Essential cover page information: The Cover Page should only include the following information:

Title

  • Concise and informative.
  • Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems.
  • Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible and make clear the article's aim and health relevance.

Author names and affiliations in the correct order.

  • Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly.
  • Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address.
  • Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.

Corresponding author.

  • Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication.
  • Ensure that telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address.
  • Contact details must be kept up to date by the corresponding author.

Present/permanent address.

  • If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name.
  • The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address.
  • Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such foot notes.

Text In the main body of the submitted manuscript this order should be followed:

  • Abstract, main text, references, appendix, figure captions, tables and figures.
  • Author details, keywords and acknowledgements are entered separately during the online submission process, as is the abstract, though this is to be included in the manuscript as well.
  • During submission authors are asked to provide a word count; this is to include ALL text, including that in tables, figures, references etc.

Title:

  • Please consider the title very carefully, as these are often used in information-retrieval systems.
  • Please use a concise and informative title (avoiding abbreviations where possible).
  • Make sure that the health or healthcare focus is clear.

Abstract:

  • An abstract of up to 250 words must be included in the submitted manuscript.
  • An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone.
  • It should state briefly and clearly the purpose and setting of the research, the principal findings and major conclusions, and the paper's contribution to knowledge.
  • For empirical papers the country/countries/locations of the study should be clearly stated, as should the methods and nature of the sample, the dates, and a summary of the findings/conclusion.
  • Please note that excessive statistical details should be avoided, abbreviations/acronyms used only if essential or firmly established, and  that the abstract should not be structured into subsections.
  • Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full at the end of the abstract.

Keywords:

  • Up to 8 keywords are entered separately into the online editorial system during submission, and should accurately reflect the content of the article.
  • Again abbreviations/acronyms should be used only if essential or firmly established.
  • For empirical papers the country/countries/locations of the research should be included.
  •  The keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

Methods:

  • Authors of empirical papers are expected to provide full details of the research methods used, including study location(s), sampling procedures, the date(s) when data were collected, research instruments, and techniques of data analysis.
  • Specific guidance on the reporting of qualitative studies are provided here. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses must be reported according to PRISMA guidelines.

Preferred fonts:

Arial (or Helvetica), Times New Roman (or Times), Symbol, Courier.

  • Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
  • Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
  • Indicate per figure if it is a single, 1.5 or 2-column fitting image.
  • For Word submissions only, you may still provide figures and their captions, and tables within a single file at the revision stage.
  • Please note that individual figure files larger than 10 MB must be provided in separate source files.
  • A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available.
  •  You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
  •  Formats Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalized, please 'save as' or convert the images to one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):EPS (or PDF): Vector drawings.
  •  Embed the font or save the text as 'graphics'.TIFF (or JPG): Color or gray scale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.TIFF (or JPG): Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.TIFF (or JPG): Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or gray scale): a minimum of 500 dpiis required.

Please do not:

  • Supply files that are optimized for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low.
  • Supply files that are too low in resolution.
  • Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.
  • Color art work Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF (or JPEG), EPS (or PDF), or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution.
  •  If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures then Journal will ensure, at no additional charge that these figures will appear in color online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version.
  • For color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article.
  • Please indicate your preference for color: in print or online only.
  • Further information on the preparation of electronic art work.
  • Figure captions Ensure that each illustration has a caption.
  • A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration.
  • Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

Tables:

  • Please submit tables as editable text and not as images.
  • Tables can be placed either next to the relevant text in the article, or on separate page(s) at the end.
  • Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text and place any table notes below the table body.
  • Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in them do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.
  • Please avoid using vertical rules and shading in table cells.
  • References Citation in text Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa).
  • Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full at the end of the abstract.
  •  Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal (see below) and should include a substitution of the publication date with either "Unpublished results" or "Personal communication" Citation of a reference as "in press" implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Web references:

  • As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed.
  • Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given.
  •  Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

Data references:

  1. This journal encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing the min your text and including a data reference in your Reference List.
  2. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier.
  3. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference.
  4. The [dataset] identifier will not appear in your published article.
  5. References in special issue articles, commentaries and responses to commentaries
  6. Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added to any references in the reference list (and any citations in the text) to other articles which are referred to in the same issue.

Reference management software:

  • Most journals have their reference template available in many of the most popular reference management software products.
  • These include all products that support Citation Style Language styles, such as Mendeley. Using citation plug-ins from these products, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article, after which citations and bibliographies will be automatically formatted in the journal's style.
  •  If no template is yet available for this journal, please follow the format of the sample references and citations as shown in this Guide.
  • If you use reference management software, please ensure that you remove all field codes before submitting the electronic manuscript.

Reference formatting :

  • There are no strict requirements on reference formatting at submission.
  • References can be in any style or format as long as the style is consistent. Where applicable, author(s) name(s), journal title/book title, chapter title/article title, year of publication, volume number/book chapter and the article number or pagination must be present. Use of DOI is highly encouraged.
  • Note that missing data will be highlighted at proof stage for the author to correct.
  • If you do wish to format the references yourself they should be arranged according to the following examples: Reference style Text: All citations in the text should refer to:

1. Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;

2. Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication;

3. Three or more authors: first author's name followed by 'et al.' and the year of publication.

Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references can be listed either first alphabetically, then chronologically, or vice versa. Examples: 'as demonstrated (Allan, 2000a, 2000b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1999).... Or, as demonstrated (Jones, 1999; Allan, 2000)... Kramer et al. (2010) have recently shown ...'List: References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary.

 More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc., placed after the year of publication. Examples: Reference to a journal publication: Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A., 2010. The art of writing a scientific article. J. Sci.Commun. 163, 51–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.Sc.2010.00372.

Reference to a journal publication with an article number:

Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A., 2018. The art of writing a scientific article. Heliyon.19, e00205.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e00205.

Reference to a book:

Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 2000. The Elements of Style, fourth ed. Longman, New York.

 Reference to a chapter in an edited book:

 Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B., 2009. How to prepare an electronic version of your article, in: Jones, B.S.,Smith , R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281–304.

Reference to a website:

Cancer Research UK, 1975. Cancer statistics reports for the UK. http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/aboutcancer/statistics/cancerstatsreport/ (accessed 13 March 2003).

Reference to a dataset:

[dataset] Oguro, M., Imahiro, S., Saito, S., Nakashizuka, T., 2015. Mortality data for Japanese oakwilt disease and surrounding forest compositions.  Mendeley Data, v1. https://doi.org/10.17632/xwj98nb39r.1.

Video data :

  • Accepts video material and animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research.
  • Authors who have video or animation files that they wish to submit with their article may do so during online submission.
  • Where relevant, authors are strongly encouraged to include a video still within the body of the article.
  • This can be done in the same way as a figure or table by referring to the video or animation content and noting in the body text where it should be placed. These will be used instead of standard icons and will personalize the link to your video data.
  • All submitted files should be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file's content.
  • In order to ensure that your video or animation material is directly usable, please provide the files in one of our recommended file formats with a maximum size of 10 MB.

Note:

  • since video and animation cannot be embedded in the print version of the journal, please provide text for both the electronic and the print version for the portions of the article that refer to this content.
  • Data visualization Include interactive data visualizations in your publication and let your readers interact and engage more closely with your research.
  • Follow the instructions here to find out about available data visualization options and how to include them with your article.

Supplementary data:

  • MJN accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your research.
  • Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, accompanying videos describing the research, more detailed tables, background datasets, sound clips and more.
  • In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please provide the data in one of our recommended file formats.
  • Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file.

Data statement:

  1. To foster transparency, we encourage you to state the availability of your data in your submission.
  2. This may be a requirement of your funding body or institution. If your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post, you will have the opportunity to indicate why during the submission process, for example by stating that the research data is confidential.