Author Guidelines
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About the Journal
Pharm Aspire is the official publication of ISF College of Pharmacy, Moga and published by Avenue Research Publishers. It is an international journal published annually. Pharm Aspire is available in print and online versions.
It is a peer-reviewed journal aiming to communicate high-quality original research work, reviews, short communications, case reports, Ethics forums, Education forums and Letters to the editor that contribute significantly to further the scientific knowledge related to but not limited to the field of Physiology and biological sciences. Articles with timely interest, in-vivo studies and newer research concepts will be given more preference.
All articles published in this journal represent the opinion of the authors and do not reflect the official policy of Pharm Aspire. All papers are subjected to double-blinded peer review.
About the ISF
Indo Soviet Friendship (ISF) College of Pharmacy, located on GT Road, Ghal Kalan, Moga was established in 1984. This Institute is the fruition of seminal visionaries and ardent efforts of the founder Shri Baldev Krishan Garg Ji, who happened to be President of Indo Soviet Friendship Society, Moga. The society with the core philosophy being love, friendship and societal literacy, conceived that dedicated and honest efforts should be made to fulfill and nourish the basic educational need of underprivileged youth of this remote area of Punjab. The budding talents in the youth of this region should be supported and guided to academically let them grow to self-reliance, with the employment potential.
At present, it is a unique center of excellence at all levels of Pharmaceutical Education offering all courses in Pharmacy viz. D. Pharm., B.Pharm, M. Pharm. (Specialization Pharmaceutics, Pharmacology, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Quality Assurance, Pharmaceutical Analysis and Pharmacognosy), Pharm.D., B. Pharm. (Practice) and Ph.D. program in Pharmaceutical Sciences under the able leadership of Chairman, Shri Parveen Garg Ji.
The Manuscript Submission
All submissions should be made online through Manuscript Submission & Peer-Review System [Avenue Publishers]. New users should first register as new authors. Registration is free but mandatory. Once a user is logged onto the site, submissions should be made via the Author Portal. If you experience any problems with your submission or with the site, please contact Avenue Publishers Online support through the ‘Log in help’ link.
The Editorial Process
Pharm Aspire considers all manuscripts on the strict condition that they have been submitted only to Pharm Aspire that they have not been published already, nor are they under consideration for publication or in press elsewhere. Avenue Publishers adheres to the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics [COPE]. As per these guidelines, failure to adhere to the above conditions will result in the editor-in-chief and Avenue Publishers an appropriate correction, a statement of retraction, or enacting a withdrawal of the article. In extreme cases, offending authors may be banned from submitting to Avenue Publishers journals in the future or reported to their institution’s ethics committee. 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 by the journal.
On submission, the editor-in-chief will review all submitted manuscripts initially for suitability for formal review. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or lack of a significant message, if not prepared as per journals instructions are rejected before proceeding for formal peer-review. Manuscripts that are unlikely to be of interest to the Pharm Aspire readers are also liable to be rejected at this stage itself.
Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication in Pharm Aspire are sent to two or more expert reviewers. During submission, the contributor is requested to provide the names of two or three qualified reviewers who have had experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript. 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-in-chief. The journal follows a double-blind review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identities. Every manuscript is finally reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief of the journal, who based on the comments from the reviewers takes 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 two days. It may not be possible to incorporate corrections received after that period. The whole process of submission of 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 ‘Articles in Press’ immediately on acceptance.
Manuscript preparation
The submitted manuscripts that are not as per the “Instructions to Authors” will be directly rejected. Generally, the manuscript should be submitted in the form of two separate files:
[1] First-page file (Including cover letter):
Details to be included in the First-page file: Manuscript type, Article Title, Name(s) of the author(s), Affiliation(s) of the author(s), Name, Contact details, postal address of the corresponding author, Email address(es) of all authors, acknowledgments and Running title. You may include a covering letter in the First-page file Maximum file size allowed: is 4 MB.
[2] Article file:
The manuscript must not contain any mention of the authors' names or initials or the institution at which the study was done or acknowledgments. Page headers/running titles can include the title but not the authors' names. Manuscripts not in compliance with The Journal's blinding policy will be returned to the corresponding author. The main text of the article, beginning from the article title to References (including tables and figures) should be in this file. Use doc /Docx files. Do not zip the files. Tables and images should be incorporated into this file. The pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the first page of the article file.
Article Processing Charges
There are no submission or publication charges in the journal
Preparation of Manuscript
The manuscript should be concisely typewritten in double space on standard-sized paper (8.5" x 11") with 1" margins on all sides. The manuscript shall be prepared in Times New Roman font using a font size of 12. The fonts used in the text, as well as graphics, should be restricted to Times New Roman, Symbol and Zapf Dingbats.
The prescribed word count for original research article and review articles are up to 3000 words including Article Title, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion [including Tables and/or Figures], Conclusion, Acknowledgement and References. The pages shall be numbers consequently.
No abbreviations on acronyms shall be used in the titles or Abstract acronyms except for measurements. All references, figure (Fig.) and tables (Table) in the text shall be numbered consequently as they first appear. Abbreviations like “&” and “etc” shall be avoided in the paper. There shall not be decorative borders anywhere in the text including the title page. These entire MS word documents with graphs and illustrations pasted in it shall not exceed 4 MB.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE:
An original research article typically should include the following in the order given below:
Article Title
Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results and Discussion [including Tables and/or Figures]
Conclusion
Acknowledgment
References
Article Title
The article title should be not more than 14 words.
Abstract:
The abstract should present the novelty of the study, the main findings, and principal conclusions, in not more than 250 words. All the three categories, Review Articles, Original Research Articles and Short Communications should have an Abstract.
Keywords
No more than six keywords are needed. Words appearing in the title should not be given as keywords. It is desirable to include the alternative words if any under keywords e.g. the word ‘famotidine’. They should be written left aligned, arranged alphabetically in 12pt Times Roman, and the line must begin with the words Keywords boldfaced. A 12pt space should separate the keywords from the affiliations.
Introduction
Description of the research area, pertinent background information, and the hypotheses tested in the study should be included in this section. The introduction should provide sufficient background information such that a scientifically literate reader can understand and appreciate the work to be described. The introduction should be precise and a detailed review of literature is not at all required under this section. The specific aims of the project should be identified along with the rationale for the specific experiments and other work performed. The introduction must include in-text citations including a few references pertinent to the background and justification for the study.
Materials and Methods
Materials and/or subjects utilized in the study as well as the procedures are undertaken to complete the work. The methods should be described in sufficient detail such that they could be repeated by a competent researcher. The sources of all major instruments and reagents used (kits, drugs, etc) must be given with parentheses. Illustrations and/or tables may be helpful in describing complex equipment or elaborate procedures. The statistical tool used to analyze the data should be mentioned. All procedures involving experimental animals or human subjects must accompany a statement on ethical approval from the appropriate ethics committee along with the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC) approval number.
Results and Discussion
Data acquired from the research with the appropriate statistical analysis described in the methods section should be included in this section. The results section should highlight the important results obtained. Data should be organized into figures and tables. Qualitative, as well as quantitative results, should be included, if applicable. The discussion section should relate the results section to the current understanding of the scientific problems being investigated in the field. Description of relevant references to other work/s in the field should be included here.
Tables
All tables must be numbered consecutively (1, 2, 3 etc) and be cited in the text. Titles should be short but descriptive. Each table should have a legend and/or footnotes identified by superscripts a, b, c, etc. Do not use vertical lines and keep horizontal rules to a minimum. In tables, the units are usually in brackets following the quantity, and the font should be Times New Roman and font size of 10.
Figures
Figures (photographs, drawings, diagrams and charts) are to be numbered in one consecutive series of Arabic numerals [1, 2, 3 etc.] in the order in which they are cited in the text.
Formula and equations
Structural and chemical formulas, process flow diagrams and complicated mathematical expressions should be very clearly presented. All subscripts, Greek letters and unusual characters must be identified. Structural and chemical formulae as well as process flow diagrams should be prepared in the same way as graphs.
Conclusion
This section allows the author to discuss the significance of the results - i.e. does the data support the hypotheses you set out to test? This section should end with new answers/questions that arise as a result of the author’s work.
Acknowledgments
Those who have helped the authors carry out the study and/or prepare the manuscript but have not made a significant intellectual contribution to deserve authorship must be acknowledged. Mention all applicable grants and other funding that supported the work.
Conflicts of Interest/ Competing
Interests All authors submitting manuscripts to the journal must disclose any and all conflicts of interest they may have with the publication of the manuscript or an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented. Authors should also disclose conflicts of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.
References
Responsibility for the accuracy of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the authors. Citations of literature in the text must be presented in numerical order and a separate Reference List should be supplied. Type reference numbers in square brackets after the punctuation mark and do not use superscripts.
In-text citation Correct / Acceptable Format
Respiratory tract infection is one of the most important infectious diseases worldwide. This infection is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients in developing countries. [1] Respiratory tract infections (RTIs), which involve the upper or lower respiratory tract, frequently occur after birth. [2, 3] RTIs, such as sore throat, earache, laryngitis, common cold, otitis media, sinusitis, and mastoiditis, are the most frequently-occurred infections of all human diseases and have been frequently documented. [4-9]
Incorrect / Not accepted
Respiratory tract infection is one of the most important infectious diseases worldwide. This infection is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients in developing countries [1, 2, 3]. Respiratory tract infections (RTIs), which involve the upper or lower respiratory tract, frequently occur after birth. [5] RTIs, such as sore throat, earache, laryngitis, common cold, otitis media, sinusitis, and mastoiditis, are the most frequently-occurred infections of all human diseases and have been frequently documented (6, 7).
Reference List:
Single/Multiple Authors
Nagaich Upendra, Bharti Charu, Pal Ashok Kumar, Gulati Neha. Mesoporous silica nanoparticles in target drug delivery system: A Review. J. Adv. Pharm. Technol. Res. 2012; 347(4): 284-7.
More than six authors
Nagaich Upendra, Chaudhary Vandana, Tonpay SD, Karki Roopa, Nagaich Jaya, Gulati Neha, et al. Fabrication and in vitro characterization of polymeric nanoparticles for Parkinson’s therapy: A novel approach. J. Adv. Pharm. Technol. Res. 2010; 50 (4): 869-876.
Organization as Author
Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group. Hypertension, insulin, and proinsulin in participants with impaired glucose tolerance. Hypertension. 2002; 40(5): 679-86.
Unknown Author
21st-century heart solution may have a sting in the tail. BMJ. 2002; 325(7357): 184-5.
Journal article on the Internet
Nagaich U. Development and Statistical Optimisation of Buspirone Hydrochloride Buccoadhesive Films. J Adv. Pharm. Technol. Res. [serial on the Internet]. 2010 Jan [cited 2010 Jul 15]; 45(6): [about 3 p.]. Available from: http://www.japtr.org/currentarticles/2010/jul/.asp Note: Plant/Micro-organisms, in-vivo, in-vitro should be in italics.
Personal author(s)
Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Paller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.
Editor(s), compiler(s) as author
Gilstrap LC 3rd, Cunningham FG, Van Dorsten JP, editors. Operative obstetrics. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002.
Author(s) and editor(s)
Breedlove GK, Schorfheide AM. Adolescent pregnancy. 2nd ed. Wieczorek RR, editor. White Plains (NY): March of Dimes Education Services; 2001.
Organization(s) as author
Royal Adelaide Hospital; the University of Adelaide, Department of Clinical Nursing. Compendium of nursing research and practice development, 1999-2000. Adelaide (Australia): Adelaide University; 2001.
Chapter in a book Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113.
Conference proceedings
Harnden P, Joffe JK, Jones WG, editors. Germ cell tumors V. Proceedings of the 5th Germ Cell Tumour Conference; 2001 Sep 13-15; Leeds, UK. New York: Springer; 2002. Thesis N. Khoshakhlagh. The compositions of volatile fractions of Peganum harmala seeds and its smoke. Pharm. D. Thesis, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. (2002).
WEBSITES
Website information www.avenuerp.in [homepage on the Internet]. Aurangabad, Maharshtra, India.
REVIEW ARTICLES:
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.
The prescribed word count is up to 3000 words including Article Title, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Background [including Tables and/or Figures], Conclusion and References. The manuscript may have about 20-30 references.
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.
CASE REPORTS:
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 be of up to 1000 words and could be supported with up to 10 references. Case Reports could be authored by up to four authors and should have the following headings: Abstract (structured), Keywords, Introduction, Case report, Discussion, Reference, and Tables and Legends in that order.
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 up to 500 words and 5 references. It could be generally authored by not more than four authors.
Other:
Editorial, Guest Editorial, and Commentary are solicited by the editorial board.
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 written informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients' names from figures unless they have obtained written informed consent from the patients. When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the article and a copy of the consent should be attached with the covering letter.
Sending a revised manuscript
The revised version of the manuscript should be submitted online in a manner similar to that used for the 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 ‘reviewers’ remarks along with point-to-point clarification at the beginning in the revised file itself. In addition, they are expected to mark the changes as underlined or colored text in the article.
COPYRIGHT GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS:
The entire contents of the Pharm Aspire 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