Journals

Manuscript files can be in the following formats

Microsoft Word documents should not be locked or protected. Manuscripts can be any length and shall be written in English language. There are no restrictions on word count, number of figures, or amount of supporting information. We encourage you to present and discuss your findings concisely. Use a standard font size and any standard font, except for Symbol font. Manuscript text should be double-spaced. Inclusion of page number and line number is mandatory in the manuscript.

Each section of the manuscript should commence on a new page in following sequence:

Please do not use any signs for example”&” for “and” or “@” for “at the rate”. However, you can use abbreviations used in standard text books provided the full form has been given when it first appears in the text. Define abbreviations upon first appearance in the text. Do not use non-standard abbreviations unless they appear at least three times in the text.

The text of the original article should be divided into sections with headings:

In all types of article supporting information files are uploaded separately

To prevent the information of potential conflicts of interest from being overlooked or misplaced, it needs to be part of the manuscript. All forms of funding and support as well as any potential competing financial interests should be acknowledged in the cover letter to the editors when applicable and also should be mentioned at the end of the article as an acknowledgment. However, it should also be included on a separate page immediately following the title page. ACPN will not send information on conflicts to the reviewers.

The abstract should start on the second page (third page if a conflict of interest is included). It should be structured for original articles as: Background, Materials and Methods, Results, Conclusion and Keywords. State the context, aim, settings and design, materials and methods, statistical analysis used, results and conclusion. We request you provide 3 to 8 keywords or short phrases that capture the main topic of the article. These words should the follow MeSH list and be listed in the same order as they appear in the text. The abstract should not be structured for a review article or a case report. Do not include references in the abstract. Abstract should not include abbreviation as possible.

The introduction should provide background that puts the manuscript into context and allows readers to understand the problem addressed and why it is important. For this include a brief review of the key literature with relevant disagreements in the field. State the purpose or the research objectives of the paper clearly. Do not review the subject extensively and give only pertinent references.

The Materials and Methods section should provide enough detail to allow suitably skilled investigators to fully replicate your study. Specific information and/or protocols for new methods should be included in detail. If materials, methods, and protocols are well established, authors may cite articles where those protocols are described in detail, but the submission should include sufficient information to be understood independent of these references.

Describe your selection of the observational or experimental participants (patients or laboratory animals, including controls) clearly, including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population. Because the relevance of such variables as age and sex to the object of research is not always clear, authors should explain their use when they are included in a study report. For example, authors should explain why only subjects of certain ages were included or why women were excluded. The guiding principle should be clarity about how and why a study was done in a particular way. When authors use variables such as race or ethnicity, they should define how they measured the variables and justify their relevance.

Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer’s name and address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Give references to established methods, including statistical methods. Provide references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well known. Describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them and evaluate their limitations. Precisely identify all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration.

All research articles should mention its approval from Institutional Review committee in the manuscript. All research involving human participants must have been approved by the authors’ Institutional Review Board (IRB) or by equivalent ethics committee (s), in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (http://www.wma.net/e/policy/17c_e.html). If consent was verbal instead of written, or if consent could not be obtained, the authors must explain the reason in the manuscript, and the use of verbal consent of lack of consent must have been approved by the IRB or ethics committee.

Do not use the patients’ name, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. More information about patient privacy, anonymity and informed consent can be found in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Privacy and Confidentiality guidelines. When reporting experiment on animals, indicate the guidelines/laws on the care and use of laboratory animals that were followed. Evidence of approval by a local Ethics Committee (for both human and animal) must be supplied by the authors on demand.

Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a reader with access to the original data to verify the reported result. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Avoid relying solely on statistical hypothesis testing, such as P values. These fail to convey important information such as the effect of the size of the population. References for the design of the study and statistical methods should be to standard procedures when possible. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and symbols. Specify the computer software used.

Present your results in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat all the data of the tables or the illustrations in the text. When data are summarized in the Results section, give numeric results not only as derivatives (for example percentage), but also the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated.

Specify the statistical methods that were used to analyze them. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess the supporting data. Use graphs as an alternative to tables that require many entries. Do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Avoid nontechnical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as “random” (which implies randomizing device), “normal”, “significant”, “correlations” and “sample”. Where scientifically appropriate, analysis of the data by such variables as age and sex should be included.

Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. Do not repeat in detail the data or other information given in the Introduction or the Results section. For experimental studies, it is useful to begin the discussion by briefly summarizing the main findings. Compare and contrast the results with the study, and explore the implications of the findings for future research and for clinical practice.

Link the conclusions with the goals of the study but avoid unqualified statements and conclusions that are not adequately supported by the data. In particular, avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless the manuscript needs the appropriate economic data and analysis.

This section should state the person(s)/firms that the author is required to acknowledge. Those who contributed to the work but do not meet our authorship criteria should be listed in the Acknowledgment with a description of the contribution. Authors are responsible for ensuring that anyone named in the Acknowledgment agrees to be named.

The Vancouver system of referencing should be used. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of each reference and checking them against the original article. Provide a list of references, double-spaced, after the text. Cite references in the text using superscript Arabic numerals in the order in which they appear in the text. Abbreviate titles of journals according to MEDLINE. References to unpublished data and personal communications should appear in the text only. List all authors for each reference, unless there are seven or more, in which case only the first three followed by ‘et al.’ should be given. Authors should check that all references listed have been cited in the text and that
no references have been omitted from the list Journal name abbreviations should be those found in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) databases.

Tables capture information concisely and display it efficiently. They also provide information at any desired level of detail and precision. Including data in tables rather than in the text frequently makes it possible to reduce the length of the text.
Tables should be numbered consecutively (with Arabic numerals) in the order of their first citation in the text. Each table should be typed with double-spacing on a separate sheet of paper. Tables should be self-explanatory and include a brief descriptive title. Do not use internal horizontal or vertical lines. Give each column a short or abbreviated heading. Authors should place explanatory matter in the footnotes, not in the heading. Footnotes to tables, indicated by lower case letters are accepted, but they should not include extensive experimental detail. All nonstandard abbreviations should be explained in the footnotes. For footnotes use the following symbols, in sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡
Identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean. Be sure that each table is cited in the text.
If you use data from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge them fully.

Graphs, charts, diagrams or pen drawings must be drawn by professional hands in Indian ink (black) on white drawing paper. Figures should be either professionally drawn and photographed, or submitted as photographic quality digital prints. Photographs should be supplied in high quality glossy paper not larger than 203 mm x 254 mm (8″ x 10″). On the back of each illustration write the figure number and an arrow indicating the top. All illustrations should be black and white and should be submitted in triplicate with suitable legends. Electronic versions are acceptable. Authors should review the quality of the images on a computer screen before submitting them. They should have a resolution of 300 dpi. The dimensions should be 640 X 480 to 800 X 600 and the picture format should be JPEG (*.jpg, *.jpeg) or TIFF (*.tif, *.tiff). The total size of all figures files should not exceed 20MB.
Legends for illustrations should be typed using double-spacing on a separate page and use Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. Explain what each illustration shows. Define all arrows and other such indicators appearing on the illustration. If an illustration uses a patient who is identified by case number, include that case number in the legend. Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends, not on the illustrations themselves.
For x-ray films (miniature photo prints should be supplied), scans, and other diagnostic images, as well as pictures of pathology specimens or photomicrographs, send sharp, glossy, black-and-white or colour photographic prints, usually 127 x 173 mm (5 x 7 inches). Letters, numbers, and symbols on Figures should therefore be clear and even throughout, and of sufficient size that when reduced for publication each item will still be legible.
Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background. Mention the magnification and the stains used in all of the photomicrographs.
If photographs of people are used, either the subjects must not be identifiable or their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph.
Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text. If a figure has been published, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. Permission is required irrespective of authorship or publisher except for documents in the public domain.
Authors should consult the journal about requirements for figures submitted in electronic formats.

Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units (meter, kilogram, or litre) or their decimal multiples.
Temperatures should be in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be in millimetres of mercury. Authors should report laboratory information in both the local and International System of Units (SI). Drug concentrations may be reported in either SI or mass units, but the alternative should be provided in parentheses where appropriate.

Use only standard abbreviations. Please refer to Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 92: vii-x (1995) for guidance as to which abbreviations are considered standard. Avoid abbreviations in the title. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement. Do not use abbreviations like @ or & in the text.

The manuscript must be submitted in clear and concise English. Complete manuscript, Author contribution, Cover letter. Journal of Pathology of Nepal require authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception.

Since Journal of Pathology of Nepal is an official journal of Association of Clinical Pathologist of Nepal, doesn’t charge any fee for submission, processing and publication.

• Copyright on any article published by Journal of Pathology of Nepal is retained by the author(s).
• Authors grant Journal of Pathology of Nepal a license to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher.
• Authors also grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its integrity is maintained and its original authors, citation details and publisher are identified.
All articles published in the Journal of Pathology are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This license permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Overview
Journal of Pathology of Nepal follows the instruction of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), by its Code of Conduct, and aim to adhere to its Best Practice Guidelines. Authors, editors, and reviewers are expected to be aware of, and comply with, best practice in publication ethics.
• Authors are expected to be aware of publication ethics and comply with it in all means. They should be aware of authorship, dual publication (submission), plagiarism, manipulation and fabrication of data and figures, competing interests and compliance with policies on research ethics.
• Reviewers and editors are required to treat manuscripts without any bias and in confidence, and to declare any competing interests.
In cases of suspected or alleged misconduct, we will follow the COPE. If we find conclusive evidence of misconduct we will take steps to correct the scientific record, which may include issuing a correction or retraction of your article even after publication.
If you have any concerns about potential misconduct, please email the journal. Address correspondence to the journal’s Editor-in-Chief.

Plagiarism is not acceptable and plagiarized content will not be considered for publication. If plagiarism is identified, we will follow COPE guidelines.
Plagiarism includes:
• Directly copying text from other sources without proper citation
• Copying ideas, images, or data from other sources without citation
• Reusing text from your own previous publications without attribution or agreement of the editor
• Using an idea from another source with slightly modified language without attribution
If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected or sent back for correction. Same applies after publication.
We expect that editors and reviewers to notify the journal if any plagiarism identified.

We are committed to ensuring the integrity of the peer review process. All the component of manuscript shall be kept confidential. Initials of the authors, email address or contact details will not be shared anyone until published. The peer review process is confidential and blind review including both authors and peer reviewers. Editors and reviewers shall maintain the confidentiality to all submitted manuscripts unless agreed with the editor. The involvement of a third party in the review must be declared at the time of the submission of the review. We also expect that editors and reviewers will not make use of any material they get access through the peer review process.
If there are any concerns about misconduct during the review process, we will follow act accordingly.

Reviewers may identify themselves by signing their names at the time reviews are submitted, if they wish.