Author Instructions

For reporting research, the authors are expected to comply with the “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (ICMJE Recommendations) prepared by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors” (ICMJE) (www.icmje.org) [1]. Additionally, authors need to adhere to the standard recommended reporting guide-lines depending on the study design of the submitted article (www.equator-network.org).

Manuscripts not fulfilling the technical requirements shall be returned to the authors without initiating the peer-review process. A summary of technical requirements for preparing the manuscript is provided below:

• The manuscript is to be submitted electronically at www.editorialmanager.com/inpe.

• Use American (US) English throughout.

• Double-space throughout, in the sequence including title page, abstract, blinded manuscript, key messages, references, figure legends and tables. Start each of these sections (in same order) on a new page, numbered consecutively in the upper right hand corner.

• Use 12-point font size (Times New Roman or Garamond) and leave margins of 1.75 cm (0.7 inch) on all sides. The whole manuscript should be formatted in ‘portrait’ layout.

• Units of measurement: Conventional units are preferred. The metric system is preferred for the expression of length, area, mass and volume.

• Use non-proprietary names of drugs, devices and other products. Proprietary names, if given, should not have a superscript © or TM or R; just capitalize the first word. This should be followed by name of manufacturer in round parenthesis.

• There should not be any discrepancy in names and sequence of authors, and the corresponding author details, as submitted in the title page and as uploaded in the online manuscript management system.

• Abstract (wherever applicable) must be included in the main ‘blinded manuscript’, apart from being uploaded in the relevant box at the manuscript submission website.

• All submitted manuscripts should be accompanied by a signed statement by all authors regarding authorship criteria, responsibility, financial disclosure and acknowledgement, as per a standard format (Available from: https://indianpediatrics.net/AnnexureI.pdf). The signatures should be in the sequence of authorship of the manuscript. The statement with original signatures is to be uploaded as a scanned file. Scanned signatures pasted on the copyright transfer form are not acceptable; authors may sign and upload separate forms if all authors are unable to sign on one form.

• Also consider including providing ORCID numbers, at least for those authors for whom it is available

• Copyright: All of the content published in the Indian Pediatrics is protected under the International copyright law, defined by Creative Commons and International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). The author of an article retains the academic copyright of the content and can self-archive the article. The Journal retains the commercial rights of the published content which is executed by Springer Nature.

Title Page: 

Title of the article: which should be concise but informative; the type of study may be added in title after a colon

Running title of not more than 40 characters

First name 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 Last name;

Contribution of each author

Department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed (This should mention the institution of affiliation at the time of conduct of the study, not your current affiliation)

Disclaimers, if any

Name, address and e-mail of the corresponding author

Funding: source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs or all of these

Declaration on competing interests

Status of ethical clearance for the study along with name of Ethics Committee clearing the research study, and the date and number of the clearance from the committee

Clinical trial registration number in cases of clinical trials

Data sharing statement for all original research

Declaration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in scientific writing

Word count (not including abstract, tables, figures, acknowledgments, key messages and references).

A statement regarding ethical clearance and trial registration (if done) should also be provided in the methods section of the manuscript, without including any identifying details (Ethics committee name, Trial registration number etc.)

Authorship Criteria: All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship. The journal endorses the ICMJE requirements for authorship, which is based on the following four criteria: (i) Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND (ii) Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND (iii) Final approval of the version to be published; AND (iv) 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. Conditions (i), (ii) (iii) and (iv) must all be met, for all authors, individually.

Group Authorship: If only the name of the group is provided, all members of the group must meet the criteria of authorship as described above. In case name of few authors is followed by name of the group linked by ‘and’; all members of the group must meet the criteria of authorship as described above. In case name of few authors is followed by name of the group linked by ‘for’; only the named authors need to meet the criteria of authorship as described above. The names of other members of the group should be listed as an Annexure at the end of the manuscript as contributors.

Change in Authorship: The authorship list and author order should be determined before submitting to Indian Pediatrics. Any requests to add, remove, or reorder author names must be e-mailed to the Editorial Office from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must be justified with a sound reason. Confirmation e-mails from all authors (individually) that they agree with the modification is mandatory.

Declaration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Scientific Writing: The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies including Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT is permitted only to improve the language; the same needs to properly documented in methods section. AI should not be listed as author [2].

Competing Interests: Competing interest for a 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. 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. If competing interest exists, the author(s) must disclose them while submitting the manuscript.

If an editorial board member has a conflict of interest with any manuscript that they are handling, the same needs to be communicated to the Editor-in-Chief, so that the manuscript can be handled appropriately.

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and ICMJE guidelines are followed for author disputes and ethical issues.

Funding: Authors are required to report all financial and material support for the research work, including grant number and funding agency.

Duplicate/ Simultaneous/ Prior Publication: Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract/ academic thesis/ published lecture/ on a preprint server) and that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Any prior publication as an abstract or an electronic preprint must be stated upfront in the Cover Letter. Authors need to affirm that the paper is an original work carried out in the affiliated institution, that it has been seen and approved by all authors before submission to Indian Pediatrics.

Abstract and Keywords: For brevity, parts of the abstract may be written as phrases rather than complete sentences. No abbreviations should be used in the abstract.

Three to five key words to facilitate indexing should be provided in alphabetical order below the abstract. Terms from the Medical Subject Headings (MESH) list of National Library of Medicine should preferably be used. Do not repeat words already included in the title.

Blinded Manuscript: No author or institution names should appear in this section.

Introduction: 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.

Methods: The 10 important components of the methods section should preferably be included viz., study setting, study duration, study population, study design, participant selection, outcome variables, sample size, intervention & follow-up, statistical analysis, and ethical issues. The methods section should describe, in logical sequence, how the study was designed (e.g. how randomization was done), carried out (e.g. how subjects were chosen or excluded, ethical considerations, accurate details of materials used, exact drug dosage and form of treatment) and data were analyzed (e.g. an estimate of the power of the study, exact test used for statistical analysis) [3]. For standard methods, appropriate references are sufficient, but if standard methods are modified these should be clearly brought out. Authors should provide complete details of any new methods or apparatus used. Commercial names of the drugs/equipment may be used once at first mention, with the initial letter capitalized and manufacturer’s name in parentheses. Subsequently the scientific/non-propriety name is to be used throughout. © or TM in superscript after the propriety name is not required.

Clinical trial: Manuscripts reporting the results of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) should include the CONSORT flow diagram showing the progress of patients throughout the trial.

Trial registration: The trial registration status and number should be mentioned on title page in all interventional studies.

Ethics: When reporting research 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 2013. All research studies should have obtained ethical clearance in writing from a formally constituted Institutional Ethics Committee, and the same should be stated in the manuscript (with name of ethics committee clearing the study, along with date and reference number in the title page; and a statement of ethical clearance without mentioning the identifying details in the Methods section). 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, reviewers/editors may be concerned about the ethical issues related to the work. Editors may then ask authors for more detailed information and ask them about the ethical and moral justification 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. Editors may consult other editorial colleagues, the COPE or more commonly the Ethical advisors of Indian Pediatrics, to evaluate the ethical aspects of any article, and reserve the right to reject a manuscript on ethical grounds, even if the research was cleared by the institutional ethics committee. Besides rejecting the manuscript, the journal reserves the right of explaining such concerns to the head of the authors’ institution or the medical council in order to prevent unethical practices and to protect patients.

Table 2 Details of Reporting Guidelines for Different Study Designs

Informed consent must be obtained in writing from all human participants of any study. Indian Pediatrics reserves the right of seeking from the authors the details of the information given to participants 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 parents or legal guardians for publication (in print or electronic form) of clinical details or/and clinical photographs in all ‘Clinical Case Letters’, ‘Images’ ‘Clinicopathological Conference’ and qualitative research reports. The consent form is available from: https://indianpediatrics.net/Annexure II.pdf. This consent form need not be submitted with the manuscript but obtaining of consent should be confirmed on the title page. The identity of the patient in clinical photographs should be masked by suitable methods. Assent should be obtained for all children with chronological age above six years participating in clinical studies.

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 (upto 3-decimal places), rather than stating as just < 0.05 or   > 0.05. References for statistical methods should be to standard works when possible (with pages stated) rather than to papers in which the methods were originally reported. Specify any general use computer programs used. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. The relevant guidelines may be consulted for appropriate reporting.

Results: This section should include only relevant, representative data and not all information collected during the study. Major findings should be presented clearly and concisely. It may also be useful to mention what the study did not find. Write units along with data at all places in the manuscript. Journal uses the format "mean (SD), median (IQR)" rather than "mean ± SD, median ± IQR" for reporting summary measures. Text, tables, and illustrations should be used judiciously. Avoid repeating in the text 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. Cite the tables sequentially in the text, and provide each table on a new page after the reference section. Do not insert figures or tables in the main text of the manuscript. Avoid the terms mutation and polymorphism, instead use sequence variant, sequence variation, alteration or allelic variation. Similarly, use SNV (single nucleotide variation) instead of SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism).

Units of measurement: Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units, i.e., meter (m), gram (g), or liter (L) or their decimal multiples. P value to be expressed up to three decimal places. All other values to be reported up to two decimal places. Milliliter or deciliter should be expressed as mL or dL and not ml or dl. Red blood cell, white blood cell and platelet counts are to be expressed as ×10¹²/L, ×10⁹/L and ×10⁹/L, respectively. Temperatures should be given in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be given in millimeters of mercury (mmHg). All hematological and clinical chemistry measurements should be reported in terms of the International System of Units (SI).

Abbreviations and symbols: Use only standard abbreviations. Avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract, unless pertinent. The expanded form of the abbreviation should precede its first use in the text, unless it is a standard unit of measurement. Year, month, week, day, hour, minute and second should be abbreviated as y, mo, wk, d, h, min, and s, respectively in tables and figures, but not in text.

Discussion: Ordinarily it should not be more than one-fourth of the total length of the manuscript. Do not attempt a detailed review of literature. This section should include (unheaded paragraphs in the order specified): (i) summary of the major findings, (ii) limitations of the study, (iii) their relationship to other similar studies, and (iv) generalizability of the findings, and implications for practice/policy/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.

References

Authors need to be accurate in citing and quoting references. 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 brackets. 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 PubMed. Do not use unpublished observations and personal communications as references. References to papers accepted but not yet published are not preferred. Do not cite foreign language references unless a certified English version is also available. Please take care that citations are not directly copied and pasted from websites; remove the hyperlinks from the same. If the web version of a journal has been consulted instead of the print version, the same should be listed in the list of references. Avoid including any reference to the studies published in predatory journals. Ensure that all hyperlinks have been removed from references. The manuscript may be returned to authors for re-typing, in case this is detected during the final page-setting. There is no need to provide location of the publisher for books and reports in references.

Article in journals: List all authors when six or less. When seven or more, list only first three and add et al.

Kaur K, Khalil S, Singh NP, Dewan P, Gupta P, Shah D. Antibiotic susceptibility, carrier state and predictors of outcome of Staphylococcus aureus infections in hospitalized children. Indian Pediatr. 2023;60:49-53. 

Goyal A, Dabas A, Shah D, et al. Sunlight exposure vs oral vitamin D supplementation for prevention of vitamin D deficiency in infancy: a randomized controlled trial. Indian Pediatr. 2022;59:852-8.

Epub ahead of print electronic articles

Pathania A, Jat KR, Pathania M, Lodha R, Kabra SK. Mobile direct observed therapy (MDOT) for inhaler therapy in children with newly diagnosed asthma: a pilot study. Indian Pediatr. Published online September 10, 2024. Accessed on: Oct 14, 2024. Available from: https://indianpediatrics.net/epub092024/OA-00694.pdf

Personal author (book)

Gupta P, Joshi P, Dewan P. Essential Pediatric Nursing, 5th ed. Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers; 2022.

Chapter in a book

Khilnani P, Singhal N. Respiratory failure. In: Choudhury P, Bagga A, Chugh K, Ramji S, Gupta P, editors. Principles of Pediatric and Neonatal Emergencies. 3rd ed. Jaypee Brothers; 2011.p.74-83.

Conference paper published in a Journal

Shinde S, Krishna S, Kubde P, et al. Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia, an unrelenting enigma: experience from a children’s hospital in Western India. Pediatric Hematology Oncology Journal. 2023;8:S2.

Paper or poster presented at conference, not formally published in proceedings

Khalsa M, Dewan P, Srivastava N. November 2, 2023. ATRA-induced thrombocytosis in two children with APML [Poster presentation]. Delhi State Hematology 2023 Conference. New Delhi, India.

Newspaper article

Nagarajan R. Rs 72 Lakh/year rare-disease drug can be made for Rs 3,000/year. Times of India. Oct 28 2024; New Delhi: p. 8 (col 4).

Material from the Internet: Website addresses must be in italics, and not underlined; give the date of accessing the website. Remove all hyperlinks. In references, the URL of web-based references should be the last item in the citation and should not be followed by a period (full-stop). Do not provide DOI/PMID/PII numbers.

Equator Network. CONSORT 2010 Statement: Updated Guidelines for Reporting Parallel Group Randomised Trials. Accessed November 26, 2023. Available from: https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/consort/

Electronic material

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.

Tables: Type each table with double-spacing on a separate sheet of paper. Do not submit tables as photographs or pasted tables from another program, prepare tables .doc or .docx files. Number tables consecutively (Roman numerals) in the order of their first citation in the text, and supply a brief but self-explanatory title for each. Be sure that each table is cited in the text. Tables with only two columns or those with more them 5 columns should be avoided. Also avoid tables with more than 15 rows as these are likely to cross-over to the next page during printing. Detailed tables that cannot be adjusted in a single journal page will be incorporated as web tables, at editorial discretion. Give each column a short or abbreviated heading in italic font style. Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain in footnotes all abbreviations that are used in each table. For footnotes, use small case letters sequentially in superscript in italic font. There is no need to expand SD, CI or IQR either in text or in tables.

If data are used from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge them fully. The source of the table should be in the footnote in full, and not by reference number alone. Obtaining the permission from the original copyright holder for reproducing already published material is the responsibility of the author, and any relevant queries will be directed to the corresponding author.

Figures and Illustrations: Figures should be sent as separate files. Color photographs will be published only in the web-version of the journal. For print version, these will be converted to black and white, except for the 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. The electronically submitted images should be of high resolution (>300 dpi). The following file types are acceptable: CDR, TIFF, EPS, PNG, and JPEG. Figures should be submitted separately from the text file. If photographs of individual/people are used, either they 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 in arabic numerals according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text.

For charts and graphs, prepare these in word files, do not paste these in the document from presentation programs (e.g., MS power point) or statistical programs (e.g., SPSS). Authors need to additionally provide the editable file of such figures as supplementary material.

Legends for Illustrations: Type 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. Legends should be a part of main manuscript, and should not be sent as supplementary material.

INQUIRIES REGARDING DECISIONS

Any inquiry regarding manuscript decisions should be only through an email from the corresponding author to the Editorial Office ([email protected]).

REFERENCES

Manuscript Title: _________________________________________________________________

Manuscript No.

I/We certify that the manuscript represents valid work and that neither this manuscript nor one with substantially similar content under my/our authorship has been published or is being considered for publication elsewhere. For papers with more than one author, we agree to allow the corresponding author to serve as the primary correspondent with the editorial office, to review the edited typescript and proof.

I/We have seen and approved the submitted manuscript. All of us have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the contents. All the authors have made substantial contributions to the intellectual content of the paper and fulfil at least 1 condition for each of the 4 categories of contributions:

1.     Conception and design, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data

2.     Drafting of the manuscript, critical revision of the manuscript 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

I/We also certify that all my/our affiliations with or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript are completely disclosed on the title page of the manuscript. My/our right to examine, analyze, and publish the data is not infringed upon by any contractual agreement.

I/We certify that all persons who have made substantial contributions to the work reported in this manuscript (e.g., data collection, writing or editing assistance) but who do not fulfil the authorship criteria are named along with their specific contributions in an acknowledgment section in the manuscript. I/We also certify that all persons named in the acknowledgment section have provided written permission to be named.

OR (If an acknowledgment section is not included) No other person has made substantial contributions to this manuscript.

All of the content published in the Indian Pediatrics is protected under the International copyright law, defined by Creative Commons and International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). The authors undersigned hereby retain the academic copyright of the content and can self-archive the article.

The journal retains the commercial rights of the published content and Springer executes the commercial rights on behalf of the journal. In the event that such work is published in Indian Pediatrics, the journal has the right to analyze the information obtained from submitted manuscripts as part of editorial research to improve the peer-review process, and for teaching and training activities