to tables with multiple entries. Demographic data should be reported first in studies containing these data. In the results section, avoid repeating the information contained in the tables and figures.

Tables, figures, charts

• The data in the table should provide readers with concise, more detailed information. The tables should be numbered consecutively, in the order of the first citation in the text, and with a separate title for each table.
• The table's title should be short, without the need for a description, and contain enough information to allow the reader to understand its content without re-referring to the text of the article.
• Each table should be placed on a separate page and below the description of the table.
• If a table is placed on more than one page, the titles of each column should be mentioned on the following pages and the word "continue" should be written in parentheses in front of the table number.
• The titles of the tables should be placed above, and the titles of the figures and diagrams below them should be written in Times New Roman font with size 10. The content of the tables should be in the same font and font size and not bold.
• Each column in the table should have a short title or summary.
• Additional descriptions of the table should come below the table using the * sign.
• In the case of using tables of other sources, permission must be granted first. Also, the original source must be cited.
• Empty table cells should be avoided as much as possible. The issue can be managed sometimes by combining rows or columns.
• The table should be designed so that its margins are consistent with the width of an A4 sheet.

Shapes and diagrams:

• It should have high quality and clarity.
• All letters, numbers, and symbols must be clear.
• They should be designed in such a way that they can be used directly without the need for explanation.
• It should be drawn in black and white and with the name of the software with which the shape or diagram is drawn. The numbering should be sequential and based on the order of citation in the text.
• If they have already been published in another source, in order to print and reuse it, written permission from the copyright owner must be attached and cited.

Note: The number of tables, figures, and diagrams in the article is limited and, a table or a figure or a diagram is permitted for every 1000 words.

7. Discussion

The discussion begins with a brief report of the main findings of the research. The most important and latest aspects of the study should be noted, along with comparing the research results with other related studies. Research limitations and suggestions for future research should also be mentioned

8. Conclusion

In the general conclusion of the research, the findings of the present research and its comparison with related studies should be used.

9. Declarations

After the Discussion and Conclusion section, the sub-headings of Ethical Guidelines, Financial Support, Conflict of Interest, acknowledgment, and funding come under the heading of Declarations. This section must be in the same font and size of other parts of the manuscript.

• Acknowledgments

  This section should be written in the first person and as short as possible, and individuals or organizations that have helped the authors do the research should be appreciated.

   

• Ethical considerations

  In this section, any Ethics Code obtained from reputable centers should be mentioned.

  Example: This research was conducted with the Ethics Code ....... obtained from the National Ethics Committee in Biomedical Research.

  Note: If there is no Ethics Code, the cases in the research where the ethical requirements were met should be referred. Including the confidentiality of the data identity of the participants.

  If the published article is the result of a research proposal or a thesis, it is necessary to mention the following:

  This article is the result of a research proposal entitled .........., approved by the University of ..........., in the year .......... with the Ethics Code ....... obtained from the National Ethics Committee in Biomedical Research.

  This article is the result of a (Bachelor’s / Master’s / M.D. / MD-PhD) thesis entitled .........., approved by the University of ........ in the year ........ with the Ethics Code ....... obtained from the National Ethics Committee in Biomedical Research.

• Conflict of interest

  In general, conflicts of interest occur when personal or economic interests conflict with their professional or organizational duties.

  In research, the possibility of conflict in the interests is present. Hence, if any researcher attempts to hide the interests of the research, it is a moral and legal violation has occurred.

  Example: The authors state that there is no conflict of interest.

   

• Author contributions

  In this section, you must mention the contribution of each author according to the rules of authorship in ICMJE. For example, A.Z. and D.S contributed to research conceptualization. S.R. collected research data and M.E. analyzed the data. All the authors contributed to the manuscript drafting and conforming the final version of the article.

   

• Financial Support

In all research articles, the section on financial appreciation is placed in one sentence and separately under the sub-heading "Financial Support": Authors should ensure that they mention any received financial support from any organization in conducting their research.

Example: This research has been done with the financial support of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran with the code.......

10. References

This section is written under the heading References in Times New Roman font and font size 10. The study's bibliographic information of all references used (including printed references, unpublished materials, audio-visual media, and internet references) should be written in the order of citation in the text. The citation should be aligned with the Vancouver International Standard Declaration on all articles.

Citation in the Body of the article

In Vancouver citation, a single number is assigned to each reference in the order of use in the body, which will be fixed in subsequent reference uses. The reference number is placed in parentheses () preceded by a comma, a period, a colon, and a semicolon.

• If the reference numbers are not consecutive, the reference numbers should come in parentheses without spaces. Example: This factor affects health (1,3).
• If the numbers of the cited references are consecutive, the - sign is used to indicate the beginning and the end of the sequence. Example: This factor affects health (1-3).
• How to mention the author's name in the text:

• One author: Rezaei (1)
• Two authors: Mohammadi and Akbari (1)
• More than two authors: First, the name of the first author and then the word "et al." Mehrpooya et al. (1)

11. References

• The References contain all the information needed to refer to and access the desired reference.
• The References are organized at the end of the body, based on the body's citation order.
• Abbreviations of journals indexed by the National Library of Medicine should be listed in the References. For other magazines, check their website and use their abbreviations if available. The following is the URL to access the abbreviations of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) indexed journals:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals/

This list also includes abbreviations of journals indexed in PubMed, Medline, and PMC. After accessing the web above address and finding the exact title of the journal, in the NLM Title Abbreviation section, copy the mentioned abbreviation to the journal name section in the citation program or the right place manually.

Example: For the Journal of Osteopathic Medicine, the abbreviation in NLM is “J Osteopath Med.”

• In Endnote, a Terms List can be created, the Endnote’s Terms List with more than 14,000 journal names can be used.
• From one to six authors:

Bavandpour E, Azami Z, Bavandpour M, Afsordeh O, Delpisheh A. Survey effective factors of people's health literacy Kermanshah city. Journal of Health Literacy. 2017;2(2):81-7.

• More than six authors:

De Lima M, McNiece I, Robinson SN, Munsell M, Eapen M, Horowitz M, et al. Cord-blood engraftment with ex vivo mesenchymal-cell coculture. N Engl J Med. 2012; 367(24):2305-15

• No authors:

Prevention strategies for asthma: Secondary prevention. CMAJ [Internet]. 2005 [cited 2016 Feb 3]; 173(6) Suppl: s25-7.

• It is better to use citation software such as Endnote, RefWorks, Zotero, and Mendeley. Example:

• In the case of accepted in-press articles, the phrase In-Press should be included in the bibliographic information of that reference.
• If you have a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for both published and in-press articles, add it to the end of the reference. If an article did not have a DOI and was not mentioned on the reference journal website, the reference should be searched in the Crossref database at https://www.crossref.org/, and the DOI must be mentioned if available. If DOI is added manually, it should be added at the end. In the case of citation software, the DOI tab is available on the source page of the software or can be added after the page number and dot.
• If the DOI code is not available, but the PMID code is available in PubMed, the PMID code should be mentioned instead of DOI. If you have both codes, the DOI code is preferable. Example:

Mahmoudi H, Taheri A. Relation between information literacy and students' health literacy in the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. Human Information Interaction. In Press. 

Mahmoudi H, Taheri A. Relation between information literacy and students' health literacy in the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. Human Information Interaction. 2015;2(2):31-41. 

Vista I, Skorstad M, Demmelmaier I, et al. Lifestyle and empowerment techniques in survivorship of gynecologic oncology (LETSGO study): A study protocol for a multicentre longitudinal interventional study using mobile health technology and biobanking. BMJ Open. 2021;11:e050930. DOI: 10.1136/BMJ open-2021-050930

• All letters of the title are written in lowercase; Except for the first letter of the first word of the title, which is capitalized. If the title is in two parts after the symbol: the first letter of the word after this symbol is also written in upper case. The first letter of all the words of the journal should be in upper case.
• Personal communications (including personal letters, memoirs, personal interviews, and E-mails) should only be used if they publish essential information that is not available in other references.
• Avoid citing retracted articles in journals. According to the ICMJE, authors can search for "retracted publication"[pt] in the PubMed search section to access these types of articles in Medline. The term "pt" is equivalent to the kind of publication. In addition, the list of retracted publications in PubMed can be accessed using the following address:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term retracted publication [pt]

Note: A retracted article is an article that is withdrawn after being published in a journal for various reasons, including plagiarism, misuse of statistical tests, failure to mention conflicts of interest, and other scientific errors. Different people can retract articles; the authors may retract the article, or the journal owner may be responsible for retracting it. But in most cases, the editors’ job.

• Types of citations based on reference:
• Article from print journals:

Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002; 347(4):284-7.

• E-journal articles:

Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: ،the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs. 2002 Jun;102 (6):966-9. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050930

• Article from the website:

American Medical Association. Medical leaders urge the collection of demographic information as a step toward ending healthcare disparities [Internet]. Chicago: American Medical Association; 2011[updated 2011 April 28; cited 2011 May 4th]. Available from: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/news/news/medical-leadersurge-collectiondemographic. page

• Thesis citation:

Allen SJ. The social and moral fiber of Celtic Tiger Ireland [dissertation]. [Dublin]: University College Dublin; 2009. 270p.

• Books with one author:

Bull M. Sound moves iPod culture and urban experience. London: Routledge; 2007.

• Books with more than six authors:

Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.

• An organization writes books:

Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. Pedigree sheep breed improvement program: Performance results for lamb’s summer 2000. Cavan (Ireland): Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development; 2000.

• Book with one or more editors:

Whisnant R, DesAutels P, editors. Global feminist ethics. Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; 2008.

• A chapter from an edited book:

Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in solid human tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113.

12. Appendix (if required)

If necessary, the content should be included in the Appendix that helps understand the research better and cannot be included in the body of the article. Items such as tables and graphs with a lot of data, data collection tools such as questionnaire forms, etc. 

Manuscript submission

After preparing the manuscript please submit it through https://ajah.asaums.ac.ir/Login

For submitting your article, you must prepare two files including the main manuscript with author information and the manuscript without author information for blind reviewing. Also, it needs to complete the conflict of interest form that is available at https://www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/ and a cover letter confirming that your article was not submitted for another journal or published in another journal and the main features of your research.

The Editorial Process

A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to the Avicenna Journal of Aging and Healthcare 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. On submission, the editor reviews all submitted manuscripts initially for suitability for formal review. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or lack of a significant message are rejected before proceeding for formal peer-review. Manuscripts that are unlikely to be of interest to the Avicenna Journal of Aging and Healthcare readers are also liable to be rejected at this stage.

Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication in the Avicenna Journal of Aging and Healthcare are sent to two or more expert reviewers. During submission, the contributor is requested to provide names of two or three qualified reviewers who have had experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but this is not mandatory. The reviewers should not be affiliated with the same institutes as the contributor/s. However, the selection of these reviewers is at the sole discretion of the editor. The journal follows a double-blind review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identity. Every manuscript is also assigned to a member of the editorial team, who based on the comments from the reviewers makes a final decision on the manuscript. The comments and suggestions (acceptance/ rejection/ amendments in manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author. If required, the author is requested to provide a point-by-point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated till reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript.

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 submitting the manuscript to the 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 upon acceptance.

Clinical trial registry 

Avicenna Journal of Aging and Healthcare favors registration of clinical trials and is a signatory to the Statement on publishing clinical trials in Indian biomedical journals. Avicenna Journal of Aging and Healthcare would publish clinical trials that have been registered with a clinical trial registry that allows free online access to the public. Registration in the following trial registers is acceptable: http://www.ctri.in/; http://www.actr.org.au/; http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/; http://isrctn.org/; http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/index.asp; and http://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr. This is applicable to clinical trials that have begun enrollment of subjects in or after June 2008. Clinical trials that have commenced enrollment of subjects prior to June 2008 would be considered for publication in the Avicenna Journal of Aging and Healthcare only if they have been registered retrospectively with a clinical trial registry that allows unhindered online access to the public without charging any fees.

Protection of Patients' Rights to Privacy

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 unless they have obtained informed consent from the patients. The journal abides by ICMJE guidelines:

1) Authors, not the journals nor the publisher, need to obtain the patient consent form before the publication and have the form properly archived. The consent forms are not to be uploaded with the cover letter or sent through email to editorial or publisher offices.

2) If the manuscript contains patient images that preclude anonymity, or a description that has an obvious indication of the identity of the patient, a statement about obtaining informed patient consent should be indicated in the manuscript.

Sending a revised manuscript

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 Letter” 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 of the revised file itself. In addition, they are expected to mark the changes as underlined or colored text in the article.

Reprints and proofs

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

Publication schedule

The journal publishes articles on its website immediately upon acceptance and follows a ‘continuous publication’ schedule. Articles are compiled for ‘print on demand’ semiannual issues.

Article processing charge:

Copyrights

The entire contents of the Avicenna Journal of Aging and Healthcare 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 Unported License.

Presentation and format

• Double spacing
• Margins 2.5 cm from all four sides
• Page numbers included at the bottom
• The title page contains all the desired information
• Running title provided (not more than 50 characters)
• The abstract page contains the full title of the manuscript
• Abstract provided (structured abstract of 250 words for original articles, unstructured abstracts of about 150 words for all other manuscripts excluding letters to the Editor)
• Keywords provided (three or more)
• Introduction of 75-100 words
• Headings in title case (not ALL CAPITALS)

• The references cited in the text should be after punctuation marks, in parentheses.
• References according to the journal's instructions, punctuation marks checked
• Send the article file without ‘Track Changes

Language and grammar

• Uniformly American English
• Write the full term for each abbreviation at its first use in the title, abstract, keywords and text separately unless it is a standard unit of measure. Numerals from 1 to 10 are spelt out
• Numerals at the beginning of the sentence spelled out
• Check the manuscript for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors
• If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer's name and address (city and state/country).
• Species names should be in italics