Instructions for Authors

Journal Scope: The Journal of the Ophthalmological Society of Bangladesh (JOSB) is the official journal of the Ophthalmological Society of Bangladesh (OSB). It is a peer-reviewed open-access journal. Its objective is to publish significant papers on any aspect related to ophthalmic medicine and surgery.

Peer review process

Manuscripts will be subject to peer review. In most instances, two external opinions (and often additional statistical assessment) for reasons of fairness and the scientific issue will be ensured. The journal operates a single anonymized peer review whereby the names of the reviewers are hidden from the author; Manuscripts authored by a member of a journal’s editorial team are independently peer-reviewed; an editor will have no input or influence on the peer review process or publication decision for their own article.

The Editorial Process

A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to JOSB alone at that point in time and has not been published anywhere, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere. The journal expects that authors would authorize one of them to correspond with the Journal for all matters related to the manuscript. All manuscripts received will be duly acknowledged and given a manuscript number.

On submission, editors will review all the submitted manuscripts initially for suitability for a formal review. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or lack of a significant message may be rejected before proceeding for a formal peer review. Manuscripts that are unlikely to be of interest to the readers are also liable to be rejected at this stage itself.

Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication will be sent to two expert reviewers for Peer Review. The Journal will follow a double-blind review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identity. Every manuscript is also assigned to a member of the editorial team, and his comments will take into consideration in the final decision on the manuscript.

The reviewers' comments and suggestions (acceptance/ rejection/ amendments in the manuscript) will be conveyed to the corresponding author. If required, the author is requested to provide a point-by-point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated till reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript. Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy-edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format, and page proofs will be sent to the corresponding author. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within one week. It may not be

possible to incorporate corrections received after that period, the submitted article will not be further considered for publication. The whole process of submission of the manuscript and the final decision will be completed online.

All the manuscripts are subject to final editing by the Executive Editor or Editors-in-Chief. Deletion of certain unacceptable terms from the manuscript or grammatical correction or final reformatting to comply with the publication standards performed at the stage of the final Editor's draft will be forwarded for author approval if required.

Submission of Manuscripts

Manuscripts must adhere to submission guidelines for the specific category

All manuscripts must be submitted online through the website and first-time users will have to register at this site. Registered authors can keep track of their articles after logging into the site using their username and password. JOSB manuscript submission and publication are free of charge. The submitted manuscripts that are not as per the “Instructions to Authors” would be returned to the authors for technical correction, before they undergo the editorial/ peer-review process

Manuscript Types and Word Limits: JOSB publishes a variety of manuscripts. The cover letter to the Editor and title page should specify the category of the manuscript.

• Editorial: Editorials are invited papers dealing with the viewpoint of an expert on a particular topic within the scope of the journal and of general interest to the readership. Editorials should be between 750 and 1000 words, excluding a maximum of 15 references.
• Letter to the Editor: Letters to the editor are short, non-peer-reviewed notes in response to earlier publications in Orbit or may represent a concise viewpoint on a clinical or basic research concept concerning any aspect considered by its authors to be of importance to the readership. Letters to the Editor should not exceed 250 words.
• Original Article: These manuscripts present original data from clinical or basic science research in the field of ophthalmic medicine and surgery. Case series are included in this section and should consist of 3 or more cases. All original works should adhere to the ‘Declaration of Helsinki’ and should be mentioned in the method section of the main text. The limit of the text is up to 2500 words, excluding references and the abstract. References should not exceed 40, and there should be a total of 5 figures and/or tables.
• Review Article: These manuscripts provide a comprehensive review of the literature on selected well-circumscribed topics. The limit of the text is up to 3000 words, excluding references and the abstract. References should not exceed 40, and there should be a total of 5 figures and/or tables.
• Case Reports: New, interesting, and rare cases can be reported. They should be unique, describing a great diagnostic or therapeutic challenge and providing a learning point for the readers. Cases with clinical significance or implications will be given priority. The articles should include an unstructured abstract of up to 200 words and a main text of up to 1500 words, excluding references. References should not exceed 15, and there should be a total of 4 figures and/or tables.

Authorship: Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions. All three of the following conditions must be met. (i) Conception and design/acquisition of data/analysis and interpretation of data. (ii) Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content. (iii) Final approval of the version to be published.

Acknowledgements: All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined above should be listed in an acknowledgments section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair/head/seniors who provided only general support.

Organizing the Manuscript: General Information:

• Use double spacing throughout all portions of the manuscript, including the title page, abstract, text, acknowledgments, references, individual tables, and legends.
• Use font size 12, Times New Roman.
• Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page, in the upper right-hand corner.
• The manuscript should be organized with the following components in chronological order:
• Cover Letter: All manuscripts must be accompanied by a cover letter.
• Title Page: The title page should include:
  • Full title of the manuscript (should be stated clearly).
  • Type of manuscript (original article, review article, letter to editor, case report, etc.).
  • Names and affiliations of all the authors.
  • Name, address, phone number, fax number, and email address of the Corresponding Author.
  • NO MORE THAN 6 AUTHORS WILL BE ACCEPTED FOR ALL MANUSCRIPTS WITHOUT A LETTER DETAILING EXPLICIT CONTRIBUTION TO ANY OF THE THREE PHASES OF AUTHORSHIP.

Abstract:

• For original articles and review articles: A structured abstract of not more than 250 words is required. It should be a factual description of the study performed and organized with the headings of Background (includes aims, hypotheses, or objectives), Methods (includes patient population, procedures, and data analysis), Results, and Conclusions. The abstract should contain the data to support the key findings or conclusions of the study and should be self-explanatory without reference to the text.
• For case reports: An unstructured abstract not exceeding 200 words should be included.
• The first time an abbreviated term is used, spell it out in full and follow with the abbreviation in parentheses; for example: Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy (PDR). Please do NOT cite any reference in the abstract.

Keywords:

• Three to four relevant keywords should be added at the bottom of the abstract.

Main Text:

• The text of original articles and review articles should be divided into sections with the headings: Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, conclusions. For case reports, it should be Introduction, Case report, and Discussion.
• The language should be English.

Ethics:

• In the Methods section of the manuscript, authors must mention if institutional ethics review board approval for their study was obtained and provide information regarding the mode of obtaining informed consent from human subjects (written or oral). For original work, authors should also adhere to the Declaration of Helsinki and should mention it in the Methods section.

Tables and Figures

• No repetition of data in tables and graphs and in text
• Actual numbers from which graphs drawn, provided
• Figures necessary and of good quality (colour)

• Table and figure numbers in Arabic letters (not Roman)
• Labels pasted on the back of the photographs (no names written)
• Figure legends provided (not more than 50 words)
• Patients' privacy maintained (if not permission taken)
• Permission for use of borrowed figures/tables provided
• Write the full term for each abbreviation used in the table as a footnote

Acknowledgments:

• Acknowledge all contributors who are somehow involved with your article but do not meet the criteria for authorship.

Conflicts of Interest:

• JOSB requires authors to declare any competing financial or other interest in relation to their work. In case of no competing interest, it should be mentioned as 'THE AUTHOR(S) DECLARE THAT THEY HAVE NO CONFLICTS OF INTEREST.’

References:

• List only references that you have read and that are related to the manuscript.
• References should be cited in the text in numerical order, not alphabetically, and Vancouver method should be used.
• Once a reference is cited, all subsequent citations should be to the original number.

Examples of References:

• Journal article: Nuruddin M, Roy SR, Mudhar HS. Results of Intralesional Bleomycin Sclerotherapy for Treatment of Orbital Lymphangiomas at a Tertiary Eye Care Centre in Bangladesh. Ocul Oncol Pathol. 2019 Oct;5(6):412-417.
• Book chapter: Lister GD. Skin flaps. In Green DP, ed. Operative Hand Surgery. 3rd ed. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1993: 1741-1823.
• Book: Mathes SJ, Nahai F. Reconstructive Surgery: principles, anatomy, and technique. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1997.
• Internet resource: International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. http://www.icmje.org. [Accessibility verified March 21, 2008]

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the appropriation of the language, ideas, or thoughts of another without crediting their true source and representation of them as one’s own original work. Initially, JOSB will accept 35% of the non-originality of the language for the submitted manuscript.

Flow-chart for manuscript submission and acceptance process