Submissions

Author Guidelines

Authors are invited to make a submission to this journal. All submissions will be assessed by an editor to determine whether they meet the aims and scope of this journal. Those considered to be a good fit will be sent for peer review before determining whether they will be accepted or rejected.

Before making a submission, authors are responsible for obtaining permission to publish any material included with the submission, such as photos, documents and datasets. All authors identified on the submission must consent to be identified as an author. Where appropriate, research should be approved by an appropriate ethics committee in accordance with the legal requirements of the study's country.

An editor may desk reject a submission if it does not meet minimum standards of quality. Before submitting, please ensure that the study design and research argument are structured and articulated properly. The title should be concise and the abstract should be able to stand on its own. This will increase the likelihood of reviewers agreeing to review the paper. When you're satisfied that your submission meets this standard, please follow the checklist below to prepare your submission.

GUIDELINES FOR THE STYLE OF MANUSCRIPTS

All manuscripts should be presented with 2.5 cm margins and pages numbered on the bottom right hand side. All text, including quotations, references, figure legends, tables and captions, should be 1.5-spaced, with a double carriage return between paragraphs. Do not format paragraphs with ‘space before’ or ‘space after’. Wherever possible the use of indents and tabs should be avoided.

The title, abstract, text, acknowledgments, references, tables, captions to figures, and figures should each begin on a new page. It is not necessary to start each section of the text (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion) on a new page.

Use the heading, subheading, font, and paragraph styles appropriate for the publication you intend to submit your article to. For the Journal, styles are shown in the templates for the article. Here are the main ones:

• TITLE OF DOCUMENT: (cap lock) in 12-Pt Times New Roman
• HEADING (cap lock) in 12-Pt Times New Roman
• Subheading (title case) in 12-Pt Times New Roman
• First Paragraph In 12-Pt Times New Roman...
• Use bullets (only the rounded black dot) to list points that are complete sentences, as shown throughout this document. Exception: use numbered points if you want to refer subsequently to one or more of the points by number. For example:
• Use a numbered list for items that could stand alone as paragraphs.
• Do not try to include two or more paragraphs under one number.
• Somewhere in the article you would have to refer to one or more of these numbered points. Otherwise you would list them with bullets.

Flows of Ideas

• Focus your thoughts by writing the summary first, even for articles that do not require one.
• The first sentence of a paragraph usually sets the topic for that paragraph. Do not have any unlinked ideas (non-sequiturs) in the same paragraph.
• A paragraph must consist of more than one sentence. 
• Try to make the ideas within each section flow together.
• Do not put things in the wrong section or subsection. Skim the finished document to make sure.
• When appropriate, keep the order of ideas the same in different sections of the article.
•  Check that you do not contradict or repeat yourself in different sections of the article.
• Aim for simplicity: many readers are less intelligent and less knowledgeable than writers.

Italics and Bold

• Use italics for emphasis and bold for strong emphasis. Avoid italic bold, which does not always show up as bold in some browsers.
• Use italics in expressions such as the term whatever, and for listing descriptors of a scale.
• Put the title of a paper, book, or journal in italics in the body of the text. In the reference list, titles of papers are in normal case. Put headings in BOLD UPPER CASE.
• Put subheadings in Bold Title Case.
• Put sub-subheadings in Plain Title Case.

Punctuation

• Insert a comma wherever there would be a slight pause between words or phrases in the spoken sentence.
• Insert a semicolon between two parts of a sentence; the proviso is that both parts must be able to stand alone as separate sentences.
•  Use a colon to introduce an explanation or an example of something: here is an example. If there are several simple explanations or examples, separate them with commas; otherwise, use semicolons.
• Avoid excessive use of parentheses ( ). Use them to make an aside (an extra remark) only if commas could be confusing. Never use parentheses within parentheses: find another way of saying it. 
• ` Use brackets [ ] for material inserted into a quotation and ellipsis (three dots) for material omitted: According to Smith (1999), "few such [descriptive] studies were done… before 1950."
• Use dashes--two hyphens with no spaces anywhere--for emphatic asides.
• Use one or two spaces after a period, colon, or semicolon. Note, though, that Web browsers delete more than one space unless you make them non-breaking spaces.
• Use double quotation marks (") for speech and verbatim quotations.
• If a quotation is long, type it as an indented block of text without quotation marks
• Use double quotation marks the first time you introduce a newly coined or slang term; do not use quotation marks thereafter.
• Use single quotation marks (') for quotes within quotes.
•  Put commas, semicolons, colons, and periods outside closing quotation marks: "this", for example, but not "this," or "this." Exception: "If the quotation ends in a complete sentence, the period is part of the quote and should therefore go inside the quotation marks, like this."
• Use of and/or instead of or is acceptable when you want to emphasize either or both.
• The forward slash (/) can be used instead of or in sentences that are already replete with ands and/or ors.
• Use Title Case (initial upper-case letters for words of four or more letters) in:
• titles of books or articles in the text, but not in the reference list;
• nouns followed by numbers (on Day 2, in Group B) but not in the control group;
• names of institutional departments (Department of Land Resource Management and Environmental Protection, Mekelle University)

Hyphenation

• Use your spelling checker to decide whether to include a hyphen with a prefix. If the word is not recognized without a hyphen, put one in.
• Here is the paradigm example of hyphenation of adjectives or nouns: a clear-cut case. (If you wrote a clear cut case, you would imply a cut case that was clear. The emphasis in pronunciation also provides a clue.)

Abbreviations and Acronyms

• An abbreviation or acronym (short name) is justified only if the full expression is excessively long or if the abbreviation is well known to all researchers in the discipline. Even so, an easily understood short form of the expression that avoids abbreviations or acronyms is preferable.
• If you must use an abbreviation, define it in parentheses the first time you use it.
• Use the following well-known Latin abbreviations only within parentheses: that is (i.e.), for example (e.g.), and so on (etc.).
• Use vs (versus) and et al. (and others) inside or outside parentheses without defining them.
• Use Note: instead of N.B. (note well).
• Use a period only if the last letter of the abbreviation is not the last letter of the word, as in these examples: Prof., Dr, Mr, Ms, Vol. 1, p. 3, p. 23-25, 2nd ed., et al., vs, etc., and so on.
• Use the following System International (SI) abbreviations for units of measurement: 

Meter, m millisecond, ms 

Gram, g second, s

Kilogram, kg minute, min

Mole, mol hour, h

Liter, L (not l) day, d

Milliliter, ml week, wk

Degree, °C year, y

• Never add an "s" to the above abbreviations.
• Use the style ml.min-1.kg-1 for scientists and ml/min/kg for non-scientists.

Numbers and Statistics

• Use tilde (~) to mean approximately equal to.

• Numbers beginning a sentence must be spelled. Rewrite a sentence so you do not start it with numbers greater than ninety-nine.
• Note: one, two, three… nine, 10, 11, 12… Exceptions: a 2-m tape measure; 3 million.
• Put a space between numbers and units: for example, 75 kg. Exception: 75%.
• Note: 0.32, not .32.
• When you quote numbers, make sure you use the minimum number of significant digits or decimal places. For example, 23 ± 7 years is easier to read than 23.4 ± 6.6 years, and the loss of accuracy is not important in most situations.
• Use the appropriate number of digits: two significant digits for standard deviations (one digit if the standard deviation is for a descriptive statistic like height or weight, or if precision is not important); two decimal places for correlations, two significant digits for percentages. Examples: 73 ± 5; r = 0.45; r = 0.08; 16%; 1.3%; 0.013%.
• If it is more convenient to show p values than confidence limits, show the exact p value to one significant digit (for p < 0.1) or two decimal places (for p > 0.10). Do not use p < 0.05 or p > 0.05. Examples: p = 0.03; p = 0.007; p = 0.09; p = 0.74. (The exact p value is important for anyone using your data to calculate confidence limits or using your data in a meta-analysis).
• Make sure the significant digits of the mean and standard deviation are consistent. Examples: 20 ± 13; 0.020 ± 0.013; 156 ± 7; 1.56 ± 0.07; 15600 ± 700.
• Use the standard deviation as a measure of spread. Do not use the standard error of the mean.
• Avoid test statistics like t, F and 2 א , but if the journal insists on them, show only two significant digits.
• Show 95% confidence intervals for effect statistics like a correlation coefficient or the difference between means.

References

Use the name/date system in the text. List should be full of details of the publication in a reference list at the end of the article.

References in the text

When using other authors' ideas/findings, but not referring to them directly, follow this form: Investigators have employed reaction times to reveal impairment in the initiation of movement in patients with Parkinson's disease (Everts et al 1981, Flowers 1975 and 1976, Wilson and Hill 1925). Note that there is no comma between authors’ names or between the authors’ names and the year of publication, but citations are separated by commas. When referring to more than one paper, place the names of the principal authors in alphabetical order (e.g. ‘Armstrong 1990, Jones 1992, Smith and Jones 1960’). When there are two authors of a paper, mention both (e.g. ‘Smith and Jones 1990’), but when there are three or more, mention only the principal author and follow with ‘et al’ (e.g. ‘Thomas et al 1980’, no full stops). However, ‘et al’ is not acceptable in the reference list — all authors’ names must be given.

When citing an author's work within a sentence in the main text of your article, follow these forms: Smith (1982) refers to the length of time taken for the subject to respond to a stimulus. Smith and Jones (1990) refer to similar findings. Smith (1982) and Thomas et al (1980) refer to problems in the method. It is rarely necessary to quote directly from another author. When quoting directly, place the quote in inverted commas and include the page number on which the quotation appears. For example: Holm (2002) concluded that ‘valid studies comparing surgical fusion with well-defined multidisciplinary treatment

programs are therefore needed’ (p. 133).

Reference list

Place references in alphabetical order according to the surname of the first author. Spell out the full names of journals or books cited. Use Italics for the titles of journals but not for books. Capitalise the titles of books and journals but not of articles or chapters contained within them. Do not use any punctuation between the journal title and the volume number. For example: 

McLellan DL and Walsh M (1976): Longitudinal sliding of the median nerve during movements of the upper limb. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 39: 566–570. Do not leave a space between authors’ initials (i.e. write McLellan DL, not McLellan D L). Write out the word ‘and’ even when a journal title or publishing company uses ampersands (the ‘&’ sign). Omit ‘The’ at the start of journal titles (e.g. ‘Australian Journal of Physiotherapy’, not ‘The Australian Journal of Physiotherapy’). Omit issue numbers; include only the volume and page numbers. Give page numbers in full (i.e. 566–570, not 566–70). 

Put the place of publication ahead of the publisher when referring to books. Write editions as ‘(2nd ed.)’. Where there is only one Editor use ‘(Ed.)’ but do not use a full stop after ‘(Eds)’. Insert a comma after the publisher's name followed by pp. before page numbers when referring to books, e.g.:

• Apley A and Solomon L (1982): Apley's System of Orthopaedics and Fractures (6th ed.) London: Butterworth Scientific, pp. 306–307.

Note the use of colons, commas, full stops and abbreviations in the following examples:

• Hockings J (1985): The effect of chest physiotherapy on artificially ventilated patients. Proceedings of the National Conference of the Australian Physiotherapy Association. Brisbane, pp. 316–325.
• Leng G, Ernst E and Fowler B (1997): Exercise for intermittent claudication. The Cochrane Library, Issue 2. Oxford: Update Software.

References to web sites should state when the site was accessed:

• International Committee of Science Journal Editors. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Science Journals. http://www.icmje.org [Accessed February 6, 2004].
• Use the name/date system in the text. List should be full of details of the publication in a reference list at the end of the article.