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UKnowledge > College of Medicine > Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences > JPNS

 

Author Guidelines & Policies

A. Authors’ Checklist

All publications must adhere to the following requirements. Failure to do so may lead to returning the manuscript without review:

  1. The manuscript has not been previously published in its current form.

  2. For all the submitted texts, figures, and tables, the author either holds the copyright or have received permissions for using them in an open access publication.

  3. The first author must be a mentored student or trainee in good standing at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in the Department of Pharmacology & Nutritional Sciences.

  4. The manuscript must be read and approved by all the authors.

  5. The name, address, and email of the corresponding author must be included on the title page.

  6. When relevant, IRB approval must be clearly indicated and HIPAA regulations must be strictly followed.

Unless indicated otherwise, submissions are open only to students seeking graduate-level or professional degrees.


B. Manuscript Categories

1. Monographs: Monographs are articles written about a particular topic in the field of biomedical science that has had a profound impact, is controversial, or is an emerging new concept or approach. They are intended to introduce a fresh perspective that generates thought and dialogue and contributes to sustaining the relevance of biomedical science to current issues.

Manuscript limits:

  • Total Length: up to 1,500 words (excluding abstract, illustrations, and references)

  • Abstract Length: up to 150 words

  • Table/Figure Limits: up to 3 tables and figures

  • References: up to 30 references

2. Teaching & Learning Moments: Pieces vary in style and subject and may be first-person, narrative essays. A detailed description or reflection of implementation of a new or unique pedagogical approach inside or outside of the classroom.

Manuscript limits:

  • Total Length: up to 1,000 words (excluding abstract, illustrations, and references)

  • Abstract Length: up to 150 words

  • Table/Figure Limits: up to 2 tables and figures

  • References: up to 15 references

3. Methods & Techniques: Brief report of new or innovative methods or techniques utilized in research. Methods & Techniques articles should include evidence of validation, tips for user optimization, and provide an example of effectiveness in biomedical research. Additionally, authors are strongly encouraged to provide scientific rationale for key steps (i.e., write why you are using SDS before loading your gels).

Manuscript limits:

  • Total Length: up to 2,000 words (excluding abstract, illustrations, and references)

  • Abstract Length: up to 250 words

  • Table/Figure Limits: up to 5 tables and figures

  • References: up to 40 references

4. Summary Articles/Reviews: A concise report of the scientific literature on a given topic in order to summarize current knowledge of the topic. The review should provide a detailed description of previous work, current guidelines or knowledge, the most recent research findings, and implications for practice. Reviews can be systematic/meta-analyses, or narrative reviews.

Manuscript limits:

  • Total Length: up to 2,000 words (excluding abstract, illustrations, and references)

  • Abstract Length: up to 250 words

  • Table/Figure Limits: up to 3 tables/figures

  • References: up to 100 references

5. Abstracts: A concise overview that summarizes the findings of research conducted while participating in a research training program or working under a faculty mentor. Manuscripts should clearly include brief descriptions of the background, aim, methods, results, and conclusion of the study. These abstracts are intended to highlight rising trainee work and to encourage the development of scientific communication skills in junior scientists.

Manuscript limits:

  • Total Length: up to 350 words (excluding references; each figure is representative of 50 words)

  • Table/Figure Limits: up to 2 tables/figures.

  • References: up to 15 references

C. Text Formatting

A downloadable Microsoft Word (.docx) template for manuscript submissions can be downloaded here.

Font: Times New Roman at 12 point with double spacing

Page layout: Pages should conform to 8.5 x 11 inches with 1-inch margins on all sides. Text should be left justified. New paragraphs should indent with the first line. Authors should number all of the pages of the manuscript consecutively, beginning with the title page.

The manuscript should be organized as follows:

  1. Body of the manuscript text

  2. References

  3. Tables

  4. Figures

D. Manuscript Structure

1. Title Page

The title page should include:

  • Article Title (concise and limited to 100 characters)

  • Author Names (John D. Doe B.S.1*, Jane M. Doe M.S.2, etc.)

  • Institutional and Departmental Affiliations of all authors in the order of appearance in author names (1 Department of Pharmacology & Nutritional Sciences; College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY USA.) 2 , etc.

  • Contact information for corresponding author(s) including address and email. The corresponding author should indicate clearly whether his or her e-mail address can be published. Corresponding author(s) is indicated with an asterisk by name in author listing.

  • Key Phrases: Relevant words or short phrases that aid search engines or indexes in finding your work. Use maximum 6 key phrases that are not present in the title. Maximum of 6.

  • Word Count: Abstract and Body (excluding abstract, illustrations, and references)

  • Table and Figure Count

2. Abstract

Abstracts must accurately reflect the content of the article. They should include:

  • context or background for the study

  • purpose, basic procedures, main findings, and principal conclusions

  • emphasis on new and important aspects of the study or observations

3. Illustrations (Figures and Tables)

The number of tables and figures should be listed consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text. A brief title for each, followed by a caption that describes the illustration, its components, and any pertinent information needed to interpret it. All letters, numbers, and symbols should be clear and consistent throughout the manuscript. All graphs must have labeled axes and units. Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units (meters, kilograms, or liters); if information is better conveyed using U.S. standards of measurement, such as height or weight of a patient, those should be in parentheses in addition to metric measurements. Illustrations that are currently copyrighted are not allowed to be published unless express written permission from the copyright holder has been given. The authors are responsible to obtain the permission and provide a copy to JPNS.

4. Reference Style and Format

Please ensure that all references cited in the text are also present in the reference list (and vice versa). References should be prepared according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition), i.e. text citations should follow the author-date form, whereby the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, for example, (Jones, 1998). The complete reference list should appear alphabetically by name at the end of the paper. Please note that a DOI should be provided for all references where available. For more information about APA referencing style, please refer to the APA FAQ.

5. Informed Consent and Human/Animal Rights

Research with animal models should comply with regulations of the institution’s animal use requirements, the Animal Welfare Act and CDC Guidelines. Authors that use direct patient data, images, or information are required to obtain informed consent from the patients being studied unless waiver of consent has been approved by the institution’s internal review board (IRB) or ethics committee. The authors must comply with the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). 

E. Manuscript Submission

Completed manuscripts should be submitted through the JPNS website by clicking on Submit Article in the menu on the left-hand side of the page.

F. Peer Review Process

Submissions to the Journal of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences (JPNS) are reviewed by three referees (2 graduate students and 1 senior scholar) who are selected from among the journal's editorial collective on the basis of their interest and expertise. JPNS follows a single-blind review process: at no point is the referees' names disclosed to the authors. Referees will have three weeks to complete their reviews and make recommendations to the Editors-in-Chief. On the basis of Referees' reviews, the Editors in Chief will choose to accept the article for publications, accept it with minor revisions, request that the author make major revisions to the article and resubmit, or reject the article. The author will have two weeks to make requested revisions and resubmit. The referees will have one week to decide whether sufficient revisions have occurred and submit their recommendations to the Editors in Chief. Based on these recommendations, the Editors in Chief will render final acceptance and rejection decisions.

G. Open Access Policy

The Journal of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences (JPNS) is a No-Fee Open Access Journal. This means that the journal offers free availability and unrestricted use of the content it publishes and does not charge publication fees. In other words, the journal strives to remove both price barriers and permission barriers. Content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (CC-BY-NC 4.0), meaning that interested parties are free to share and adapt published work, so long as they give appropriate credit to the author and the journal, indicate what changes were made (if any), and agree to not make commercial use of the work.

H. Plagiarism Statement

Every article submitted for publication in the Journal of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences (JPNS) will be checked for instances of plagiarism before the work is distributed to referees for review. If verbatim copying, self-plagiarism, or improper paraphrasing is detected, the author will be notified and asked to rewrite or clearly cite the text in question. If the plagiarism is extensive, the article will be rejected and the author's institution or employer may be notified. Plagiarism can be difficult to quantify; as such, whether or not an instance of plagiarism is 'extensive' will be determined by the Editors in Chief in consultation with the journal's faculty advisor.


*Adapted and modified from University of Kentucky's eMRS Instructions for Authors.