Submission Guidelines

Read this page in full before you send anything. Most manuscripts that are returned without review are returned for reasons listed here, and every one of those reasons is avoidable.

Before you submit

Confirm all six statements below. If any one of them is not true, the manuscript is not ready.

1. The work is original, is not published elsewhere, and is not under consideration by another journal.
2. Every author listed has contributed to the work and has approved this version.
3. Every source used is cited, and every citation appears in the reference list.
4. Any data, images or instruments belonging to others are used with permission.
5. Where the research involved human participants, patients, patient records or identifiable communities, ethics approval was obtained and the approving body can be named.
6. You can produce the underlying data, transcripts, case files or field notes if the editors ask for them.

What to send

Send three files in a single email.

File one: the anonymous manuscript. The full text with no author name, no institutional address, no acknowledgement section and no self identifying phrasing such as “as I argued in my earlier paper”. Cite your own previous work in the third person, exactly as you would cite anyone else. Name the file manuscript-anonymous.docx.

File two: the title page. A separate file carrying the title, the name of every author in the order agreed, each author’s qualification, designation and institution, the corresponding author’s email and telephone number, the ORCID identifier of each author if held, an acknowledgement section, a funding statement and a conflict of interest statement. Name the file title-page.docx.

File three: the covering letter and declaration. Use the text on the author declaration and copyright form page. Paste it into a document, complete it and sign it. Name the file declaration.docx.

Send all three to the submissions address as attachments in Microsoft Word format. Do not send PDF only, because the manuscript cannot be copy edited from a PDF. Do not send a link to a cloud folder, because links expire and manuscripts should not.

Subject line

Use this exact format so that your manuscript reaches the right reviewer without delay:

SUBMISSION | Section | Article type | First author surname | Short title

For example: SUBMISSION | Health and Nursing Sciences | Research Article | Sharma | Handover practice in district hospitals

Length

Article type	Word count, excluding references	Abstract	Keywords
Research article	4,000 to 8,000	150 to 250 words	4 to 6
Review article	5,000 to 9,000	150 to 250 words	4 to 6
Case comment	2,500 to 5,000	120 to 200 words	3 to 5
Short communication	1,500 to 3,000	100 to 150 words	3 to 5
Book review	1,000 to 2,000	Not required	Not required

A manuscript that exceeds the upper limit by more than ten per cent should be accompanied by a sentence in the covering letter explaining why the length is necessary. The editors will consider the explanation on its merits.

Structure

Empirical work should follow the sequence: introduction and research question, review of existing work, method and materials, findings, discussion, limitations, conclusion, references. Doctrinal and legal work should follow: introduction and issue, framework of law or doctrine, analysis, comparative or critical discussion, conclusion, references. Literary, historical and philosophical work may follow the structure the argument requires, but must still open with a clear statement of the question and close with a conclusion that answers it.

Use numbered headings to two levels only. Do not number the abstract, references or appendices.

Formatting

• A4 page, 2.54 cm margins, Times New Roman 12 point, 1.5 line spacing, left aligned text.
• Continuous line numbers and page numbers, which make review reports far easier to act on.
• British English or American English consistently, not both. Hindi manuscripts in Unicode Devanagari, Mangal or Kokila, 14 point.
• Tables in editable table format, numbered consecutively, each with a caption above and a source note below. Do not paste tables as images.
• Figures numbered consecutively with captions below, supplied additionally as separate image files of at least 300 dpi.
• Footnotes only where they carry substantive comment. Bibliographic material belongs in the reference list.

Referencing

Use APA 7th edition for empirical, clinical, educational and social science work. Use the Bluebook 20th edition or the Indian Law Institute style consistently for legal work. Use MLA 9th edition for literary and language studies. Whichever style you use, use it completely and consistently, and name it in the covering letter.

Every reference must be traceable. Provide the DOI where one exists, the full case citation for judgments, the gazette or bill number for legislation, and the date of access for web sources.

Language

Manuscripts are accepted in English and in Hindi. Hindi manuscripts are reviewed by Hindi speaking referees and published in Hindi, with an English title, abstract and keywords added so that the work can be found and cited internationally. The editorial office will help prepare that English abstract if the author asks.

The journal does not reject manuscripts for imperfect English when the research is sound. It does return manuscripts whose language obscures the argument, with specific guidance on what needs work. Language editing is provided free at the copy editing stage for accepted manuscripts.

Use of artificial intelligence

Tools that generate or rewrite text may be used for language editing, and this must be disclosed in the covering letter with the name of the tool and what it was used for. Such tools may not be used to generate data, results, references, images or analysis. No artificial intelligence system can be listed as an author, because authorship requires accountability that no such system can hold. Fabricated references, which these tools produce readily, are treated as research misconduct under the publication ethics policy.

What happens after you submit

1. Acknowledgement within two working days, with a manuscript number. Quote it in all later correspondence.
2. Editorial screening within seven working days, covering scope, structure, referencing, anonymisation and similarity. You will receive a written outcome, whether or not the manuscript proceeds.
3. Double anonymous review, three to four weeks. Two reviewers assess the manuscript against the published criteria.
4. Decision, one of: accept, accept with minor revision, revise and resubmit, or reject. Reviewer reports are sent with the decision in every case, including rejection.
5. Revision, normally within three weeks for minor revisions and six weeks for a revise and resubmit, with a point by point response to each reviewer comment.
6. Copy editing and proof, with the author approving the final proof before publication.
7. Publication in the next scheduled issue, under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence, at a permanent web address.

The average time from submission to first decision is targeted at five weeks. Where a manuscript takes longer, the editorial office will tell you why and when to expect the decision, without waiting to be asked.

Common reasons for return without review

• The manuscript is not anonymised, or the file properties still carry the author’s name.
• The abstract describes the topic rather than reporting the question, method, findings and conclusion.
• Sources are quoted but not cited, or the reference list does not match the citations.
• The similarity report exceeds the threshold set in the plagiarism policy.
• The manuscript falls outside every research section of the journal.
• The declaration is missing, unsigned or incomplete.

Where to send it

Manuscripts go to the submissions address published on the contact page. Queries about fit, scope or format go to the general editorial address. The editorial office replies to every message within five working days, and manuscripts are never left unanswered.