About the Journal
The Journal of Medical Physics (earlier known as AMPI Medical Physics Bulletin till 1994) is an official publication of Association of Medical Physicists of India (AMPI). This is a quarterly publication with 4 issues per year; January-March, April-June, July-September and October-December. The main objective of the Journal is to serve as a vehicle of communication for the dissemination of newer research in the field of medical radiation physics.
The journal does not charge for submission, processing or publication of an article
Scope
The scope of this journal covers all aspects of application of radiation physics to health science, mainly radiation therapy, radiodiagnosis, nuclear medicine, radiation dosimetry, radiation standards, quality assurance, calibration, and radiation protection. Papers / manuscripts on radiobiology pertaining to cancer therapy also fall within the scope of the journal. Apart from the original research work, papers which are of practical importance to medical physicists e.g., those dealing with novelty in practices (performance and quality assurance tests, clinical investigations and follow-ups), radiation accidents and emergencies are also published in the journal. Brief manuscripts, dealing with the validation of relatively newer concepts, may be considered as technical notes or letters to editor. Reviews of other publications (e.g., ICRP / ICRU reports and books related to the scope of the journal) may also find place in the journal. Manuscripts with no or oblique relevance to the scope may not find a place.
Refereeing Process
JMP follows a double blind review process i.e. neither the referees nor the authors are provided with the names and the details of each other. Manuscripts are reviewed by two independent referees who are experts in the related field. The manuscripts are sent for refereeing after a pre-review by the Editor within a week or so after the submission in the required format (manuscripts not in the required format may be sent back to the authors or rejected). Referees are requested to send their reports within a period of three weeks. If the chosen referee of any manuscript does not respond within a month even after intermittent reminders, the manuscript is sent to another referee or referees and the process continues till responding referees are found to complete the refereeing process. On receipt of the referees' reports, if needed, authors are requested to revise the manuscript along the lines of the suggestions of the referees. Thus the completion of the refereeing process may take time from about a month to several months depending upon the responses from the referees and the authors. However, it is important for the corresponding authors to respond to the referees' comments in 'Author Comment File' with a point to point reply and to upload the revised / unrevised version in the specified time, failing which a submission could be rejected with a presumption of no more interest of authors in continuing with the publication. The authors not able to revise or respond in the allocated time but interested in publication, may submit such manuscripts at a later date by quoting the previous reference number (to be considered as a fresh submission). Differences of opinions with the referees, if any, may also be included in the 'Author Comment File'. The Editor carries out the final review with or without involvement of additional experts and communicates the decision to the authors. The revised / re-revised manuscript may or may not be subjected to another review by the same or the other referees. No manuscript will go through for publication without a peer review.
Language of Manuscript
Manuscripts should be in English only.
Online Submission of the Manuscripts
Manuscripts are to be submitted online from https://review.jow.medknow.com/jmp. New authors will have to register as author by providing Login Name and a Password. This is a simple two-step procedure. Step 1 – Go to https://review.jow.medknow.com/jmp
- Click “signup as author"
- Fill the registration form and submit
Step 2 - Open your email box
Format of the Manuscript
Title of the manuscript and a minimum of 3 Key Words related to the contents need to be provided in the relevant columns of the submission form. Type of article has to be selected e.g. Editorial, Original Article, Invited Article, Review Article, Technical Note, Letter to the Editor, News, Book Review etc. The manuscripts have to be prepared in two files (First Page file and Article File). Large size Images should be submitted separately as an additional file “Image(s)".
First Page File
'First Page' file (use text / rtf / doc / pdf file format) should contain 1- the title of the manuscript (in running letters except the first letter of the first word or pronouns), 2- names and affiliations of all the authors (titles such as Dr., Mr. etc. and degrees such as PhD, MD, MSc etc. must NOT be given), 3- mailing address and email address of the corresponding author and 4- statements on 'Conflicts of Interest' of each author/ contributor and of financial or other relationships that might lead to a conflict of interest, if that information is not included in the manuscript itself or in an authors' form. The text / contents of manuscript should not be included in the 'First Page' file. Any information which can reveal the identity of the authors such as Acknowledgements etc. should be included in the 'First Page' file only. Authors are encouraged to include a list of three referees in the 'First Page' file. The suggested referees need to have visible expertise through publications in the related field and must NOT be co-authors or from the same institutions as that of any of the authors. Corresponding authors have to have written consent from each author. During revision, addition and /or deletion, if any, of authors could be done through a revised 'First Page' file with a written consent from the concerned author/authors. Changes in authorship after pre-acceptance have to be avoided. Changes at this stage can only be done with the consent of the Editor in addition to written concent/s of the concerned author/s. Do not zip the files.
Article file
'Article File' (use text / rtf / doc / pdf file format) for 'Original Article', 'Review Article' Invited Article' and 'Technical Note', should contain the title, and text in the required sections or subsections e.g Abstract, Introduction, Experimental / Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, References, Tables, Figures etc. Do not include names of authors or institute /address or the place work in any form / part anywhere in the 'Article File'. Abstract provided for original articles should be structured abstract and not exceeding 250 words and divided into the following sections: Purpose/Aim, Materials and Methods, Results, Conclusions. For all other manuscripts (excluding letters to the Editor), unstructured abstracts of about 150 words should be provided and it should briefly summarize the out come of the study. Proprietary terms and abbreviations should not be used in the abstract. If needed sub-sections may be added for the clarity of the presentation. Please ensure that manuscript is line numbered and the Tables, Graphs or Figures are included in the Article file for the ease of refereeing. If the size of figures exceeds, the Graphs / Figures can be submitted separately as 'Image(s)'. Sections / sub-sections should be avoided, to the extent possible, for the 'Article File' for 'Editorial', 'Letter to the Editor' and 'Book Review'. In the text, use of First Person (I, We, Us, Our, My, Mine etc) is not encouraged. Do not zip the files.
References
References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are referred (not in alphabetic order) as superscripts in Arabic numerals in square bracket as superscript in text, tables, and legends at the appropriate places. References cited only in tables or figure legends should also be numbered in accordance with the sequence established in the text. 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. For non-indexed journals, use complete name of the journal. References to the abstracts (published as abstracts only) may be avoided. Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as “unpublished observations" with written permission from the source. Avoid citing “personal communication" unless it provides essential information not available from normal sources, 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. The accuracy of references is the responsibility of the authors. The commonly cited types of references are shown below, for other types of references such as electronic media; newspaper items, etc. please refer to ICMJE Guidelines (http://www.icmje.org or http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).
(a) Journal paper
1. Pradhan AS. Photon energy response of luminescence dosimeters and its impact on assessment of Hp(10) and Hp(0.07) in mixed fields of varying energies of photons and beta radiation. Radiat Prot Dosim 2002;101:173-8.
2. Pradhan AS, Lee JI, Kim JL. Further Studies on Higher Temperature TL Glow Peaks of 7LiF:Mg,Ti. Applied. Radiation and Isotopes. 2009; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. apradiso.2009.01.004.
3. Sharma DS, Sharma SD, Sanu KK, Saju S, Deshpande DD, Kannan S. Performance evaluation of a dedicated computed tomography scanner used for virtual Performance evaluation of a dedicated computed tomography scanner used for virtual simulation using in-house fabricated CT phantoms. J Med Phys 2006;31:28-35.
For more than 6 authors in any reference, list the first six contributors followed by et al.
(b) Conference Proceedings
Iyer PS, Bhutani ML, Pradhan AS, Sasane JB and Sawant SG. Current trend of diagnostic radiology practices and associated radiation safety in India. Med. Physik, Edited by Jurgen Richter, Roentgen Gedachtnis Kongress, Deutschen Gesselschat fur Med. Physik, Wurzburg, Germany; 1995. pp.130-131.
(c) Books and Other Monographs
Huang HK, Elements of Digital Radiology. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cifts. New Jersey; 1987.
(d) Article /Chapter in book
Casten L, Tritium in the environment. In: Advances in Radiation Biology (JT Lett and H Adler. Eds.) Vol. 8, 419-456, Academic Press. New York; 1979.
Tables
Tables should be numbered consecutively. Each table should have a caption with sufficient details to make it self-explanatory. The tables should be typed double-spaced. The proportion of the printed page should be considered in designing the table.
Footnotes to tables should be identified with superscript lower case letters a, b, etc. and placed at the bottom of the page containing the table.
Legends
Legends / captions for the figures/images (with sufficient details to make it self-explanatory) should be included at the end of the article file.
Images and Figures
Good quality color images should be submitted separately in addition to figures and tables included in Article File. Each image should be less than 4096 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; jpg is most suitable. Do not zip the files. They should be numbered in sequence with Arabic numerals. Legends for figures should be typed double-spaced on a separate page. Mathematical expressions should be set out clearly. It may be kept in mind that no images / figure / illustration will appear in colour in the print version, however, colour distinction in figures can be kept for the electronic / online version only for additional clarity. The contributors' form and copyright transfer form has to be submitted.
SI Units
Authors should use the International System of units (SI) with traditional units in parenthesis. Any manuscript received which does not employ the SI system will be returned for revision without review.
Proofs
Proofs will be sent to the corresponding author and these should be returned as early as possible, preferably within 3 days. Major alterations in the proofs by the authors would not be permitted.
Copyright transfer
The contributors' form and copyright transfer form has to be submitted.
Journal office
Editor-in-Chief,
Journal of Medical Physics,
Association of Medical Physicists of India,
C/o. Radiological Physics & Advisory Division,
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, CT & CRS Building,
Anushaktinagar, Mumbai 400 094, India.
Protection of Patients' Right 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.
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)
