Author Guidelines

The Baticaloa Medical Journal is published by the Batticaloa Medical Association. The journal is published biannually, May and September and the submissions are accepted throughout the year. The aims of the Journal are to foster co-operation among the medical fraternity and to be a forum to make literary contributions, share experiences encountered in medical practice, update their knowledge and have debates on topics related to all aspects of medicine. Also, we attempt to cater to the educational needs especially of the postgraduate trainees. The Journal publishes original articles, reviews, leading articles and case reports. When an article is reviewed for publication, we expect that the work it reports has not been submitted simultaneously to another journal has not been accepted for publication elsewhere or has not already been published. All manuscripts will be reviewed anonymously before acceptance.

Manuscripts must be submitted with the text type written in 12-point Times New Roman font double spaced. Text and all illustrative material should be submitted in electronic version in Microsoft Word document format. In order to avoid delay we require authors to comply with the following requirements. All manuscripts should accompany a covering letter indicating the number of words in the manuscript, institution where ethical clearance was granted, conflicts of interest and contact details of the corresponding author.

Types of contributions

Review articles and Leading articles: We encourage submission of review or leading articles which are less than 3000 words in length and address topics of current interest. They should be supported by no more than 20 references. Submissions may be subjected to external review before acceptance.

Original articles: Should normally be in the format of introduction, methods, results and discussion. Each manuscript must have a 200 word structured abstract. The text should be limited to 3000 words and maximum of 5 tables/figures taken together with no more than 15 references. Lengthy manuscripts are likely to be returned for shortening. The discussion in particular should be clear and concise and should be limited to matters arising directly from the results. Avoid discursive speculation.

Case Reports: These should not exceed 750 words and 5 references; no abstract is required. Case report should be informative and devoid of irrelevant details.

References

These should conform to the Vancouver style. The reference in the text should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals in parentheses in the same line of the text in the order in which they appear. The first five authors should be listed and if there are more than five, then the first three should be listed followed by et al. Examples are given below:

1. Kumar A, Patton DJ, Friedrich MG. The emerging clinical role of cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging. Canadian Journal of Cardiology 2010; 26(6): 313-22.

2. Calenoff L, Rogers L. Esophageal complication of surgery and lifesaving procedures. In: Meyers M, Ghahremani G, eds. Iatrogenic Gastrointestinal Complications. New York: Springer, 1981: 23-63.

Units / Abbreviations
Authors should follow the SI system of units (except for blood pressure which will continue to be expressed in mmHg). Authors should use abbreviations sparingly and they should be used consistently throughout the text. Manuscripts that do not conform to these requirements will be returned to you for necessary modifications. Manuscripts should be addressed to Editors, Baticaloa Medical Association, Teaching Hospital, Baticaloa.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
2. The submission file is in Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
3. Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
4. The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
5. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal. Every effort has been made to ensure that author names are removed from the manuscript (following the instructions to ensure blind peer review).

Copyright Notice

Batticaloa Medical Association reserves the copyright and the corresponding author, on behalf of all authors, will be asked to sign a transfer of copyright form. The corresponding author must make sure that all authors have read the contents of the Copyright Assignment Form and must sign on their behalf. Articles cannot be published until a signed Copyright Assignment Form has been received.

Privacy Statement

Batticaloa Medical Association reserves the copyright and the corresponding author, on behalf of all authors, will be asked to sign a transfer of copyright form. The corresponding author must make sure that all authors have read the contents of the Copyright Assignment Form and must sign on their behalf. Articles cannot be published until a signed Copyright Assignment Form has been received.

Editor-in-chief
Dr Angela Arulpragasam Anthony
MBBS MD
Senior Lecturer in Paediatrics
Faculty of Health-care Sciences
Eastern University, Sri Lanka

Editorial board
Dr. Balachandran Devakanthan
Consultant Clinical Microbiologist
MBBS, Dip in Microbiology
MD Microbiology

Dr.G.R.Francis
MBBS, MD
Senior Lecturer in Medicine
Faculty of Health care sciences
Eastern University, Sri Lanka

Dr. Vadivel Vijitharan
MBBS MD
Consultant gastroenterologist
Teaching Hospital Batticaloa

Editorial assistant
Dr. Thayani Patkunarajah
MBBS
MO Peadiatric Neurology