General Instructions for Submission
All authors interested in publishing their research work in Indian Journal of Critical Care Case Reports (IJCCR) will need to submit their manuscripts for through a web-based manuscript tracking system in use by Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine. The authors can submit new manuscript; revise their existing manuscripts, and upload other required documents. They can track the status of their submitted manuscripts. This system helps the editorial office to communicate with the associate editors, reviewers and manage the peer review process. The same system is used for communication with authors. Please go to https://www.ijccr.org, register yourself (if first time user) to submit the manuscripts. It is MANDATORY for all contributors to have an ORCID ID, before manuscript submission. If any of the authors do not have one, they can register themselves using the link: https://orcid.org/register
Authors should note:
Authors should note that there are no processing charges for publication of an article in the journal.
Plagiarism is the unethical practice of using words or ideas (either planned or accidental) of another author/researcher or your own previous works without proper acknowledgment. The journal checks for plagiarism using professionally available software. Strict action, including retraction of the article; and blacklisting the authors who indulge in plagiarism, from ever publishing again in IJCCR will be taken. Further action may be taken as deemed appropriate by the Editorial board and the Executive Committee; Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine shall be taken.
In the ideal world the entire manuscript will be unique on plagiarism check, however since many phrases are common in medical literature, this is higly unlikely. We at the Indian Journal of Critical Care Case Report hope that the authors understand this, write the manuscripts which are almost free of plagiarism.
All manuscripts accepted for publication therefore undergo a plagiarism check, and authors are asked to modify their manuscript before publication, if the plagiarism content is found to be high. This leads to delay in publication of the manuscripts, if the authors do not respond quickly. We are therefore making it an essential requirement for the authors to run a plagiarism check of their manuscript before submitting it for review and publication in IJCCR. There are several plagiarism detection software programmes available online which are free (for e.g. Scribbr Plagiarism Checker, DupliChecker, SmallSEO Tolls, etc.), but with a word limit (you might have to do 1000 words check at a time). We therefore request the authors to run their manuscripts through one of these software programs. Once the check is completed, program generates a report (one report for each 1000 words). Please paste a copy of the report/s on the last page of the first page file and then submit the manuscript. Please note that the manuscript will not go into review without this check being completed.
The authors hold the copyright of all the editorial content published in IJCCR. All material can be used in part and full for non-commercial output after providing appropriate attribution to the original content of the journal and a link to the license (CC-BY-NC 4.0). It is mandatory for authors to submit the manuscript along with Commercial Rights Transfer Form.
All open access articles published in IJCCR are distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC 4.0 license (Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International License) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work is properly cited. Under Creative Commons, authors retain copyright in their articles.
All case report and similar submissions need to have an informed consent of the patient or a surrogate as per ethical norms. This should be documented in the Method section of the manuscript. Pictures depicting patient should be deidentified. If for some reason, like retrospective case report, informed consent is not possible a waiver from the ethical committee of the institution should be documented.
A case report or similar publication need to follow the Institutional ethical committee norms for the authors' institution. A waiver from the committee will be required if informed consent is not taken and need to be documented and submitted.
As Case reports and similar publications are observational studies, CTRI registration is not mandatory but will be accepted if applied for and should be documented in the covering letter of the manuscript submission.
IJCCR follows ICMJE criteria for authorship (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf)
All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Other contributors, not meeting the criteria, can be acknowledged in the acknowledgement section.
The corresponding author is the one individual who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process.
When any manuscript is submitted to the IJCCR, it is with the understanding that it has not been submitted elsewhere for consideration for publication, or has not been previously published in any form, except in conferences and meetings. The journal does not accept manuscript describing case reports in neonates but will accept pediatric case reports
The types of original articles accepted by the journal are as follows:
Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with "Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals Updated December 2019" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (Updated 2019). The requirements for submission of manuscripts to the Indian Journal of Critical Care Case Reports are summarized below. Before submitting a manuscript, contributors are requested to check for the latest instructions, available on the journal platform or the manuscript submission site: https://www.ijccr.org or https://manuscript.scriptorszone.com/login/index.do?journalCode=IJCCR.
The manuscripts should be written in grammatically correct English (USA) and typed double spaced, left justified, using word processors such as Microsoft Word or Notes (for Mac users), in Times new font size 12. The paragraphs should start on a new line.
We suggest that the authors try to be within the word limit even if it is a case series by using one or two tables to describe cases and only mention salient points in the text.
| Abstract | What is new in the case? Why it is important that readers should know about the case? | |
| Case Description | Presentation, treatment given, outcome, if multiple similar cases, include a table, if imaging was unusual include maximum 1 or 2 images | |
| Conclusion/Highlights | Only include what the teaching point is, do not speculate, future direction if a study will help in deciding future case management | |
| Maximum words: 2000 (Including Title, Abstract and References), Title, Abstract (Max. 200 words), Keywords, Introduction, Case Presentation, Discussion, Conclusion/ Highlights, Tables and Figures (Maximum 3), Reference: Maximum 10 | ||
This is submitted in the form of a case discussion, with presentation of a case and relevant investigation followed by discussion. Detailed discussion of Case with Pathological/Autopsy Findings, Maximum words 3,000 (including References), Title, Summary: 150 words, Case presentation, Pathological/Autopsy findings, Discussion, Final diagnosis, References (Maximum 10), Tables (3 Maximum), Figure/ Photographs (5 maximum)
Bedside Clinical Discussion in Q&A format discussing one important aspect of a Critical Patient, Maximum words: 2,500 (including References), Title, Case Discussion (Q&A), References: ( Maximum 5)
Discuss an image (Xray/CT/MRI etc.) along with a clinical vignette, Maximum 1,000 words (including References), Title, Discussion of Case, Discussion of Image, Conclusion, Reference (Maximum 3)
Discuss a microbiological report along with a case vignette, Maximum 1,000 words, Title, Discussion of the case, Discussion of Microbiological report, Conclusion, References (Maximum 3)
Discuss specific case presented in M&M meeting fulfilling any of the criteria: Death within 24 hours of admission, post operative death (Elective surgery), Unexpected death, Undiagnosed death, Word limit: 2,000 words (Including references), Title, Case discussion, Root Cause Analysis, References: Maximum 3
This should be presented in a Q&A format of an interesting bedside case discussion highlighting one important aspect of the case relevant to patient management. The author should summarize the evidence available on the points of discussion. Word Count: 1500, Reference: 5, Highlight: 50 words
Description of a common clinical problem encountered in practice and how was it analysed and managed. Word Count: 1000, Reference: 5
The manuscript should be prepared in separate parts as follows:
1. Title page
This page should have the title of the manuscript, type of study, running title, 3-5 keywords (use MESH terms), name, qualifications, designations of all authors and their contribution to the research as per CREDIT. Please include the clinical trial registry no. on the title page and not in the main document, this defeats the purpose of blinded peer review. Please do not include any information in the title, which may identify the institute at which the work has been done. Choose a concise and informative title which uses terms which can be readily indexed; it should not be longer than 10-15 words. Avoid choosing a title in the form of a question.
The journal prefers to restrict the number of authors to 7, however this is not binding, and this number may be exceeded in certain types of articles such as original research, guidelines, and position statements of the society. The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria: (see www.icmje.org)
The name, address, e-mail and contact details (mobile or landline no.), designation, department and Institutional affiliation/s. and ORCID ID of all authors is mandatory. Unless the author information is complete the manuscript will not be sent for review.
The title page should be uploaded with the addition Not for review in the file name, for example name the title page as “Title page-ECMO for ARDS (not for review). A brief running title and 5-10 keywords (searchable in MESH) should be included in the title page. Please do not include name, region, or anything else in the title, which may identify the institute where the research work was carried out.
Important Note for Authors Name:
Submission: Please ensure that you mention the author names, designations, affiliations, department, institute, city, and country correctly. No change will be permitted after the article has been accepted for publication.
Resubmission: Please check that you have mentioned the author names, affiliations and city and country correctly. No change will be permitted after the article has been accepted for publication.
Author Name Ordering: Please ensure that you enter the author names in correct order. No change will be permitted after article has been accepted provisionally for publication.
Declare financial support (if any) and conflict of interest (if any) on the title page. If there are none, write none declared. Acknowledgment of individuals who directly helped in the carrying out the study should also be included here. Please include word count (for abstract), for the manuscript (with references), the manuscript (without references), no. of figures, no. of tables also on the title page. If the authors have used any material such as tables or figures from other published works, the responsibility of obtaining the requisite permissions lies with authors.
It is not necessary to write an abstract for letters to editor. Please include the abstract in the main document, after the title, before the Introduction. Avoid using abbreviations in the abstracts. If at all used, they should be expanded there itself.
Tables should be prepared with the help of Table Function in the Microsoft Word rather than the usage of columns of tabbed information. Citations of all the tables should be present in the main text maintaining the correct numerical order (ascending order). A legend should accompany all tables and call outs are to be placed in the body of the text to indicate where the table is to be located in the article.
Photographs must be in color, in focus, free of distracting artifacts, and consistent in exposure. Place any required labels or arrows on images prior to uploading. Images must be at least 960 by 640 pixels (proportional height) in size when in landscape orientation with a resolution of at least 640 pixels per inch. Graphs should be approximately 500 pixels wide so that all labeling can be read with data points clearly visible. Substantially, larger images must be avoided to prevent file transmission and electronic manuscript processing errors. Radiographs, drawings, and graphs can be in black and white but color images are preferred.
File names for images must be clearly labeled according to the order in which they appear in the manuscript (Fig. 1, Fig. 2 and Figs 1 and 2 or Figs 1-5 and so on in brackets and in running sentence, it should be spelt out as Figure 1). Only TIFF, PSD, PNG, and JPEG file formats can be used for the submission of Figures. The images must be saved as a JPEG file.
It is strongly recommended that all manuscripts submitted to IJCCR should quote a minimum of 2 references from Indian Journals from the field of Critical Care, so that the readers have an Indian perspective. In continuation, this may be waived off, unless it is completely a novel idea, which has never been published in any Indian journal or IJCCR before.
References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text (not in alphabetic order). Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in superscript after the punctuation marks. References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure. No references should be used in abstract and Conclusion. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. Avoid references from non-indexed journals or studies yet to be published. Information from studies accepted for publication should be included ONLY in the text with (in press) in parentheses. Do not use abstracts as references. The references should be as follows:
Name(s) of authors (if more than 6, names of first 6 authors followed by et al). Title of the article. Journal Name. Year; Volume no. (issue no): pageXX-xx. DOI.
Use of DOI is encouraged. Remove the month, but keep the issue no in brackets. See below:
1. Articles in Journals
a. Standard journal article (for up to six authors):
Mandoki JJ, Casa-Tirao B, Molina-Guarneros JA, Jiménez-Orozco FA, García-Mondragón MJ, Maldonado-Espinoza A. Pulsatile diastolic increase and systolic decrease in arterial blood pressure: their mechanism of production and physiological role. Prog Biophys Mol Biol. 2013 Aug; 112(3):55-7. doi: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2013.05.002.
b. Standard journal article (for more than six authors):
List the first three contributors followed by et al.
D'Cruz AK, Vaish R, Kapre N, et al; Head and Neck Disease Management Group. Elective versus Therapeutic Neck Dissection in Node-Negative Oral Cancer. N Engl J Med. 2015; 373(6):521-9. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1506007.
c. Article in a journal supplement:
Sukumar CA, Shanbhag V, Shastry AB. Paraquat: The Poison Potion. Indian J Crit Care Med. 2019; 23(Suppl 4):S263-S266. doi: 10.5005/jp-journals-10071-23306.
2. Chapter in a book:
Goehr L (2007). The Historical Approach. In The Imaginary Museum Of Musical Works, 1st edn., p. 5. Oxford University Press, New York.
During resubmission of the manuscript, please submit the revised files using our online submission platform, only, and do not e-mail it to the editor, as we cannot process it when you send it to the editor off-line. Your resubmission should be accompanied by a cover letter and a point-by-point response to the comments by the associate editor and reviewer in the template provided at the IJCCR website. Before you resubmit your paper, please carefully proofread the manuscript to minimize typographical, grammatical, and bibliographical errors. In addition, check to make sure that all abbreviations are defined.
Please mark all changes with use of "track changes"; do not use any other method to highlight changes made to the manuscript. Use of any method other than track changes will delay publication of your article in case of subsequent acceptance of your article. In the File Upload section of the submission template, please designate the marked file as "Main Document with track changes." Please also save a "clean" copy of the marked file, with all your changes accepted. Please upload that clean copy as the second file immediately after the marked copy, and please designate the clean copy "Supplementary File Not for Review." If the revised manuscript is accepted for publications, the copy-editors will use this file for processing your article.
There is no need to upload the PDF file. The PDF file is for your review only, and is not used by the journal for any purpose.
© Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) LTD.
