Duplicate submission and Plagiarism: Manuscripts are considered with the understanding that they have not been published previously in print or electronic format and are not under consideration by another publication or electronic medium.  The authors should alert the editor if the work includes subjects about which a previous report has been published. A paper submitted to the Indian Pediatrics should not overlap by more than 10% with previously published work, or work submitted elsewhere. If in doubt, authors may submit copies of earlier published work or material submitted elsewhere to the editorial board of Indian Pediatrics to take the decision. If plagiarism or duplicate publication is attempted or occurs without such notification, authors should expect prompt rejection/retraction and editorial board’s action such as barring the author from submitting articles in future, notification in the journal/website, informing the authors’ institute or other medical editors, etc. An article which has, been previously rejected should not be resubmitted again under the original or modified title, especially if the content remains substantially same.  Authors should provide full information regarding previous submission, if any, as such violations are viewed seriously. 

Previous publication: Indian Pediatrics would not publish material that has already appeared elsewhere; but could accept some papers that have been published as abstracts or have been partially reported by the media at scientific meetings, and some that have already appeared in non-English language journals.  

Embargo policy: Authors need to maintain confidentiality of contents of their manuscript, once accepted for publication. Information contained in or about the accepted articles should not be released in print/electronic form to any individual/media/agency, till the manuscript is published in print or electronic form in Indian Pediatrics. 

Research Papers: These articles should report research relevant to clinical pediatrics including randomized clinical trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, cohort studies, systematic reviews, cost-effectiveness analyses, case control studies and cross-sectional studies. For reporting research, the authors are expected to comply with the ‘Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals’ prepared by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) [3]. Additionally, authors need to adhere to the standard recommended reporting guidelines (Table I) depending on the study design of the submitted article.

Each manuscript should be accompanied with a structured Abstract in not more than 250 words using the following headings: Objective, Design, Setting, Participants/patients, Intervention (if any), Main Outcome Measures, Results, and Conclusions (See under heading ‘Preparing the Manuscript’). Four to five key words to facilitate indexing should be provided in alphabetical order below the abstract. The text should be arranged in sections on Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. Key messages should be provided at the end of the manuscript in a box under headings: ‘What is Already Known?’ and ‘What this Study Adds?’. As far as possible, authors should restrict to a one line answer for each of these two queries. Number of tables and figures should be limited to a maximum of 4 and 2, respectively. Extra tables and figures, subject to clearance by editorial review process, can be allowed on payment or may be made available only at the journal website. The typical text length for such contributions is 1500-2000 words (excluding title page, abstract, tables, figures, acknowledgments, key messages and references). Number of references should be limited to 25.

Research Briefs: Brief accounts of descriptive, observational studies, epidemiological assessments, and surveys are published as Research Briefs. A series of cases can also be considered as Research Briefs. Abstract should be unstructured, limited to 100 words, and highlight the aims, methods and main results. Provide 2-3 key words. The text should contain no more than 1000 words, two illustrations/tables and up to 15 references, preferably recent publications. The text should be arranged in order of Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. Also include a box entitled ‘What this Study Adds?’, highlighting the main result of the study. The number of authors should be limited to five.  

Review Article: State-of-the-art review articles or systematic, critical assessments of literature are also published. The authors may consult the Editor-in-Chief before submitting such articles, as similar reviews may already be in submission. Normally, a review article on a subject already published in Indian Pediatrics in last 3 years is not accepted. The typical length for review articles is 2500-3000 words (excluding tables, figures, and references). Authors submitting review articles should include an abstract of around 200 words describing the need and purpose of review, methods used for locating, selecting, extracting and synthesizing data, and main conclusions. The number of references should be limited to 50.  

Drug Review:  Indian Pediatrics publishes state of the art reviews on drugs/agents meant for therapeutic or prophylactic use in children. It is expected that the authors have sufficient credible experience in the related field. The following guidelines should be adhered to when preparing a drug review:

Perspective: Articles published under this heading intend to cover challenging and controversial topics of current interest in pediatric health care and the intersection between medicine and society. The related issues could be national, regional (South East Asia) or global. Though the articles are usually solicited, we welcome submissions and proposals from researchers and opinion makers, provided they have sufficient credible experience and recognition on the subject for giving opinions. Some of the manuscripts submitted as ‘Review Articles’ may also be considered for publication under this section at the discretion of editors. The following guidelines need to be followed:

Clinical Practice Guidelines/Recommendations: In order to streamline the diagnosis, management and prevention of various childhood problems, Indian Pediatrics periodically publishes guidelines and recommendations formulated by various Chapters and Task Forces constituted by Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) or a similar National association/society. The 8 desirable attributes of practice guidelines are validity, reliability and reproducibility, clinical applicability, flexibility, clarity, documentation, development by a multidisciplinary process, and plans for review [11]. In order to maintain uniformity of reporting and improve readability and applicability of these practice guidelines, the following 10-point policy should be followed:

1. The Guideline/Recommendation should have been formalized through a consultative meeting/conference/workshop having a National representation approved by Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) or a similar society.  The Guidelines emerging out of one such meeting should be preferably presented in a single paper.

2. The date(s) and place of such meeting should be clearly mentioned in the Introduction. The names of the chairperson, convener and participants should be listed as ‘Annexure’ at the end of the draft.

3. For indexing purposes, the author of the guidelines would be the name of the organization/working group e.g., Indian Academy of Pediatrics: Nephrology Group. However, names of up to six persons as writing committee may be placed at the end of the manuscript before ‘References’.

4. The final guidelines should be cleared by the related Society/Chapter. A letter to this effect should be enclosed. It is presumed that the corresponding author has obtained permission from all members of the committee/expert group to act in this capacity.

5. The manuscript should consist of an Abstract (250-300 words), Text (3000-4000 words), and References (limited to 50). The number of figures and tables should be limited to maximum of 5 each.

6. Abstract should be structured as Justification, Process, Objectives, and Recommendations.

7. Text should be arranged in headings of Introduction, Aims and Objectives, and Recommendations.

8. State, whether or not there is a plan to review these guidelines and an expiration date for this version of the guideline.

9. Any competing interest including funding support should be declared.

10. We encourage the authors to attach a COGS (Conference on Guidelines Standardization) checklist for reporting clinical practice guidelines [12].

Case Reports: Clinical cases highlighting some unusual or new but clinically relevant aspects of a condition are published as Case Reports. Single case reports are not accepted, unless some new or unusual aspect regarding etiopathogenesis, diagnosis or management is brought out that adds to the existing body of knowledge. Genetic syndromes without a major phenotypic reporting will be sent back to authors without initiating the peer review process. Minor or clinically insignificant variations of rare but well-known disorders are also not preferred. Rarity of the reported condition alone also will not be a criterion for acceptance. The text should not exceed 1000 words and is arranged as introduction, case report and discussion. Include a brief abstract of about 50 words. Number of tables/figures should be limited to 2. Include up to 10 most recent references. Photographs should be in black and white only. For details, see below under Figures and Illustrations.  A maximum of three authors are permitted from a single department. Case reports involving more than one department can have a maximum of four authors.  The patient’s written consent, or that of the next of kin, to publication must be obtained. The authors would be asked to submit a signed consent form before publication for all case reports and images.

Research Letters: Under this heading, short correspondence pertaining to research would be included. Research Letters reporting original research should not exceed 500 words of text and 10 references. They may have no more than 4 authors; other persons who have contributed to the study may be indicated in an acknowledgment section, with their permission. An abstract of up to 50 words reporting the key findings should also be included. Letters must not duplicate other material published, submitted or planned to be submitted for publication. In general, the matter of the letter should be unstructured but should follow the general sequence of introduction, methods, results and discussion and all other guidelines in ‘Preparing the Manuscript’. 

Correspondence: Letters commenting upon recent articles in Indian Pediatrics are welcome. Such letters should be received within 3 months of the article’s publication. At the Editorial board’s discretion, the letter may be sent to the authors for reply and the letter alone or letter and reply together may be published after appropriate review. Letters may also relate to other topic of interest to pediatricians, or useful clinical observations. Letters should not have more than 400 words; contain not more than one Figure/Table and 5 most recent references. The text need not be divided into sections. The number of authors should not exceed two, including the authors’ reply in response to a letter commenting upon an article published in Indian Pediatrics. In the latter case, inclusion of only one of the authors (of the article in question) is permissible, besides the corresponding author. The corresponding author shall remain the first author for such a reply. Names of additional persons who have helped in data acquisition can be mentioned in the acknowledgment section.   

Reader Forum: Readers may send questions of common interest. Editorial board will try to solicit answers from the experts; and publish them, if found suitable.

Images: Only clinical photographs with/without accompanying skiagrams or pathological images are considered for publication. Image should clearly identify the condition and have the classical characteristics of the clinical condition. Clinical photograph of condition which are very common, extremely rare, where diagnosis is obvious (e.g., penile agenesis), or where diagnosis is not at all possible on images alone would not be considered. Photographs should be of high quality, usually 127 × 173 mm (5 × 7 in) but no larger than 203 × 254 mm (8 × 10 in). A short text of about 150 words depicting the condition is needed. Figures should be submitted separately from the text file. The electronically submitted images should be of high resolution (>300 dpi). The following file types are acceptable: CDR, TIFF, EPS, and JPEG. The number of authors should not exceed three. The authors should ensure that images of similar nature have not been published earlier. Authors must obtain signed informed consent from the patient.

The page should contain (i) the title of the article: which should be concise but informative (simpler the title the better; preferably it should contain all the key words to help electronic retrieval reliably); (ii) a short running title of not more than 40 characters; (iii) initials and surname (both are essential) of each author with the highest academic degree(s) and designation at the time when the work was done; Initials will not be accepted for surnames. For example; ‘Vidya K’: here, ‘K’ will be considered as the Initial and ‘Vidya’ will be indexed as surname; (iv) details of the contribution of each author; (v) name of department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed; (vi) disclaimers, if any; (vii) name, address, telephone, fax, e-mail address of the corresponding author, (viii) source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs or all of these; and (ix) declaration on competing interests; and (x) word count (not including abstract, tables, figures, acknowledgments, key messages and references). Also indicate on top, the category (i.e. Research Paper, Short Communications, Review, Case Report, Images, Correspondence etc.) for which the article is being submitted.  

All persons designated as authors should qualify for the authorship. Authorship credit should be based on substantial contributions to (i) concept and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; (ii) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and (iii) final approval of the version to be published. Conditions (i), (ii) and (iii) must be met, for all authors, individually. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. All such people who contributed to the work but do not satisfy all the conditions should be named in the acknowledgments. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permissions from everyone acknowledged by name. One of the authors shall act as guarantor of the paper and he/she should take the responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from its inception to published article. Guarantor should also take responsibility for obtaining permission from appropriate authority, if any material (including tables, figures or text) is used in the article from another publication. Copyright violations by authors will be viewed seriously; and all authors will be equally responsible for such acts. Authors should provide a description of what each author contributed on the title page. Indian Pediatrics reserves the right to satisfy itself regarding the specific role of each listed author to justify authorship. All authors must give signed consent to publication (Annexure I). Example of citing contributors’ credit i.e. specific contribution of each author is given below: 

Contributors: KDP conceived and designed the study and revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. He will act as guarantor of the study. AI, and AK collected data and drafted the paper. AI also conducted the laboratory tests, and interpreted them. SK analysed the data and helped in manuscript writing. The final manuscript was approved by all authors.

Group Authorship. All members of the Group (e.g., Pediatric Nephrology Subchapter of IAP) must meet the criteria of authorship as described above. 

Competing interest for a given manuscript exists when the author has ties to activities that could inappropriately influence his or her judgment, whether or not judgment is in fact affected [13]. Financial relationships with industry–for example, through employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, grant, expert testimony, either directly or through immediate family, are usually considered to be the most important competing interests. However, conflicts can occur for other reasons, such as personal relationships, academic competition and intellectual passion. If any of the authors have accepted reimbursement for attending symposium, a fee for speaking, fee for organizing educational activities, funds for research, funds for a member of the staff or consultation fees from an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the results of the study, review, editorial or letter, a competing interest would be deemed to exist. If any of the authors had been employed by an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication, or if any of them hold stocks or shares in such an organization, competing interest would be deemed to exist. If competing interest exists, the author(s) must disclose them while submitting the manuscript.

Authors are also required to report all financial and material support for the research and work. 

Abstract is to be sent in case of research papers (250 words), review articles (200 words), perspective (150 words), short communications (100 words), research letter (50 words), and case report (50 words). For research papers, the abstract should be structured using the following headings:

Objective, Design, Setting, Participants/patients, Intervention, Main outcome measure(s), Results, and Conclusions. For brevity, parts of the abstract may be written as phrases rather than complete sentences. Each section should include the following content: 

Objective: State the precise objective or study question addressed in the paper. If more than one objective is addressed, the main objective should be indicated and only key secondary objectives stated.

Design: Describe the basic design of the study (e.g. randomized controlled trial, case-control study, prospective, cross sectional etc.).  

Setting: Describe the study setting to assist readers to determine the applicability of the report to other circumstances, for example, general community, a primary care or referral center, private or institutional practice, or ambulatory or hospitalized care. State the years of the study and the duration of follow-up.

Participants/patients: State the numbers of participants, eligibility criteria, and the selection process. For selection procedures, these terms should be used, if appropriate: random sample (where random refers to a formal, randomized selection in which all eligible individuals have a fixed and usually equal chance of selection); population-based sample; referred sample; consecutive sample; volunteer sample; or convenience sample. Include the number of otherwise eligible individuals who were approached but refused. If matching is used for comparison groups, characteristics that are matched should be specified. Provide key sociodemographic features of participants. In follow-up studies, indicate the proportion of participants who completed the study. For intervention studies, mention the number of patients withdrawn because of adverse effects.

Intervention: The essential features of any interventions should be described, including their method and duration of administration. The intervention should be named by its most common clinical name, and nonproprietary drug names should be used. Include any co-intervention. 

Main Outcome Measure(s): Indicate the primary study outcome measurement(s) as planned before data collection began. If the manuscript does not report the main planned outcomes of a study, this fact should be stated and the reason indicated. State clearly if the hypothesis being tested was formulated during or after data collection. Explain outcomes or measurements unfamiliar to a general medical readership. 

Results: The main outcomes of the study should be reported and quantified, and must include measures of absolute risks (such as increase/decrease or absolute differences between groups), along with 95% confidence intervals or P values. Measures of relative risk also may be reported (eg, relative risk, hazard ratios) and should include confidence intervals. Studies of screening and diagnostic tests should report sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratio. All randomized controlled trials should include the results of intention-to-treat analysis, and all surveys should include response rates. 

Conclusions: Provide only conclusions of the study directly supported by the results, along with implications for clinical practice. Avoid speculation and overgeneralization of the results. Emphasize equally the important positive and negative findings.

Abstract for Short Communications: The abstract should be unstructured and state the purpose of the study, basic methodology, main findings (giving specific data and statistical significance) and key conclusion(s), within 100 words.  

Abstract for Reviews: Review articles should include an abstract of no more than 250 words with the following sections: Context (describing the clinical question or issue and its importance in clinical practice or public heath), Evidence acquisition (describing the data sources used, including the search strategies, years searched, and other sources),  Results (major findings of the review with the greatest emphasis laid on the findings based on highest quality evidence), and Conclusions (emphasize how clinicians should apply current knowledge). 

Below the abstract, authors should provide 3-5 key words for indexing; terms from the Medical Subject Headings (MESH) list of Index Medicus should preferably be used.

The introduction must clearly justify and state the question that the author(s) tried to answer in the study. It may be necessary to briefly review the relevant literature. Cite only those references that are essential to justify the proposed study.  

Ethics: All studies involving human subjects must address ethical issues. When reporting experiments on human subjects, 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 1964, as revised in 2008 [14]. All such studies should have obtained ethical clearance in writing from a formally constituted Research Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board as the case may be. Indian Pediatrics reserves the right to demand a copy of the relevant document whenever necessary. Even when a study has been approved by a research ethics committee or institutional review board, editors may be worried about the ethics of the work. Editors may then ask authors for more detailed information and ask them how they justified the ethical and moral basis of the work. Editors may also ask authors to provide the contact details of the research ethics committee that reviewed the work, so that the journal can request further information and justification from that committee. For studies that have not been reviewed by research ethics committees or institutional review boards, editors may ask authors to explain what ethical issues they considered and how they justified their work. Editors may consult other editorial colleagues, association of medical editors or more commonly the Ethical Committee of Indian Pediatrics to evaluate the ethical aspects of any article, and reserve the right to reject a manuscript on ethical grounds, on the basis of recommendations of its Ethical Committee, even if the research was cleared by the institutional research board. Besides rejecting the manuscript, the journal reserves the right of explaining such concerns to the head of the authors’ institution or medical council in order to prevent unethical practice and to protect patients. Informed consent must be obtained in writing from all human participants of a trial. Indian Pediatrics reserves the right of seeking from the authors the details of the information given to subjects about the deviations from the normal, the risks involved and the potential benefits to the society. Authors should not use patients’ names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. Written consent must be obtained from patients or caregivers for publication (in print or electronic form) of clinical details or/and clinical photographs in all ‘Case Reports’, ‘Images’ and qualitative research reports. The identity of the patient in clinical photographs should be masked by suitable methods. 

Statistics: Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Provide actual P values, rather than stating as just < 0.05 or > 0.05 etc. References for the design of the study and statistical methods should be to standard works when possible (with pages stated) rather than to papers in which the designs or methods were originally reported. Specify any general use computer programs used. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols.  

This section should include only relevant, representative data and not all information collected during the study. Major findings should be presented clearly and concisely.  Text, tables, and illustrations should be used sensibly. Avoid repeating in the text all the data depicted in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support. Cite the tables in the text and type them on a new page. It may also be useful to mention what the study did not find.  

Discussion ordinarily should not be more than one third of the total length of the manuscript. Do not attempt a detailed review of literature. This section should include, in the order specified: (i) a summary of the major findings, (ii) their relationship to other similar studies, (iii) strength and limitations of methods and (iv) implications of these findings in future research. Conclusions should be linked to the goals of the study. Avoid unqualified statements and conclusions not completely supported by the data. Authors should also refrain from making statements on economic benefits and costs unless their manuscript includes economic data and analyses. 

List all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship, such as a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department head who provided only general support. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged. Groups of persons who have contributed materially to the paper but whose contributions do not justify authorship may be listed under a heading such as "clinical investigators" or "participating investigators," and their function or contribution should be described – for example, "served as scientific advisers," "critically reviewed the study proposal," "collected data," or "provided and cared for study patients." A written consent is required from all the persons acknowledged, indicating their acceptance for the same.  

Authors need to be accurate in citing and quoting references [15]. References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in square parentheses. References cited only in tables or in legends to figures should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure.  Use the style of the examples below. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. Do not use abstracts, unpublished observations and personal communications as references. References to papers accepted but not yet published should be designated as "in press"; authors should obtain written permission to cite such papers as well as verification that they have been accepted for publication. The references must be verified by the author against the original documents. The Uniform Requirements style (the Vancouver style) is based largely on an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard style adapted by the NLM for its databases.

List all authors when six or less. When seven or more, list only first six and add et al.  

Swaminathan S, Datta M, Radhamani MP, Mathew S, Reetha AM, Rajajee S, et al. A profile of bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis in children. Indian Pediatr. 2008;45:743-7.

Working Group on Management of Congenital Heart Diseases in India. Consensus on timing of intervention for common congenital heart disease. Indian Pediatr. 2008;45:117-26. 

Polio Eradication Committee, Indian Academy of Pediatrics (PEC,IAP), Vashishtha VM, John TJ, Agarwal RK, Kalra A. Universal immunization program and polio eradication in India. Indian Pediatr. 2008;45:807-13. 

Singh M. Care of the Newborn, 5th ed. New Delhi: Sagar publications; 1999.   

Gupta P, Shah D, Ghai OP. Micronutrients in health and disease. In: Ghai OP, Gupta P, Paul VK, editors. Ghai Essential Pediatrics. 6th ed. New Delhi:CBS Publishers & Distributors;2004. p. 119-35. 

Kimura J, Shibasaki H, editors. Recent advances in clinical neurophysiology. Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of EMG and Clinical Neurophysiology; 1995 Oct 15-19; Kyoto, Japan. Amsterdam:Elsevier;1996. 

Mukherjee DK, Chowdhury BH, Das MM. Intrauterine growth of low birth weight babies and its relation to various placental and maternal factors- A multifaceted study. In: Choudhury P, Sachdev HPS, Puri RK, Verma IC, editors. 8th Asian Congress of Pediatrics; 1994 Feb 6-11; New Delhi, India. New Delhi:Jaypee Brothers;1994. p. 36. 

Bacteria boost. Hindustan Times 2008 Nov 23;New Delhi:p.19 (col 1-4). 

Dictionary and similar references

Stedman’s medical dictionary. 26th ed. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins;1995. Apraxia;p. 119-120. 

Gupta N, Shah D, Singh U, Tiwari A. Antenatal diagnosis of large sacro-coccygeal teratoma with fetal cardiomegaly and hydrops. Kathmandu Univ Med J. In press 2008. 

The IMRAD Research Paper Format. FIN-1 Finnish Institutions Research Paper (Hopkins), Department of Translation Studies, University of Tampere. Available from: URL: http://www.uta.fi/FAST/FIN/RESEARCH/imrad.html. Accessed November 24, 2008.

International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Sponsorship, Authorship, and Accountability. Available from: URL: http://www.icmje.org/sponsor.htm. Accessed November 24, 2008. 

Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) Training Aids [on CD-ROM]. National Neonatology Forum, New Delhi, 2006.Hemodynamics III: the ups and downs of hemodynamics [computer program]. Version 2.2. Orlando (FL): Computerized Educational Systems;1993.

Figures should be professionally drawn and photographed; freehand or typewritten lettering is unacceptable. Instead of original drawings, X-ray films, and other material, send sharp, glossy, black-and-white photographic prints of high quality, usually 127 × 173 mm (5 × 7 in) but no larger than 203 × 254 mm (8 × 10 in). For color illustrations, provide negatives or positive transparencies, along with color prints. Color photographs are not accepted, except for images section. It is preferable to have the photograph in portrait form rather than in landscape form to fit easily into one column. Letters, numbers, and symbols in photographs should be clearly legible. Each figure should have a label pasted on its back indicating the number of the figure, author’s name, and an arrow to mark the top and left side of the figure. Do not write on the back of figures or scratch or mar them by using paper clips. Do not bend figures or mount them on cardboard. The electronically submitted images should be of high resolution (>300 dpi). The following file types are acceptable: CDR, TIFF, EPS, and JPEG. Figures should be submitted separately from the text file. If photographs of individual/people are used, either the subjects must not be identifiable or their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph. It is advisable to cover the eyes unless specifically need to be shown. If a figure has been published, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. Figures should be numbered consecutively (Arabic numerals) according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text.  

Type or print out legends for illustrations using double-spacing, starting on a separate page, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one clearly in the legend. Explain the internal scale and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.

Use only standard abbreviations. Avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement. Year, month, day, hour, minute and second should be abbreviated as yr, mo, d, h, min, and s, respectively.  

1. Gupta P, Shah D. Another feather in the cap: Launch of International edition and activation of online manuscript management system. Indian Pediatr. 2010;47:559-60.

2. Gupta P, Kaur G, Sharma B, Shah D, Choudhury P. What is submitted and what gets accepted in Indian Pediatrics: Analysis of submissions, review process, decision making, and criteria for rejection. Indian Pediatr. 2006;43:479-89.

3. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (Updated April 2010). Available from: URL: http://www.icmje.org/urm_main.html. Accessed December 5, 2010.

4. Schulz KF, Altman DG, Moher D; CONSORT Group. CONSORT 2010 statement: updated guidelines for reporting parallel group randomized trials. Ann Intern Med. 2010;152:726-32. (Also available from: URL: http://www.consort-statement.org/consort-statement/. Accessed December 5, 2010).

5. Moher D, Hopewell S, Schulz KF, Montori V, Gøtzsche PC, Devereaux PJ, et al. CONSORT 2010 explanation and elaboration: updated guidelines for reporting parallel group randomised trials. BMJ. 2010;340:c869. doi: 10.1136/bmj.c869.

6. Bossuyt  PM, Reitsma JB, Bruns DE, Gatsonis CA, Glasziou PP, Irwig LM, et al. for the STARD Group. Towards complete and accurate reporting of studies of diagnostic accuracy: The STARD Initiative. Clin Chem. 2003;49:1-6.

7. STROBE checklist for cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies (combined). Available from: URL: http://www.strobe-statement.org/index.php?id=available-checklists. Accessed December 5, 2010.

8. Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, Altman DG; PRISMA Group. Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement. BMJ. 2009;339:b2535, doi: 10.1136/bmj.b2535.

9. Stroup DF, Berlin JA, Morton SC, Olkin I, Williamson GD, Rennie D, et al. for the Meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology (MOOSE) Group. Meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology: a proposal for reporting. JAMA. 2000;283:2008-12.

10. Clinical Trials Registry - India. National Institute of Medical Statistics (ICMR). Available from: URL: http://ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials. Accessed December 5, 2010.

11. Institute of Medicine. Guidelines for Clinical Practice: From Development to Use.      Washington DC: National Academy Press; 1992.

12. Shiffman RN, Shekelle P, Overhage JM, Slutsky J, Grimshaw J, Deshpande AM. Standardized Reporting of Clinical Practice Guidelines: A proposal from the Conference on Guideline Standardization. Ann Intern Med. 2003;139:493-8.

13. Gupta P, Choudhury P.  Declaring competing interests. Indian Pediatr. 2003;40:3-6.

14. 52nd WMA General Assembly. World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. Adopted 1964. Updated 2008.  Available from: URL: http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html. Accessed December 5, 2010.