Submission Guidelines

Introduction

The International Journal on Ageing in Developing Countries(IJADC), is an open access, peer-reviewed, online journal, currently published biannually. It accepts submissions that are relevant to the area ‘ageing in developing countries’. The journal welcomes a broad range of related articles including biological, social, medical, psychological, historical, economic, political and spiritual perspectives. Examples include research articles, case reports, population studies, reviews and systems analysis. General papers on ageing which do not specifically focus on developing countries will only be accepted on an exceptional basis.

These guidelines explain the journal’s publishing process and should be used as a reference to prepare manuscripts for submission.

Open access and pre-publication access

All issues of the journal are free and openly accessible. Likewise, authors do not have to pay any publication fees. As the journal is currently published biannually, pre-publication access may also be an option if a submission is considered worthy. To qualify for this option, a manuscript must be groundbreaking and deserving of rapid, international dissemination. Pre-publication access is also free and openly accessible.

Submissions

Submission of a manuscript to this journal implies that it has not been previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere. All submissions should be sent in full to Rosette Farrugia-Bonello, Deputy Editor, at [email protected] with a short cover letter that concisely summarizes the work and indicates why it is of relevance to the journal.

Manuscripts should be written in clear English and submitted in electronic MS Word format(.doc, .docx, .rtf). Document formatting should be kept to a minimum – changing of margins, fonts and the like within the text should be avoided unless there is a compelling reason to do so. All submitted manuscripts should contain the following sections:

Title Page: This should include the title of the manuscript, names of authors, any affiliations and associated addresses, and main correspondence address. To be listed as an author, an individual must have participated sufficiently in the work to be able to take public responsibility for portions of the content. When a large group or centre has conducted the work, the author list should include individuals who meet this criterion, together with the group name.

Abstract and keywords: All manuscripts must contain a concise abstract, which summarizes the work and can stand alone. This should not be more than 250 words, followed by around five keywords.

Main body of text: This should be divided into subheadings, according to the nature of the manuscript. INIA suggests that whilst scientific studies should include introduction, methodology, results, discussion and conclusions sections, case studies should include introduction, case presentation, discussion and conclusions sections, together with an optional patient perspective section. Subheadings for reviews, population studies and similar articles are to be more flexible, and should be relevant to the text.

References: All citations in the text should be included in the references section and vice versa. References should be consistent, follow the style format in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA guidelines) and be listed alphabetically. Some examples of reference citations follow, and full guidelines can be accessed from http://www.apastyle.org/.

	In text citation	Reference list
Book: single author, various editions	(Harper, 2005)	Harper, S. (2005). Ageing societies. (2^nd ed.) New York, NY: Routledge.
Book: several authors, single edition	(Jones et al, 1984)	Jones, E. E., Farina, A., Hastorf, A. H., Markus, H., Miller, D. T., & Scott, R. A. (1984). Social stigma: The psychology of marked relationships. New York, NY: W.H. Freeman.
Chapter in a book	(Bustillo, 1993)	Bustillo, I. (1993). Latin America and the Caribbean. In E.M. King & M.A. Hill (Eds.), Women’s education in developing Countries; Barriers, benefits and policies (pp 175-210). Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Journal article	(Drenowski & Evans, 2001)	Drewnowski, A.& Evans W. (2001). Nutrition, physical activity, and quality of life in older adults: Summary. Journal of Gerontology: Medical Science, 56(2), 89-94. doi: 10.1093/gerona/56.suppl_2.89 NB: The doi should be supplied when available.
Website	(UNFPA& HelpAge International, 2012)	United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)& HelpAge International. (2012). Ageing in the twenty first century: A celebration and a challenge. Retrieved August 11^th, 2014, from http://www.helpage.org/resources/ageing-in-the-21st-century-a-celebration-and-a-challenge/

Acknowledgements: People who contributed towards the work but do not fit authorship criteria should be included in the acknowledgements section.

Illustrations – Figures and Tables

Upon submission of a manuscript, authors should present all figures and tables within the text of the manuscript. These illustrations should be numbered sequentially. If the article is accepted, authors will be asked to provide high quality, separate source files for each illustration.

Units of Measurement and Abbreviations

All measurements should be expressed in Système International (SI) units. If conventional units are used, conversion factors to SI units should at least be given in legends or footnotes. Except for measurement units, the first time an abbreviation appears, it should be preceded by the words for which it stands.

The Review Process

If a submitted manuscript fits the journal’s brief, it willbe considered carefully by an expert editor in the field. Manuscripts are evaluated according to the following main criteria; material is original and accurate, writing is clear, study methods are appropriate, conclusions and generalisations are reasonable and follow from valid data, and information contained therein is important and/or interesting.

If a manuscript fits these criteria, it will then be sent to international peer reviewers. At this stage, any potential conflict of interest on the part of the reviewer must be declared. Depending on reviewers’ feedback, submissions may then be accepted with or without changes or declined. This feedback will be transmitted to the authors, and should there be any necessary changes, authors will be asked to submit revised manuscripts.

Copyright permissions, liability and conflicts of interest

Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from copyright holders to reproduce any material which is covered by copyright, such as tables, figures or videos.

The journal also requires all authors to warrant that their work is original, non-defamatory and that all statements contained therein as facts are true. All authors should also declare any conflicts of interest or study sponsorship.

Ethics

Submissions involving research on human or animal subjects must include an ethics statement of approval or exemption by a specified institutional review board. Case reports should include a written consent form from the patient/s. Any photographs or videos of patients should be non-identifiable or accompanied by written permission to use them.

Book Reviews

The journal also publishes book reviews, which may be solicited or unsolicited. Inquiries or submissions in this area may be sent to Deputy Editor, Rosette Farrugia-Bonello on [email protected]. All reviews must convey the content of the book, its contribution to the field of ageing in developing countries, and critically assess the book’s quality and usefulness. Book reviewers must declare any conflict of interest.