The Editorial Process

Intervention Journal of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Conflict Affected Areas is a forum for professionals working in areas of armed conflict and in the aftermath of natural disasters, and for those working with refugees from these regions. Its purpose is to publish new and existing knowledge on mental health, psychosocial work and counselling related to these topics and to make this knowledge accessible to all interested parties. It is this aim of accessibility that makes Intervention very different from most journals, and that will have an impact on the final journal content.

A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to Intervention 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 authorise one of them to correspond with the Journal for all matters related to the manuscript. All manuscripts received are duly acknowledged. On submission, editors 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 are rejected before proceeding for formal peer-review. Manuscripts that are unlikely to be of interest to the Intervention readers are also liable to be rejected at this stage itself.

Manuscripts received from Editorial Board members will be screened by the Editor in Chief and sent to external peer reviewers. The editorial board members who are authors will be excluded from publication decisions.

Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication in Intervention are sent to three expert reviewers for articles and two reviewers for field reports. Personal reflections will be reviewed by the editorial team. Contributors may provide 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. 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 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. 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 submission of the manuscript to 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 on acceptance.

Processes for appeals 

The authors do have the right to appeal if they have a genuine cause to believe that the editorial board has wrongly rejected the paper. If the authors wish to appeal the decision, they should email the editorial office (email: [email protected]) explaining in detail the reason for the appeal. The appeals will be acknowledged by the editorial office and will be investigated in an unbiased manner. The processing of appeals will be done within 6 – 8 weeks. While under appeal, the said manuscript should not be submitted to other journals. The final decision rests with the Editor in Chief of the journal. Second appeals are not considered.

Anti-Plagiarism Policy

Plagiarism includes duplicate publication of the author’s own work, in whole or in part without proper citation or mispresenting other’s ideas, words, and other creative expression as one’s own. The Journal follows strict anti-plagiarism policy. All manuscripts submitted to Sahel Medical Journal undergoes plagiarism check with commercially available software. Based on the extent of plagiarism, authors may be asked to address any minor duplication, or similarity with the previous published work. If plagiarism is detected after publication, the Journal will investigate. If plagiarism is established, the journal will notify the authors’ institution and funding bodies and will retract the plagiarised article. To report plagiarism, contact the journal office (email: [email protected]) 

Publishing information

Why?

All content published in our journal is open access and freely available online upon publication. This enables everyone to read the content wherever and whenever they wish. Our work can only be sustainable in the long term by requesting a publication fee from authors. These fees cover a part of the costs of the publishing services we provide. These services include online tools for editors and authors, article production and hosting, liaison with abstracting and indexing services.

How much?

Articles
The basic publishing fee for articles is £ 390.00/$ 500.00/€ 440.00 for each manuscript accepted for publication. This amount is to be paid by either the author, the author’s funder, their institution or employer once the manuscript has been accepted but before the publication process begins.

Field reports
The basic publishing fee for field reports is £195.00/$ 250.00 /€ 220.00 per manuscript which is 50% of the publishing fee for articles.

Other contributions
Personal reflections, letters to the editors, book reviews and invited comments do not have a publishing fee.

Discount and waivers

We believe that funding constraints should not be a barrier to open access publication. Please contact us to request a discount or a waiver at [email protected]. Waivers or discounts are granted on a case-by-case basis to authors with insufficient funds. Authors should request a waiver or discount during the submission process.

First authors from low-income countries

In line with our mission and vision, as a general guideline we would not request a fee for articles for which the first author is from a low-income country, as classified by the World Bank as of July 2017 (World Bank 1st July 2017 https://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/GDP-ranking-table).

However, please note that authors whose publications are supported by funding would not benefit from this waiver.

First authors from lower-middle -income countries
Papers whose first author are based in countries with lower-middle-income economies and with a 2016 gross domestic product (GDP) of less than 200 billion US dollars are eligible for a 50% discount. (World Bank 1st July 2017 https://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/GDP-ranking-table).

However, please note that authors whose publications are supported by funding would not benefit from this discount.

Disclaimer

The information and opinions in Intervention reflect the views of the authors. Publication does not necessarily constitute endorsement by the editors or the publishers of the journal.

Clinical trial registry

The Journal would publish clinical trials that have been registered with a clinical trial registry that allows free online access to public. Registration in the following trial registers is acceptable: http://www.ctri.nic.in/; http://www.anzctr.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 2018. Clinical trials that have commenced enrollment of subjects prior to June 2018 would be considered for publication in Intervention only if they have been registered retrospectively with clinical trial registry that allows unhindered online access to public without charging any fees.

Authorship Criteria

Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to each of the three components mentioned below: 

1. Concept and design of study or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data;
2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
3. Final approval of the version to be published.

Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content of the manuscript. The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and writing the manuscript. Once submitted the order cannot be changed without written consent of all the contributors. The journal prescribes a maximum number of authors for manuscripts depending upon the type of manuscript, its scope and number of institutions involved (vide infra). The authors should provide a justification, if the number of authors exceeds these limits.

Contribution Details

Contributors should provide a description of contributions made by each of them towards the manuscript. Description should be divided in following categories, as applicable: concept, design, definition of intellectual content, literature search, clinical studies, experimental studies, data acquisition, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing and manuscript review. One or more author should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole from inception to published article and should be designated as 'guarantor'. 

Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests

All authors of must disclose any and all conflicts of interest they may have with 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 conflict of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.

Submission of Manuscripts

All manuscripts must be submitted online through the website https://review.jow.medknow.com/intv. First time users will have to register at this website. Registration is free but mandatory. Registered authors can keep track of their articles after logging into the website using their user name and password.

If you experience any problems, please contact the editorial office by e-mail at [email protected]

The submitted manuscripts that are not as per the “Instructions to Authors” would be returned to the authors for technical correction, before they undergo editorial/ peer-review. Generally, the manuscript should be submitted in the form of two separate files:

[1] Title Page/First Page File/covering letter:

This file should provide

1. The type of manuscript (original article, field report, personal reflection, review article, letter to editor, etc.) title of the manuscript, running title, names of all authors/ contributors (with their highest academic degrees, designation and affiliations) and name(s) of department(s) and/ or institution(s) to which the work should be credited. All information which can reveal your identity should be here. Use doc files. Do not zip the files.

2. The total number of pages, total number of photographs, tables and/or figures and word counts separately for abstract and for the text (excluding the references, tables and abstract), word counts for introduction + discussion in case of an original article;

3. Source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, or all of these;

4. Acknowledgement, if any. One or more statements should specify 1) contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, such as general support by a departmental chair; 2) acknowledgments of technical help; and 3) acknowledgments of financial and material support, which should specify the nature of the support. This should be included in the title page of the manuscript and not in the main article file.

5. If the manuscript was presented as part at a meeting, the organisation, place, and exact date on which it was read. A full statement to the editor about all submissions and previous reports that might be regarded as redundant publication of the same or very similar work. Any such work should be referred to specifically, and referenced in the new paper. Copies of such material should be included with the submitted paper, to help the editor decide how to handle the matter.

6. Conflicts of Interest of each author/ contributor. A statement of financial or other relationships that might lead to a conflict of interest, if that information is not included in the manuscript itself or in an authors' form.

7. Criteria for inclusion in the authors’/ contributors’ list.

8. A statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, that the requirements for authorship as stated earlier in this document have been met, and that each author believes that the manuscript represents honest work, if that information is not provided in another form (see below); and

9. The name, address, e-mail, and telephone number of the corresponding author, who is responsible for communicating with the other authors about revisions and final approval of the proofs, if that information is not included on the manuscript itself.

[2] Blinded Article file: The main text of the article, beginning from Abstract till References (including tables) should be in this file. The file 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 title 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. Use doc files. Do not zip the files. Limit the file size to 1 MB. Do not incorporate images in the file. If file size is large, graphs can be submitted as images separately without incorporating them in the article file to reduce the size of the file. The pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the first page of the blinded article file.

Please ensure that the main manuscript or supplementary word files (Microsoft Office username in INFO page of MS word) do not show the contributors’ actual name. Please keep the "Author name" and "Last Modified by" sections as “user” for anonymity before uploading. 

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[3] Images: Submit good quality colour images. Each image should be less than 2 MB in size. Size of the image can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images (keep up to 1600 x 1200 pixels or 5-6 inches). Images can be submitted as jpeg files. Do not zip the files. Legends for the figures/images should be included at the end of the article file.

[4] The contributor's / copyright transfer form (template provided below) has to be submitted in original with the signatures of all the contributors within two weeks of submission via courier, fax or email as a scanned image. Print-ready hard copies of the images (one set) or digital images should be sent to the journal office at the time of submitting revised manuscript. High resolution images (up to 5 MB each) can be sent by email.

Contributors’ form / copyright transfer form can be submitted online from the authors’ area on https://review.jow.medknow.com/intv.

Preparation of Manuscripts

Before submitting a manuscript, contributors are requested to check for the latest instructions available. Instructions are also available from the website of the journal (http://www.interventionjournal.org) and from the manuscript submission site https://review.jow.medknow.com/intv).

Intervention accepts manuscripts written in British English and following the APA reference style.

Types of Manuscripts

Original articles:

Articles that are published by Intervention are based on empirical research, practical experience, or reviews of relevant literature. The journal welcomes descriptions and evaluations of current projects in the fields of community mental health, counselling or psychosocial work, including training approaches for local professionals. Articles could:

• provide new research findings;
• report the relevant evaluations of practitioners in mental health and psychosocial support, so that the experience can become an example for fieldworkers in other regions;
• describe interventions strategies and projects;
• demonstrate how theory can be used in practice, and how practical experience can challenge theoretical views, thus building a bridge between theory and practice in the field;
• introduce new theoretical concepts that may influence work in the field;
• literature reviews;
• stimulate discussion between fieldworkers, academics and policy makers.

The manuscript could be of up to 5000 words (excluding references and abstract). The manuscript should have an unstructured Abstract (200 words) representing an accurate summary of the article.

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 2013 (available at https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/). For prospective studies involving human participants, authors are expected to mention about approval of (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 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 institution’s or a national research council’s guide for, or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.
Evidence for approval by a local Ethics Committee (for both human as well as animal studies) must be supplied by the authors 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 ‘Materials and Methods’ section.

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

The reporting guidelines for other type of studies can be found at https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/. 

Statistics: Whenever possible quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Authors should report losses to observation (such as, dropouts from a clinical trial). When data are summarized in the Results section, specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. 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 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. About 30 references can be included. These articles generally should not have more than six authors.

Field reports:

Field reports should be descriptions and evaluations of current projects in the field of community mental health and psychosocial work, including training approaches for local professionals and community members. But also descriptions of case studies that are illustrative of a more general problem. The information should be relevant for  practitioners in mental health and psychosocial support in a way that the experience can become an example for fieldworkers in other regions, or it explains that the approach has not given the expected results.

These manuscripts could be of up to 4000 words (excluding references and abstract).

Personal reflections:

Personal reflections could be anything the author wants to share and that is relevant  for other people in the field. It can address the content of the work, the  dynamics of working and living in humanitarian settings,  ethical or political  issues that  influence the wellbeing of people or the work of the professionals, etc.

The manuscript could be of up to 3000 words (excluding references and abstract). 

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, Commentary and Opinion are solicited by the editorial board.

Intervention style guide

Please use this style guide to prepare your manuscripts for submission to Intervention. It is based on APA style, as set out in the American Psychological Association (APA) Manual, 7^th edition

1. Title

The title is centred, in bold, with title case heading. This corresponds to heading level 1 in APA Style.

Titles should summarise the main idea of the article and be written in a way that engages readers. In more formal papers, they should include the main topic  the key aim or goal of the study or project, the cohort or segment of the population involved and geographic location. In the manuscript, the title should be in Times New Roman, 14 pt bold

For example:
Building Meaningful Participation In Reintegration Among War Affected Young Mothers In Liberia, Sierra Leone And Uganda: A Local Report

2. Shorter alternative title

If the manuscript has a title that is longer than 90 characters, please provide a shorter alternative title, marking it as such. In the manuscript, the short running title should be in Times New Roman, 12 pt bold.

For example:
Short title: Emergency Psychiatric Care In North Kivu In The Democratic Republic Of The Congo
 

3. Authors

3.1 The full names (with both first name(s) and surname/family name) of all authors are listed, with an ampersand (&) before the final author’s name. Please do not include titles and/or academic degrees in the author list. Mark affiliation links of authors’ bylines in superscript Arabic numerals (see below). There is no final full point at the end of the author list.

For example:
Patrick Onyango Mangen^[1], Florence Baingana^[2] & Guus van der Veer^[3]

3.2  Where an author has several given names (e.g. James William Jones), the name by which he/she is best known is written in full and the other given name(s) are given in abbreviated form.

For example:
James W. Jones
or
J. William Jones

In the manuscript, the authors should be listed in Times New Roman, 10 pt bold.

3.3 Non-English surnames often contain one or more prefixes, for example, van, van der (Dutch), von (German), de, le (French), del, della (Italian), bin, ibn (Arabic and Hebrew). These are all lower case. In other languages/locations, some prefixes are in upper case, examples include: Al (Arabic), Bath (Hebrew), Ben (Arabic and Hebrew), El (Arabic and Spanish), Mala (Kurdish), Na (Thai), Nin (Serbian), or Öz (Turkish). 

3.4 Authors’ titles and affiliations are written in the second line under the names, designated by a superscript number. These should include: highest academic degree, followed by designation and ending with organisation affliation. The first author has superscript number¹, the second author a superscript ^2, followed by ^3, etc. In the manuscript, the titles and affiliations are in Times New Roman, 10 pt roman.

It is the author's responsibility to ensure all names are given correctly. Please also ensure that the author’s information is not in the manuscript but only on the Title Page/First Page File/covering letter.

3.5 A correspondence address should be included after author’s information for the first author, including both an email and affiliation address. Correspondence address heading should be in Times New Roman, 10 pt bold.

4. Box with ‘Key implications for practice’

4.1 A box indicating three key implications for practice should be included in articles. This is not necessary for field reports or personal reflections. The key implications should be formatted as three bullet points. They should explain why the article is relevant for the field in low- and middle-income countries. They should be written in short, concise, declaratory sentences and end with a full stop. They provide an overview or highlight the main points of relevance of the article.

In the manuscript, the box heading should be in Times New Roman, 12 pt bold, and box text in Times New Roman, 12 pt.

See example:

Key implications for practice

• MHPSS practitioners should critically examine the results of psychiatric epidemiological surveys in humanitarian emergencies.
• Mental health researchers need to move towards using dimensional approaches to mental health.
• Qualitative research can provide important insights around cultural idioms of distress that may be gender-specific. 

5. Summary/abstract

A summary/abstract should be provided that is an overview of the paper, including main arguments, results, discussion points and conclusion. The abstract should not have subsections and must work as an independent section as can be used in library systems to highlight the content of the article.

An abstract should not exceed 200 words, as most indexing systems will cut off any text after that limit.

It should be written using an active voice and only include information that appears in the body of the paper. Excessive statistical details should be avoided, as well as abbreviations or acronyms. Even those considered well known should be spelt out in full. Also, reference citations should be avoided but, if they must be included, please add full bibliographic details.

In the manuscript, the abstract should be in Times New Roman, 12 pt italic

6. Keywords

Keywords are listed after the abstract, with the bold heading ‘Keywords:’. The keywords run on directly after the heading and are separated by a comma and in ascending order. Only proper nouns have an initial upper-case letter. There is no final full point at the end of the list. For example:
Keywords: Liberia, meaningful participation, northern Uganda, Sierra Leone, war affected mothers

In the manuscript, the keywords should be in Times New Roman, 12 pt

7. Body text

In typeset form, the body text appears in Times New Roman, 12 pt, with the heading “keywords’ in Times New Roman bold, 12 pt.

7.1 Use of language

Intervention is a journal with a global readership. There are likely to be speakers of languages other than English accessing articles. Please bear this in mind and write clearly, using accessible language. Avoid the use of jargon and highly technical or culturally specific terms. If it is essential to include unfamiliar terminology, please include explanations or definitions.

Please write in the active voice whenever possible rather than the passive voice.

For example:

Active voice: ‘UNHCR established a project in the town.’

Passive voice: ‘A project was established in the town by UNHCR.’).

Write in a direct, coherent style. Use simple sentences without long sub clauses.

Please use inclusive and bias-free language . Examples are given below.

The singular “they” or “their” is preferred as a gender-neutral pronoun:

Incorrect:

“A researcher’s career depends on how often he or she is cited.”

Correct:

“A researcher’s career depends on how often they are cited”.

Instead of using adjectives as nouns to label groups of people, please use descriptive phrases:

Incorrect:

“the locals” or “the poor”

Correct:

“local staff”, “the local population” or “people living in poverty”

Please use exact age ranges that are more relevant and specific, instead of broad age categories:

Incorrect:

“people over 65 years old”

Correct:

“people 65 to 75 years old”

Please use terms such as ‘victims’ or ‘survivors’ with awareness, not only because of their literal meanings, but also because of their (often political) implications within the field. Current thinking is to use “those who have experienced [or witnessed] violence”. The same applies to terms such as patient or client, therapist, counsellor, facilitator, teacher, or trainer. Whichever term(s) you use, please use them consistently.

When introducing a project for the first time, please provide sufficient precise details on the location, participants (including number, age, gender and any other relevant population grouping), timing, scope, and aims of the project. Please keep the background concise and relevant.

7.2 Abbreviations and acronyms

• Use only standard abbreviations and acronyms - spell out in full when first referred to.
• Avoid abbreviations and acronyms in the title and abstract.
• Abbreviations/acronyms that are not standardised may not be familiar to readers, and therefore should be spelled out in full the first time they are used in the text (followed by the abbreviation/acronym in parentheses); thereafter the abbreviation/acronym must be used.
• For organisations with a non-English title, provide a translation on first appearance, after the acronym
• Do not use abbreviations for words such as kilogram, litre, etc.

7.3 Spelling and grammar

• Intervention uses UK spelling, grammar and syntax.
• If possible, please use a standard UK spell checker before you finalise your manuscript. However, be aware that a spell checker might not pick up all errors (e.g. ‘hit’ and ‘hint’ are both correctly spelled but one of these might be incorrect in context), and some ‘errors’ might not be incorrect, e.g. Médecins Sans Frontières.
• In case of doubt, consult the Oxford English Dictionary.
• Use ‘s’ spellings rather than ‘z’ spellings. For example:
• Preferred spelling for terms related to technology include: email, ebook, internet, intranet, website, webpage, the web, login page (but “log in” when used as a verb).

Correct: organisation, centre, kilometre

Incorrect: organization, center, kilometer

Exceptions: If an organisation of company uses US spelling or ‘z’ spelling in its official name, that style must be followed, especially in refernences. For example:

Correct: World Health Organization, National Center for PTSD

Incorrect: World Health Organisation, National Centre for PTSD

7.4 Punctuation

7.4.1 Apostrophes

• Apostrophes should be typographic (also known as curly) (’) rather than straight (').

7.4.2 Colons and semicolons

• Follow colons and semicolons with a single space.
• Follow colons and semicolons with a lower case letter in running text and titles, except when the first word is a proper noun or a proper adjective (e.g. French, Rwandan, Hispanic). Exception: in the Reference list where original titles must be respected.
• Use a semicolon to separate items in a list that follows a colon, e.g. ‘Diagnoses included: anxiety disorders; behavioural problems; stuttering; and depression’. Note the semicolon is included before the final ‘and’. Note: In short lists (as the example given here), it might be better not to use the colon; in this case, the semicolons would be replaced by commas.

7.4.3 Commas

• In lists in the body text we do not use an Oxford comma, or a comma before the word “and”, such as: Italians, Danes, and Germans. Correct: Italians, Danes and Germans.
• The exception to the use of an Oxford comma is in References, both in the body text and in the Reference list. This is because Intervention uses the APA reference style.
• The abbreviations ‘etc.’, ‘e.g.’, and ‘i.e.’ are to be preceded (but not followed) by a comma.
• The following are preceded and followed by a comma when surrounded by words in running text: but, rather, etc., for example, for instance, in general, in particular, however, moreover, namely, nonetheless, respectively. When these appear at the start of a sentence, they are followed by a comma.

7.4.4 Contractions and abbreviations

• Contractions and abbreviations are to be followed by a full point (Dr., St., Vol., Ch., Ed., etc.). The full point is also used in the plural, e.g. Drs., Sts., Vols., Chs., Eds., etc.
• Abbreviations of country names are without points, e.g. UK, US.
• University degrees are without points, e.g. PhD, MSc, MA, BSc, BA.

7.4.5 Dashes

• Use en-dashes (−) with no spaces on either side to indicate ranges. Correct: September−October, 3−12. Exception: In the Reference section, hyphens are used for ranges, e.g. 2001-2009, 22-27.
• Use em-dashes (―) with spaces on both sides to indicate parenthetical thoughts. Correct: “It was considered ― as was standard in such situations ― that ...”

7.4.6 Hyphens

• Avoid hyphens in words like psychosocial, etc. Incorrect: “psycho-social”. Correct: “psychosocial”).
• Do not use a hyphen between a modifier ending in -ly and a past participle in a compound adjective phrase, e.g. ‘highly skilled workers’.
• In general, do not use a hyphen with prefixes (e.g. non, multi, anti, pre, post). These should be joined to the word to which they refer (e.g. nongovernmental, multidisciplinary, antirevolutionary, predetermined, posttraumatic). Exceptions:
  • When the prefix ends in an “a” or “I” and when the root word begins with the same letter as the last letter of the prefix, e.g. ultra-ambitious (not ultraambitious), anti-inflationary (not antiinflationary).
  • Prefixes and root words that result in double e’s and double o’s are usually combined to form one word. For example, preexisting, coordinate. Exceptions: de-emphasise, co-owner.
  • Hyphenate all words beginning with “self” except for ‘selfish’ and “selfless”, e.g. self-estimated, self-respect.
  • Hyphenate all words beginning with “ex”, e.g. ex-Minister.
  • Use a hyphen when the prefix comes before a proper noun or proper adjective, e.g. un-American, non-French.
  • Use a hyphen with ‘re’ only when it means ‘again’ and omitting the hyphen would cause confusion with another word, e.g. “recover” (= return to health or strength) vs. “re-cover” (= put on a new cover). “Reassure” and “reissue”, on the other hand, will not be mistaken for other words, and so do not need hyphenating.

7.4.7 Parentheses and brackets

• Use parentheses (‘(...)’) for insertions in running text. If an insertion is needed within that insertion, use square brackets, e.g. (... [...] ...).
• Exception: A reference citation that occurs in text within parentheses remains in parentheses, for example: “... (it has been argued (Gilbert & de Roche, 2009) that ...) ...”.
• For back-to-back parenthetical information, a semicolon should be used to separate items within one set of parentheses rather than using two sets of parentheses (Section 6.8, top of page 160). Correct: (e.g., dogs; Smith, 2019). Incorrect: (e.g., dogs) (Smith 2019).
• In some languages, the use of parentheses enclosing a prefix, the first part of a compound, a word or a phrase can be used to indicate ‘and/or’. In English this is not possible. Incorrect: “(semi) automatic weapons”. Correct: “automatic or semiautomatic weapon”.

7.4.8 Quotation marks

• As with apostrophes, quotation marks should be typographic (also known as curly: “ “.
• If a direct quotation is fewer than 40 words, include it in the text and use double quotation marks.
• Where quotations are longer than 40 words, treat it as a block quotation which is on a new line, indented, without quotation marks.
• Use single quotation marks for quotations within a quotation.
• Use double quotation marks to refer to linguistic examples and terminology for which the definition is not assumed. Correct: APA endorses the use of the pronoun “they” instead of “he/she”. 
• The full stop at the end of the sentence should follow the citation and not precede it.

7.5 Dates

• Use the day month year format.
• Do not abbreviate the month.
• Do not use “th” or “st” in relation to the day.

Correct: 20 March 2010. Incorrect: March 20th, 2010

7.6 Headings

• Level 2-5 headings are typeset in Times New Roman, 12 pt bold.
• No section numbers are used.
• There is no full point at the end of a heading except for level 5 headings.

Level 2 headings (section headings) are flush left, bold, title case. The text then begins as a new paragraph.

Level 3 headings break level 2 sections into subsections. Level 3 headings should be flush with the left margin, bold, in italics, and title case. The text then begins as a new paragraph. 

Level 4 headings break level 3 subsections into smaller sections. Level 4 headings should be indented (like a new paragraph), bold, and title case. The text begins on the same line as the heading and continues as a regular paragraph.

Level 5 headings break level 4 subsections into smaller sections. Level 5 headings should be indented (like a new paragraph), bold, in italics, and in title case and end with a full stop. The text begins on the same line as the heading and continues as a regular paragraph.

For examples, please see current issue of Intervention

7.7 Numbers

• Spell out numbers one to nine; for numbers 10 and over, use numerals.
• Numerals should always be used preceding a unit of measurement  (e.g., 5 cm) or time (e.g., 4 days).
• At the beginning of a sentence, either spell out the number or rewrite the sentence.
• Use numerals for percentages and measures.
• Use a comma in thousands, e.g. 1,120, 11,200.
• Use a point for decimals, e.g. 1.4 cm.

7.8 Lists

• Where ‘displayed’ lists are used, and the points mentioned are not cited elsewhere, begin each item with a bullet.
• If the points mentioned in a list are mentioned elsewhere (e.g. ‘As mentioned in point x, …”), use (1), (2), (3), etc.
• The first word of each item should have an upper-case letter.
• Each item should finish with an appropriate punctuation mark:
  • If the list carries on from the previous text as if it is part of the same sentence, all items except for the last item should end with a comma or semi-colon, and the last items ends with a full point.
  • If the points in the list stand alone, then each point should end with a full point.

See lists in this guide for examples.

8. Tables and figures

The presentation style of table and figure numbers, titles and notes are the same.

• Table and figure numbers are both given above the table/figure in bold.
• Table and figure titles appear on the next double-spaced line, flush left with the margin, in italics, in title case, with no full stop.
• Table column headings are in sentence case and centred.
• Notes are placed below the table or figure. Please use only where absolutely necessary to explain terms used or to add information.

Each table or figure must be cited at least once in the core text. The table or figure will be placed as close as possible to its first citation.

9. Tables and table captions

Each table must be cited at least once in the core text. The table will be placed as close as possible to the its first citation.

9.1 Table captions

• Captions are typeset in Times New Roman, 12 pt bold italic.
• The table number is followed by a full point. The caption is written in sentence style, with only proper nouns and proper adjectives (e.g. French, Rwandan, Hispanic) having an initial upper-case letter.
• There is no full point at the end of a caption.
• If the table is continued to a second (or further) page, there the main body of the caption is replaced by ‘(continued)’.

For example:

Table 1. Main differences between two psychosocial projects after the Nargis cyclone

Table 1. (continued)

9.2 Column headings in a Table

• Column headings are not bold.
• Headings are ranged left.

9.3 Columns

• Range columns left.
• Columns of associated values are to be aligned on the decimal point.

9.4 Table footnotes

• Use footnotes sparingly, to explain terms used in the main body of the table or to add supplementary information to some parts of the table.
• Use identifiable markers to link the footnote to that part of the table being referred to. For example:.; 1, 2, 3 ...
• Footnotes are in Times New Roman, 10 pt Italic.
• If a table uses horizontal rules to delineate the top and bottom of the main body of the table, footnotes are placed under the bottom rule, flushed left.
• In case of short footnotes, these can run-on on the same line; for longer footnotes, each should start a new line.

10. Boxes

• Extra information or explanations may also be supplied in a box.
• Each box must be cited at least once in the core text. The box will be placed as close as possible to its first citation.
• The box caption follows the same rules as for a table caption.
• If individual points within the box are referred to in the core text, they should be numbered (with the number followed by a full point). Otherwise,
• Individual points do not end with a full point.

11. Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements should focus on individuals or teams who have made a substantial contribution to the study, and/or manuscript. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from people acknowledged by name, in case readers infer their endorsement of data and conclusions.

12. Endnotes and footnotes

Endnotes are sometimes necessary to explain essential, additional information that may not be covered in the scope of the article, or may interrupt the flow of information. For example, this may be additional information on the scope of activities of other information of organisations or authors which are not the prime focus of the article, or related information considered important, but not part of the main scope or focus of the article.  Please make sure that any endnotes relate to the main body of the text. Endnotes should not be used for referencing articles (see below for references 

References

The citation of references in the text (including tables and figure citations) and entries in the References list should follow APA (American Psychological Association) guidelines. A summary of the main points is given below. For more information, please consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7^th ed.) or www.apastyle.com.

Please note: These guidelines were updated in 2020 and contain several changes to the previous version.

Reference citations in the text, table or figure caption

• For a work by one author, reference citations are given in parentheses in the text, and consist of the author family name and year of publication, separated by a comma.

For example: (Harland, 2009).

• Alternatively, the citation can be given in a signal phrase. In this case, the author’s family name is followed by the year of publication in parentheses.

For example: “In the research carried out by Harland (2009), …”.

• For a work by two authors, name both authors in parentheses, or in the signal phrase each time you cite the work. Use the word “and” between the authors’ names within the text and use the ampersand (&) in the parentheses.

For example: (Cairns & Darby, 1998) and “Cairns and Darby (1998) indicated that …”

• For works by three or more authors, list just the first author’s name followed by et al. from the first citation in the text:

For example: (Robinson et al., 2008) and “As shown by Robinson et al. (2008), …”

• For a work by an organisation or government agency as an author, name the organisation/agency in parentheses or in the signal phrase.

For example: (World Health Organization, 2002) and “According to the World Health Organization                 (2002), …”

• For a work by an organisation or government agency, for citations in parentheses name the organisation or agency and include the abbreviation in brackets the first time the source is cited and then use only the abbreviation in subsequent citations.

For example: First citation – (World Health Organization [WHO], 2012); Subsequent citations – (WHO, 2012).

• For citations in a sentence phrase, in the first citation, the abbreviation is placed before the year of publication, separated by a semi-colon.

For example: “According to the World Health Organization (WHO; 2012), …”. In subsequent citations, use only the abbreviation.

For example: “According to the WHO (2012), …”.

• When more than one paper are cited at once, all citations should be included in the one set of parentheses, and they should be separated by a semicolon. As in the References list, the citations should be placed in alphabetical order (based on the first author’s family name).

For example: (Baker, 1999; Cairns & Darby, 1998; Commission for Victors and Survivors, 2011; Morrow, Muldoon, Robinson, & Dowds, 2009).

• When two or more works are cited together and are identified by the same first author’s family name, to prevent confusion use the first initials with the family names.

For example: (M. Morrissey, 2012; S. Morrissey, 2007).

• For two or more works by the same author or set of authors (or when the first author’s family name + “et al.” is used in the citation) in the same year, use lower case letters (a, b, c, etc.) with the year in order to identify the entries in the References list (and use the same letters in the corresponding Reference list entries).

For example: (McKeown, 2009a; McKeown, 2009b; Morrow, Robinson, & Dowds, 2013a; Morrow, Robinson, & Dowds, 2013b; Nolan, 2012; Robinson et al., 2003a; Robinson et al., 2003b).

• For two or more works by the same author or set of authors (or when the first author’s family name + “et al”' is used in the citation) but NOT in the same year, the citations are placed in chronological order.

For example: (Morrow, Robinson, & Dowds, 2008; Morrow, Robinson, & Dowds, 2011; Smyth, 2003;                 Smyth 2009; Templer et al., 1996; Templer et al. 1999).

• When citing a work that was cited in another source, name the original source in the signal phrase, list the secondary source in the References list and place that secondary source in parentheses.

For example: 'McKeown (2009) argued that … (as cited by Muldoon, 2000, p.152)'.

• Works published in electronic form should be cited in the same format as described above.
• For personal communications (e.g. interviews, letters, e-mails, and other person-to-person communication), cite the communicator’s name (including initial[s]), the fact that it was personal communication, and the date of the communication.

For example: (A. T. Q. Stewart, personal communication, 4 January 2007) and 'P. Smyth indicates that      … (P. Smyth, personal communication, 5 June 2010)'. Do not include personal communications in the References list.

• Please check that each reference citation is matched by an entry in the Reference list (and that the author name[s] and year of publication match!), and that each entry in the Reference list is cited at least once in the paper.
• Non-English surnames often contain one or more prefixes, for example, van, van der (Dutch), von (German), de, le (French), del, della (Italian), bin, ibn (Arabic and Hebrew), these are all lower case. In other languages/locations, some prefixes are in upper case, examples include: Al (Arabic), Bath (Hebrew), Ben (Arabic and Hebrew), El (Arabic and Spanish), Mala (Kurdish), Na (Thai), Nin (Serbian), or Öz (Turkish).  For example: (De Roche et al., 2010; Gilbert & de Roche, 2009; van der Meulen, 2018).
• If in the rare case that a reference is cited in the abstract, it must also be cited within the paper.

References list

All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references after the main text. Please check that each entry in the References list is cited at least once in the paper. Note: it is not sufficient that a reference is cited only in the abstract; it must also be cited elsewhere in the paper. In principle, the bibliographic details should be presented as they appear in the source material. This is especially important with regard to the order and spelling of author names and the spelling of the titles of books and journal articles. This does not necessarily apply to whether specific words have an initial uppercase or lower-case letter: here, APA style is paramount.
 

General rules

• All lines after the first line of each entry in the References list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.
• In principle, each entry begins with author and year-of-publication information.
• Reference list entries should be in alphabetical order, based on the family name of the first author of each work. If several entries have the same first-author’s family name, the order of those papers is then based on the second-author family name.
• For multiple articles by the same author, or authors listed in the same order, list the entries in chronological order, from earliest to most recent.
• Write the name of the journal in full, capitalise all major words and write in italics.
• When referring to books, chapters, articles, or webpages, capitalise only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns and proper adjectives. Do not capitalise the first letter of the second word in a hyphenated compound word.
• Italicise titles of longer works such as books and journals.
• Do not italicise, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works such as journal articles or essays in edited collections.
• In principle, personal communications and unpublished works should not appear in the References list. However, they may be cited in the text (as indicated above).

Author names and year of publication

• Authors’ names are cited with the family name first; give the family name and initials for all authors of a particular work for up to and including 20 authors. If the work has more than 21 authors, list the first 19 authors and then use an ellipsis (i.e. …) after the 19 author’s name. After the ellipsis, list the last author’s name.

For example: Miller, T. C., Brown, M. J., Wilson, G. L., Evans, B. B., Kelly, R. S., Turner, S. T., Lewis, F., Lee, L. H., Cox, G., Harris, H. L., Martin, P., Gonzalez, W. L., Hughes, W., Carter, D., Campbell, C., Baker, A. B., Flores, T., Gray, W. E., Green, G., … Nelson, T. P. (2018).

• When an author has more than one initial, each initial is separate by a letter spaces
• For example: Strang, A. B. (2008).
• The year of publication (in parentheses) follows the final author name, with no comma in between. This is followed by a full stop.
• For example: Staub, E., Bolton P., Strang, A. B., & Ager, A. K. (2007).
• If the list of authors results in two or more entries having the same text/table/figure caption citation, a lower case letter (a, b, c, etc.) is placed after the year of publication.

                For example: Van Westeren, A. B. (2009a). ... Van Westeren, A. B. (2009b). ...

• When the author and publisher are the same, omit the publisher in the reference.

                For example: Ministry of Education. (2009). Research ethics in New Zealand: A student guide.

• Multiple publishers are listed in the order shown on the copyright page of a work, separated with a semi-colon.

                For example: Neftci, S. N. (2009). Principles of financial engineering (2nd ed.). Academic Publishing;                 Massey University Press.

Reference formats

In the References list, please use the following formats:

Authored book

• The author and publication-year information is followed by the book title.
• If an edited book is being cited, “(Ed.)” (or “(Eds.)” in the case of more than one editor) is placed between the editor name(s) and the year of publication.
•  In the main title of the book, please use the first published title of the book.
•  If the book has a subtitle, add a colon to the main title and only the initial letter of the first word of the subtitle, proper nouns, and proper adjectives are upper case.
• The title (main and subtitle) is italic.
• The spelling used in the original title must be followed.
•  If the cited book is not the first edition, the edition number should be placed after the book title, in parentheses but not in italic. An abbreviated ordinal number (2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.) is used to indicate which edition ('ed.') is intended.
• The citation is as follows: Author, date, title, publisher

For example: Whyte, E. (1990). Interpreting Northern Ireland (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.

• Include a DOI or URL if available. Do not include a URL or database information for works from academic research databases. Do not put a full stop after the DOI or URL.

 For example: Brown, L. S. (2018). Feminist therapy (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000092-000

Chapter in a book

• The author and publication-year information is followed by the chapter title.
• The chapter title is written with the spelling used in the original title.
•  If there is a chapter subtitle, add a colon to the main title and only the first word of the subtitle and proper nouns or proper adjectives are upper case.
• The chapter title is not italic.
• The spelling used in the original title must be followed.
• The chapter title is followed by a full point.
•  List all editors preceded by “In” and followed by “(Eds.),” the title of the book (in italic), edition/pagination (in parentheses, with the range indicated by a hyphen and preceded by 'pp'), and publisher name, followed by a full-stop/period.
•  Editor names: initial(s) followed by the family name and a comma. List all editors. The final editor name is preceded by an “&”.

For example:
Kostelny, K. (2006). A culture-based, integrative approach: Helping war-affected children. In N. Boothby, A. Strang, & M. Wessells (Eds.), A world turned upside down: Social ecological approaches to children in war zones (2nd ed.) (pp 19-37). Kumarian Press.

Journal article

• The author and publication-year information are followed by the journal article title.
• The article title is written, using the spelling in the original title and is not italicised. It is followed by a full stop.
• If there is a subtitle, add a colon to the main title before writing as indicated in the original.
• The article title is not italic.
• The spelling used in the original title must be followed.
• The article title is followed by a full point and then the full journal tile
• The journal title is in italic, is not abbreviated, and is followed by volume number (in italic), the issue number if available (in roman and in parentheses, with no space between it and the volume number) and pagination (with the range indicated by a hyphen), followed by a full stop. There is a comma between the journal-title and volume issue and between the volume/issue and pagination information.

For example: Strang, A. B. & Ager, A. (2003). Psychological interventions: some key issues facing practitioners. Intervention, 1(1), 2-12.

• Include a DOI for all works that have one. If the DOI (digital object identifier) is known, this should be added to the end of the entry, but is not followed by a full-stop/period. This consists of 'doi:' followed by the number.

For example:

Roche, E., Madigan, K., Lyne, J. P., Feeney, L., & O’Donoghue, B. (2004). Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 202(3), 186-192. doi: 10.1097/NMD.0000000000000102

Commentary on a published paper

[The original paper: Boote, D.N., & Beile P. (2005). Scholars before researchers: On the centrality of the dissertation literature review in research preparation. Educational Researcher, 34(6), 3-16.]

For example:
Maxwell, J.A. (2006). Literature reviews of, and for, educational research: A commentary on Boote and Beile’s 'Scholars before researchers' [Peer commentary by J. A. Maxwell]. Educational Researcher, 35(9), 28-31.

Response to a commentary on a paper

For example:
Boote, D. N., & Beile, P. (2006). On 'Literature reviews of, and or, educational research': A response to the critique by Joseph Maxwell [Peer commentary by D. Boote and P. Beile]. Educational Researcher, 35(9), 32-35.

Commentary on a topic

For example:
McClellan, J., & King, M.-C. (2010). Genomic analysis of mental illness: A changing landscape [Commentary]. Journal of the American Medical Association, 2010(24), 2524. Retrieved from http://jama.ama-assn.org/

Conference proceedings

Conference proceedings should include the author/s, the date of the full conference, the title of the contribution plus the type of contribution (in square brackets) followed by the name and location of the conference and the DOI or URL.

For example:
Fistek, A., Jester, E., & Sonnenberg, K. (2017, July 12-15). Everybody’s got a little music in them: Using music therapy to connect, engage and motivate [Conference session]. Autism Society National Conference, Milwaukee, WI, United States. https://asa.confex.com/asa/2017/webprogramarchives/Session9517html

Newspaper articles

For example:
Schwartz, J. (1993, September 30). Obesity affects economic, social status. The Washington Post, pp. A1, A4.

Jauhar, S. (2014, March 20). The diminishing returns of modern medicine. The New York Times. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/author/sandeep-jauhar-m-d/

Entry in an encyclopaedia or dictionary

For example:
Bergmann, P. G. (1993). Relativity. In The New Encyclopedia Britannica. (Vol. 26, pp. 501-508). Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica.

Heuristic. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary (11th ed.). Retrieved June 4, 2019 from http://www.mw.com/dictionary/heuristic

Dissertations, published and unpublished

For example:
McAuley, P (1988). On the fringes of society: Adults and children in a disadvantaged Belfast community. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Hollander, M. M. (2017). Resistance to authority: Methodological innovations and new lessons from the Milgram experiment (Publication NO. 10289373) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

Book review

For example:
Schatz, B. R. (2000, November 17). Learning by text or context? [Review of the book The social life of information, by J. S. Brown & P. Duguid]. Science, 290, 1304. doi:10.1126/science.290.5495.1304

Report by a government agency or other organisation
 

For example:
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Practice guidelines for the treatment of patients with eating disorders (2nd ed.). American Psychiatric Association.

National Cancer Institute. (2018). Facing forward: Life after cancer (NIH Publication No. 18-2424). U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/life-after-treatment.pdf

Online media​

Use the webpages and websites category if there is no other reference category and the article has no main publication source such as a journal or blog, etc. Only use a retrieval date when the contents of the page are likely to change over time and the page itself is not archived.

• Webpage on a website with a group author

World Health Organization. (2018, March). Questions and answers on immunization and vaccine safety. https://www.who.int/features/qa/84/en/

• Article from an online publication

These articles follow the same guidelines as for printed articles. Include all information that the online host provides, including an issue number in parentheses. Do not add a full-stop/period after the URL.

For example:
Bacon, N., Brophy, M., Mguni, N., Mulgan, G., & Shandro, A. (2010). State of happiness: Can public policy shape people’s well being and resilience? Young Foundation.  http://www.youngfoundation.org/¢les/images/wellbeing.happiness.Final.pdf             

• Electronic books

Electronic books may include books found on personal websites, databases, or even in audio form. Use the following format if the book you are using is only provided in a digital format or is difficult to find in print. For books available in print form and electronic form, include the published date in parentheses after the author’s name. For references to e-book editions, be sure to include the type and version of e-book you are referencing (e.g., '[Kindle DX version]'). If DOIs are available, provide them at the end of the reference (but do not follow with a full-stop/period).
For example:
De Huff, E. W. (n.d.). Taytay’s tales: Traditional Pueblo Indian tales.http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/dehuff/taytay/taytay.html

• ​Blog post

For example:
Klymkowsky, M> (2018, September 15). Can we talk scientifically about free will? Sci-Ed. https//blogs.plos.org/scied/2018/09/15/can-we-talk-scientifically-about-free-will/

• Webinar (recorded)

For example:

Goldberg, J. F. (2018). Evaluating adverse drug effects [Webinar]. American Psychiatric Association. https://education.psychiatry.org/User/ProductDetails.aspx?ActivityID=6172

Protection of Patient's 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 obvious indication to 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 in the revised file itself. In addition, they are expected to mark the changes as underlined or coloured text in the article.

Please ensure that the revised main manuscript or supplementary word files (Microsoft Office username in INFO page of MS word) do not show the contributors’ actual name. Please keep the "Author name" and "Last Modified by" sections as “user” for anonymity before uploading.

Publication schedule

The journal publishes articles on its website with a bi-annual frequency. 

Copyrights

The entire contents of the Intervention 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 International Public License.

Checklist

Covering letter

• Signed by all contributors
• Previous publication / presentations mentioned
• Source of funding mentioned
• Conflicts of interest disclosed

Authors

• First and last name and given name provided along with Middle name initials (where applicable)
• Author for correspondence, with e-mail address provided
• Number of contributors
• Identity not revealed in the paper except in cover letter (Title, profession, name of the institute/affiliation of each contributor)
• Please ensure that the main manuscript or supplementary word files (Microsoft Office username in INFO page of MS word) do not show the contributors’ actual name. Please keep the "Author name" and "Last Modified by" sections as “user” for anonymity before uploading. 

Copyright form

• Signed by all contributors

Presentation and format

• Double spacing
• Margins 2.5 cm from all four sides
• Page numbers included at bottom
• Title page contains all the desired information
• Running title provided (not more than 50 characters)
• Abstract page contains the full title of the manuscript
• Amount of 200 words for all other manuscripts excluding letters to the Editor
• Key words provided (three or more)
• Introduction
• Headings according the journal’s instructions
• The references cited in the text should be after punctuation marks, in superscript with square bracket.
• References according to the journal's instructions, punctuation marks checked
• Send the article file without 'Track Changes'

Click here to download instructions

Click here to download copyright form

These ready to use templates are made to help the contributors write as per the requirements of the Journal.

Save the templates on your computer and use them with a word processor program. 
Click open the file and save as the manuscript file.

In the program keep 'Document Map' and 'Comments' on from 'View' menu to navigate through the file. 


Download Template for Original Articles/ABSTRACT Reports. (.DOT file)

Download Template for Case Reports.  (.DOT file)

Download Template for Review Articles.  (.DOT file)

Download Template for Letter to the Editor.  (.DOT file)