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Types of Manuscripts

Review articles (including yoga and its applications in the areas of medicine, physical sciences, spirituality, management and education): Systemic critical assessments of literature and data sources. Up to 4000 words excluding references and abstract.

Original articles: Basic studies in the field of yoga and Life sciences, Randomized controlled trials, studies of screening and diagnostic tools based on Indian systems of medicine and allied health sciences, outcome studies, cost effectiveness analyses, case-control series, and surveys with high response rate. Up to 3000 words excluding references and abstract.

Short communications: Up to 1500 words excluding references and abstract and up to 15 references.

Case reports: new/interesting/very rare cases treated through Yoga therapy and allied sciences, scientific evaluation of special abilities of Yogis, can be reported. Cases with clinical significance or implications will be encouraged. Up to 1000 words excluding references and abstract and up to 10 references.

Perspective Articles: Up to 2000 words, excluding references and Abstract; up to 15 references. Maximum of 2 figures may be included and no tables. It should advance ideas related to in Yoga therapy.

Letter to the Editor: Should be short, decisive observation. They should not be preliminary observations that need a later paper for validation. Up to 400 words and 4 references.

Book review: For Book Reviews, an abstract is not required. Restrict the manuscript to about 1000 words and a jpeg image of the cover page of the book reviewed should be uploaded separately.

Announcements of conferences, meetings, courses, awards, and other items likely to be of interest to the readers should be submitted with the name and address of the person from whom additional information can be obtained. Up to 100 words.

Authorship Criteria

All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship, and all those who qualify should be listed. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. One or more authors should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to published article.

Authorship credit should be based only on

1.      substantial contributions to conception and design, 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.

Conditions 1, 2, and 3 must all be met. Acquisition of funding, the collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, by themselves, do not justify authorship.

The order of authorship on the byline should be a joint decision of the co-authors. Authors should be prepared to explain the order in which authors are listed. Once submitted the order cannot be changed without written consent of all the contributors.

For a study carried out in a single institute the number of contributors should not exceed six. For a case-report and for a review article the number of contributors should not exceed four. A justification should be included, if the number of contributors exceed these limits.

Only those who have done substantial work in a particular field can write a review article. A short summary of the work done by the contributor(s) in the field of review should accompany the manuscript. The journal expects the contributors to give post-publication updates on the subject of review. The update should be brief, covering the advances in the field after the publication of article and should be sent as letter to editor, as and when major development occur in the field.

Contribution Details

Contributors should provide a description of what each of them contributed towards the manuscript. Description should be divided in following categories, as applicable: concepts, design, definition of intellectual content, literature search, clinical studies, experimental studies, data acquisition, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing, and manuscript review. Authors' contributions will be printed on the first page of the article. One or more author should take responsibility of the integrity of the work as a whole from inception to published article and should be designated as 'guarantor'.

Conflict of Interest

All authors of articles must disclose any and all conflicts of interest they may have with publication of the manuscript or an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented. Authors should also disclose conflict of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.

Submitting the Manuscript to the Journal

Manuscripts to the International Journal of Yoga should be submitted online through https://review.jow.medknow.com/ijoy  It should include a covering letter, scanned copy of the contributors' form signed by all the contributors, Tables, illustrations, photographs and video clips has to be attached along with the manuscript through the online submission process.

The covering letter must include

1.      Title of the article

2.      Names of the authors (including surnames) and qualifications, institutional affiliations,

3.      Information on prior or duplicate publication or submission elsewhere of any part of the work/study; and

4.      A statement of financial or other relationships that might lead to a conflict of interest.

Copies of any permission(s) to reproduce published material, and to use illustrations or report information about identifiable people must accompany the manuscript.

The journal does not charge for submission and processing of the manuscripts.

Preparation of the Manuscript

Templates for writing original papers, case reports and review articles have been provided below. These can be followed for writing the articles as per the instructions.

The text of observational and experimental articles should be divided into sections with the headings: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Tables, Figures, Figure legends, and Acknowledgment.

Use double spacing throughout. Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page. The language should be US English


Title Page
The title page should carry

1.      Type of manuscript

2.      The title of the article, which should be concise, but informative;

3.      Running title or short title not more than 50 characters;

4.      The name by which each contributor is known (Last name, First name and initials of middle name), with his or her highest academic degree(s) and institutional affiliation;

5.      The name of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed;

6.      The name, address, phone numbers, facsimile numbers and e-mail address of the contributor responsible for correspondence about the manuscript;

7.      The total number of pages, total number of photographs and word counts separately for abstract and for the text (excluding the references and abstract).

Abstract Page
The second page should carry the full title of the manuscript and an abstract (of no more than 150 words for case reports, brief reports and 250 words for original articles). The abstract should be structured and states the Context (Background), Aims, Methods and Material, Results and Conclusions. Below the abstract should provide 3 to 6 key words. 

Introduction
State the purpose of the article and summarize the rationale for the study or observation.

Methods
Describe the selection of the observational or experimental subjects (patients including controls) clearly. Identify the age, sex, experience in yoga and other important characteristics of the subjects. Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer's name and address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail. 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.

Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol, assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding), based on the CONSORT statement (Moher D, Schulz KF, Altman DG: The CONSORT Statement: Revised Recommendations for Improving the Quality of Reports of Parallel-Group Randomized Trials. Ann Intern Med. 2001;134:657-662, also available at http://www.consort-statement.org).

Authors submitting review manuscripts should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data. These methods should also be summarized in the abstract.

Ethics
While reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (available at http://www.wma.net/e/policy/17-c_e.html). Do not use patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution's or a national research council's guide for, or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

 Reporting Guidelines for Specific Study Designs

The reporting guidelines for other type of studies can be found at https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/. 

Statistics
When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Report losses to observation (such as dropouts from a clinical trial). Put a general description of methods in the Methods section. When data are summarized in the Results section, specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Avoid non-technical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as 'random' (which implies a randomizing device), 'normal', 'significant', 'correlations', and 'sample'. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Use upper italics (P < 0.05).


Results
Present the results in logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summaries only important observations.


Discussion
Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. Do not repeat in detail data or other material given in the Introduction or the Results section. Include in the Discussion section the implications of the findings and their limitations, including implications for future research. Relate the observations to other relevant studies.

In particular, contributors should avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless their manuscript includes economic data and analyses. Avoid claiming priority and alluding to work that has not been completed. State new hypotheses when warranted, but clearly label them as such. Recommendations, when appropriate, may be included.


Acknowledgments
As an appendix to the text, one or more statements should specify

1.      contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, such as general support by a departmental chair;

2.      acknowledgments of technical help; and

3.      acknowledgments of financial and material support, which should specify the nature of the support. This should be the last page of the manuscript.

References
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. 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. 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. Use complete name of the journal for non-indexed journals. Avoid using abstracts as references. Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as "unpublished observations" with written permission from the source. Avoid citing a "personal communication" unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text. For scientific articles, contributors should obtain written permission and confirmation of accuracy from the source of a personal communication.

Articles in Journals

1.      Standard journal article:
Kulkarni SB, Chitre RG, Satoskar RS. Serum proteins in tuberculosis. J Postgrad Med 1960;6:113-20.
List the first six contributors followed by et al.

2.      Volume with supplement:
Shen HM, Zhang QF. Risk assessment of nickel carcinogenicity and occupational lung cancer. Environ Health Perspect 1994; 102 Suppl 1:275-82.

3.      Issue with supplement:
Payne DK, Sullivan MD, Massie MJ. Women's psychological reactions to breast cancer. Semin Oncol 1996; 23(1, Suppl 2):89-97.

Books and Other Monographs

1.      Personal author(s):
Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996.

2.      Editor(s), compiler(s) as author:
Norman IJ, Redfern SJ, editors. Mental health care for elderly people. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1996.

3.      Chapter in a book:
Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995. pp. 465-78.

Download a PowerPoint presentation on common reference styles and using the reference checking facility on the manuscript submission site.

Tables

• Tables should be self-explanatory and should not duplicate textual material.
• Tables with more than 10 columns and 25 rows are not acceptable.
• Type or print out each table with double spacing on a separate sheet of paper. If the table must be continued, repeat the title on a second sheet followed by "(contd.)".
• Number tables, in Arabic numerals, consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each.
• Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading.
• Explain in footnotes all non-standard abbreviations that are used in each table.
• Obtain permission for all fully borrowed, adapted, and modified tables and provide a credit line in the footnote.
• For footnotes use the following symbols, in this sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ||, , **, ††, ‡‡

Illustrations (Figures)

• Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text.
• Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background
• Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends for illustrations not on the illustrations themselves.
• When graphs, scatter-grams or histograms are submitted the numerical data on which they are based should also be supplied.
• 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.
• If a figure has been published, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. A credit line should appear in the legend for figures for such figures.
• The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size.

Legends for Illustrations

• Type or print out legends (maximum 40 words, excluding the credit line) for illustrations using double spacing, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations.
• When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one in the legend.
• Explain the internal scale and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.

Book reviews: For Book Reviews, an abstract is not required. Restrict the manuscript to about 1000 words and a jpeg image of the cover page of the book reviewed should be uploaded separately.

Book reviews can be of two types, those solicited by IJOY editorial staff and unsolicited ones. Readers are welcome to suggest high quality contemporary or historically important books on Yoga for review. Offers to review such books will also be considered.

For unsolicited book reviews, publisher / author(s) / reviewer(s) needs to send a copy of the book reviewed or to be reviewed to the Editorial office at SVYASA Bangalore.

The reviewer should highlight who the expected readers are, introduce readers to the book's content (but avoid repeating its table of contents), focus on the subject, its approach and novelty; inform readers about what is happening in the area which the book addresses; what is the state of knowledge in the subject; and how this new book adds, changes or breaks new ground in our knowledge of this subject. If the book is an edited collection of essays, or chapters by different individuals, give some idea of the overall theme and content, but be free to focus on specific chapters you consider particularly significant or worthwhile. Focus on the book and not on your feelings about the subject. Do not discuss what you feel the author(s) should have written. Strive to make your review richly informative and even insightful.

A book review may include: an introduction to the author(s), including the author's title and place of work and some information stating who the author is; a summary of the intended purpose of the book and its contributions to Ayurveda and integrative medicine; a description of the way the author approaches his or her topic; the rigor of research and scholarship; the logic of the argument and the readability of the prose. If possible, a comparison with earlier or similar books in the field, and an evaluation of the book's merits, usefulness, and special contributions should be included.

Protection of Patients' Rights to Privacy

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian, wherever applicable) gives informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients' names from figures unless they have obtained informed consent from the patients. The journal abides by ICMJE guidelines:
1)     Authors, not the journals nor the publisher, need to obtain the patient consent form before the publication and have the form properly archived. The consent forms are not to be uploaded with the cover letter or sent through email to editorial or publisher offices.
2)    If the manuscript contains patient images that preclude anonymity, or a description that has obvious indication to the identity of the patient, a statement about obtaining informed patient consent should be indicated in the manuscript.
Copyrights
The whole of the literary matter will be the copyright of the Editorial Board. The Journal, however, grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work (either in pre-print or post-print format) publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International Public License.

Instructions for Online Submission of Manuscripts

Articles should be submitted online from journalonweb.com. New authors will have to register as author, which is a simple two step procedure. For online submission articles should be prepared in two files (first page file and article file). Images should be submitted separately.

• First Page File: Prepare the title page, covering letter, acknowledgement, etc. using a word processor program. All information which can reveal your identity should be here. Use text/rtf/doc files. Do not zip the files.
• Article file: The main text of the article, beginning from Abstract till References (including tables) should be in this file. Do not include any information (such as acknowledgement, your names in page headers, etc.) in this file. Use text/rtf/doc files. Do not zip the files. Limit the file size to 400 kb. Do not incorporate images in the file. If file size is large, graphs can be submitted as images separately without incorporating them in the article file to reduce the size of the file.
• Images: Submit good quality color images. Each image should be less than 400 kb in size. Size of the image can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images (keep up to 1024x760 pixels or 5 inches). All image formats (jpeg, tiff, gif, bmp, png, eps, etc.) are acceptable; jpeg is most suitable. Do not zip the files.
• The photographs should be scanned and should be in JPEG files. These should be scanned at 72 dpi, size not more than 3X4 inches (or 300x400 pixels), with only the necessary portion of the photographs. Wherever necessary scan at greyscale (e.g. x-rays, ECGs). The images should NOT be incorporated in the text itself (which increases the file size).
• Legends: Legends for the figures/images should be kept ready for copy-paste during the submission process.
• Since the articles are submitted online there is no need to send hard copies of the articles. However, copyright form should be sent to the journal office by fax.

Contributors' form​

Click here to download instructions

​These ready to use templates are made to help the contributors write as per the requirements of the Journal.

Save the templates on your computer and use them with a word processor program. 
Click open the file and save as the manuscript file.

In the program keep 'Document Map' and 'Comments' on from 'View' menu to navigate through the file. 


Download Template for Original Articles/ABSTRACT Reports. (.DOT file)

​ Download Template for Case Reports.  (.DOT file)

Download Template for Review Articles.  (.DOT file)

Download Template for Letter to the Editor.  (.DOT file)​

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