Author Guidelines

Please Download Complete Persian Author Guidelines of Health in Emergencies and Disasters from here

Please Download the Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest Form for HEDQ Here

Content of Author Guidelines:

1. General
2. Ethical Guidelines
3. Manuscript Submission Procedure
4. Manuscript Types Accepted
5. Manuscript Format and Structure

1. GENERAL
Health in Emergencies and Disasters Quarterly is an international forum for the publication of peer-reviewed original papers on emergencies and disasters, with four issues published per year. The journal strives to provide its readers with a variety of topics, including risk Assessment and management, medical search and rescue, hospital preparedness, pre-hospital emergency management system, disaster, and vulnerable groups, Health disaster risk reduction, health disaster preparedness and resiliency, disaster recovery strategies and techniques, educational systems for risk reduction, disaster preparedness for elderly, Children and disabled people, health information technology in disasters.

2. Highlights
In Highlights part, you have to provide a summary of the key points of your article in the form of BULLET. Highlights are three to five result-oriented points that provide readers with an at-a-glance overview of the main findings of your article. Think of them as a quick snippet of the results—short and sweet. Each Highlight must be 85 characters or fewer, including spaces, and the Highlights together must clearly convey only the results of the study.
Plain Language Summary
In this section, you have to provide a Plain Language Summary for the article in 200-300 words. Consider that Plain Language Summary is different from abstract and it has to be written for non-specialists. To provide it, consider the following points: 1. think about your audience (e.g. journalists, science-interested public), 2. Get rid of jargon, 3. Explain what the study is about. Remember, others will need more context about what you studied, 4. Explain what you found, 5. Explain why this matters. Discuss the importance of these findings not just in terms of their implications for your field but in terms of their relevance to the public.

Authors’ contribution
In this section, you have to provide the contributor role of each author on these divisions:
Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project Administration, Funding Acquisition.
The example below shows the Author Contributions:
Author Contributions: Conceptualization, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Methodology, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Investigation, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Writing – Original Draft, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Writing – Review & Editing, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Funding Acquisition, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Resources, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Supervision, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]

3. ETHICAL GUIDELINES

Health in Emergencies and Disasters Quarterly (HEDQ) is committed to apply ethics of publication, based on the COPE’s Code of Conduct and Best Practices. Also, in medical studies, HEDQ has engaged to apply ethics of research, based on Declaration of Helsinki: Statement of Ethical Principles for Medical Research. In addition, HEDQ has promised to apply ethics of research, based on American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, in psychological studies. So, the research’s ethical considerations must be addressed after Methods, before Results section. In this regard, please apply the following principles in your manuscripts:

2.1. Authorship and Acknowledgements

Authors submitting a paper do so on the understanding that the manuscript have been read and approved by all authors and that all authors agree to the submission of the manuscript to the Journal.

Health in Emergencies and Disasters Quarterly adheres to the definition of authorship set based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design of, or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data, 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content and 3) final approval of the version to be published. Authors should meet conditions 1, 2 and 3.

It is a requirement that all authors have been accredited as appropriate upon submission of the manuscript. Contributors who do not qualify as authors should be mentioned under Acknowledgements.

Acknowledgements: Under acknowledgements please specify contributors to the article other than the authors accredited. Health in Emergencies and Disasters quarterly requires that all sources of institutional, private and corporate financial support for the work within the manuscript must be fully acknowledged, and any potential conflicts of interest noted. Grant or contribution numbers may be acknowledged, and principal grant holders should be listed. Acknowledgments should be brief and should not include thanks to anonymous referees and editors.

2.2. Ethical Approvals

Experimentation involving human subjects will only be published if such research has been conducted in full accordance with ethical principles, including the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (version, 2002 www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm) and the additional requirements, if any, of the country where the research has been carried out. Manuscripts must be accompanied by a statement that the experiments were undertaken with the understanding and written consent of each subject and according to the above mentioned principles. A statement regarding the fact that the study has been independently reviewed and approved by an ethical board should also be included. Editors reserve the right to reject papers if there are doubts as to whether appropriate procedures have been used.

2.3 Conflict of Interest and Source of Funding
Health in Emergencies and Disasters Quarterly (HDQ) as a member of Negah Journals, published by Negah Scientific publisher, is committed to apply ICMJE recommendation on “Author Responsibilities—Conflicts of Interest in authors’ conflict of interest issues. Authors should disclose, at the time of submission, information on financial conflicts of interest or other interests that may influence the manuscript. Authors should declare sources of funding for the work undertaken, too. So, completion and signing the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest is necessary for all authors and the articles submission won’t be accepted without filling this form. Also, please include this information under Acknowledgements.

2.4 Appeal of Decision
The decision on a paper is final and cannot be appealed.

2.5 Permissions
If all or parts of previously published illustrations are used permission must be obtained from the copyright holder concerned. In most cases, this will be the original publisher of the material. It is the author's responsibility to obtain these in writing and provide copies to the Publishers.

2.6. Plagiarism

Health in Emergencies and Disasters Quarterly (HDQ) as a member of Negah Journals, has accepted all terms and conditions of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) on plagiarism. So, in any case of plagiarism, which is brought to the journal’s editors attention and accompanied with convincing evidence, we act based on flowcharts and workflows determined in COPE. Meanwhile, to detect and prevent plagiarism in the journal articles, all submissions will be checked with iTheticate software in both stages of submission and acceptance.In the first stage below 30% and in the second stage below 20% is acceptable.

For more information on the journal’s ethical Principles, please refer to following links:

- HDQ’s Principles of Publishing Ethics
- HDQ’s Ethical Principles for Medical Research
- HDQ’s Ethical Principles for Psychological Research

3. MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
Manuscripts can be submitted electronically via the online submission in http://hdq.uswr.ac.ir . The online submission and peer review site enables immediate distribution of manuscripts and consequentially speeds up the review process. It also allows authors to track the status of their own manuscripts.

3.1. Getting Started online submission

• Launch your web and go to the journal's online Submission Site http://hdq.uswr.ac.ir
• Log-in or, if you are a new user, click on "register here".
• Log-in and select "Author"

3.2. Submitting Your Manuscript
You need to prepare the necessary files in the acceptable formats before submitting the manuscript. These files should be uploaded in the identified places during the submission process.

When you have logged into your "Author", submit your manuscript by clicking the submission link.
Enter data and answer questions as appropriate. You may copy and paste directly from your manuscript and you may upload your pre-prepared covering letter. A sample cover letter provided here.
Click the "Next" button on each screen to save your work and proceed to the next step.
You are required to upload your files as follows.
Review your submission (in HTML and PDF format) before completing your submission by sending it to the Journal. Click the "Submit" button when you are finished reviewing.

3.3. Manuscript Files Accepted

Manuscripts written in English can be uploaded in Word (.doc) or Rich Text Format (rft) files (not write-protected) plus separate figure files. GIF, JPEG, PICT or Bitmap files are acceptable for submission, but only high-resolution TIF or EPS files are suitable for printing. The text file must contain the entire manuscript including title, abstract, text, references. No embedded figures and tables, information to identify the authors such as title page or acknowledgement are allowed in the main text file. In the text file, please reference figures as for instance "Figure 1", "Figure " etc to match the tag name you choose for all individual figure files uploaded.
Manuscripts should be formatted as described in the Author Guidelines below.

3.4. Double-Blinded Peer-Review
All manuscripts submitted to Health in Emergencies and Disaster Quarterly (HDQ) will be peer reviewed by two experts in the field. Health in Emergencies and Disaster Quarterly uses double blinded peer review.

3.5. E-mail Confirmation of Submission
After submission, all the authors will receive an e-mail to confirm the receipt of the manuscript. If you do not receive the confirmation e-mail after 24 hours contact the editorial office.

4. MANUSCRIPT TYPES ACCEPTED

The editorial policy of the Health in Emergencies and Disaster quarterly (HDQ) is to encourage the publication of evidence-based research articles.
Original Research Articles: must describe novel and significant observations and provide sufficient detail so that the findings can be critically evaluated and, if necessary, repeated.

Reviews: Reviews are selected for their broad general interest; all are refereed by experts in the field who are asked to comment on issues such as timeliness, general interest and balanced treatment of controversies, as well as on scientific accuracy. Reviews should take a broad view of the field rather than merely summarizing the authors own previous work, so extensive citation of the authors own publications is discouraged.

Case Reports: Authors are invited to submit case reports on topics of relevance to the aim and scope of Health in Emergencies and Disaster Quarterly (HDQ). The reports should be around 2000 words and follow the general author guidelines of Health in Emergencies and Disaster quarterly.

5. MANUSCRIPT FORMAT AND STRUCTURE

Language: The language of publication is English, and the journal just accepts manuscripts, which are written in English. Authors for whom English is a second language have their manuscripts professionally edited by an English-speaking person before submission to make sure the English is of high quality.

Abbreviations, Symbols and Nomenclature: Health in Emergencies and Disaster Quarterly adhere to the conventions outlined in Units, Symbols and Abbreviations: A Guide for Medical and Scientific Editors and Authors. Non-standard abbreviations must be used three or more times and written out completely in the text when first used.

Format: Manuscripts should be submitted in Microsoft Office Word 2003 (.doc) format; please:

Use bold font (14-point) for title, and a normal, plain font (e.g., 12-point Times Roman) for author information, abstract, key words, main text and acknowledgement; normal 10-point font for tables, figures/figure legends, footnotes and references.
Use bolds 12-points for headings and italics for emphasis.
Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages.
Do not use field functions.
Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar.
Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to make tables.
Use the equation editor or MathType for equations (insert equation from the word toolbar), please do not copy or use a picture of the equations in the main text.
Save your file in .doc format (older Word versions).

Structure: All manuscripts submitted to the Health in Emergencies and Disaster quarterly should include: Title page (in a separate file), abstract, main text and references (as the main text file), references, tables, figures and figure legends as appropriate (in separate file), acknowledgements, financial support, grants and any other information that can reveal the identity of the authors (in separate files).

Title: must be concise and contain no more than 100 characters including spaces.
The title page should include a running title of no more than 50 characters; 3-6 key words, complete names and affiliations for each author, and the address, telephone/fax number, and e-mail address for all the authors plus a mobile number for the corresponding author. The title page should also include the date of submission (or revision/resubmission).

The title page should be submitted in a separate file other than the main text of the manuscript.

Abstract should contain utmost 250 words and these headings: "Background", "Materials and Methods", "Results", "Discussion", "Conclusion" and "Keywords".
Main Text of the paper is restricted to 5000 words for the original articles and up to 7000 words for review articles excluding abstract and references. However, longer manuscripts may be considered by the editorial board when applicable. Long papers will be subjected to a delay in publication.

*Original Research Article should include Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussions, Conclusion and Ethical considerations.

Introduction: should be focused, outlining the historical or logical origins of the study and not summarize the results; exhaustive literature reviews are not appropriate.
Materials and Methods: must contain sufficient detail such that, in combination with the references cited, all experiments reported can be fully reproduced. As a condition of publication, authors are required to make materials and methods used freely available to academic researchers for their own use.
Results: should present the observations with minimal reference to earlier literature or to possible interpretations.
Discussion/Conclusion: may usefully start with a brief summary of the major findings, but repetition of parts of the abstract or of the results section should be avoided.
Ethical considerations: should follow the instructions in Ethical Guidelines.

*Reviews and Case Reports do not need to follow the usual divisions of original research articles, but should contain appropriate headings and subheadings.

Acknowledgements should follow the main text. Health in Emergencies and Disaster quarterly requires that all sources of institutional, private and corporate financial support for the work within the manuscript must be fully acknowledged, and any potential conflicts of interest noted. Grant or contribution numbers may be acknowledged, and principal grant holders should be listed. Acknowledgments should be brief and should not include thanks to anonymous referees and editors.

The acknowledgements should be submitted in a separate file from the main text of the manuscript.

References should be numbered consecutively (Vancouver style) ordered in which they are first mentioned in the text. 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.Please use Endnote or similar reference managing software to insert the references.

Journal articles: Use the style of the examples below, which are based on the formats used by the NLM in Index Medicus. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus Journal

Lobbezoo F, van der Zaag J, Naeije M. Bruxism: its multiple causes and its effects on dental implants - an updated review. J Oral Rehabil. 2006; 33: 293-300

(If more than six authors please list the first six authors followed by et al.):

Takata Y, Ansai T, Awano S, Fukuhara M, Sonoki K, Wakisaka M et al. Chewing ability and quality of life in an 80-year-old population. J Oral Rehabil. 2006; 33: 330-334

Books:
Fejerskov O, Kidd E. (eds) Dental caries: The Disease and its Clinical Management.Copenhagen: Blackwell Munksgaard; 2003.

For more information on the journal reference guideline, please click here.

Tables, Figures and Figure Legends
Tables: should be double-spaced with no vertical rulings, with a single bold ruling beneath the column titles. Units of measurements must be included in the column title.

Figures: All figures should be planned to fit within either 1 column width (8.0 cm), 1.5 column widths (13.0 cm) or 2 column widths (17.0 cm). Lettering on figures should be in a clear, sans serif typeface (e.g. Helvetica); if possible, the same typeface should be used for all figures in a paper. After reduction for publication, upper-case text and numbers should be at least 1.5-2.0 mm high (10 point Helvetica). After reduction symbols should be at least 2.0-3.0 mm high (10 point). In general, multi-part figures should be arranged as they would appear in the final version. Any special requirements (such as the separation distance of stereo pairs) should be clearly specified.