Guidelines

Author Guidelines

The Medical Journal of Armed Police Force Nepal (MJAPFN) is a peer reviewed, open-access, multidisciplinary biomedical journal published biannually as the official publication of the Armed Police Force Hospital, Nepal. MJAPFN publishes research across medicine, dentistry, nursing, public health, epidemiology, and allied health sciences, with emphasis on clinical/basic medical sciences, disaster and military medicine, healthcare management, and medical education.

MJAPFN strictly follow to international publishing ethics and best practices, guided by ICMJE, COPE, WAME, and CSE.

All published articles are freely available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). Authors retain copyright and grant MJAPFN a non-exclusive license to publish and distribute. There are currently no submission, processing, or publication charges; any future changes will be transparently announced.

Focus and Scope

MJAPFN welcomes high-quality submissions in the following categories:
• Original Research Articles
• Review Articles
• Case Reports and Case Series
• Short Communications / Brief Reports
• Clinical Experiences
• Medical Education
• Viewpoints
• Letters to the Editor

The journal particularly encourages work related to clinical/basic sciences, public health, epidemiology, military/disaster medicine, healthcare management, and medical education.

Authorship & Contributorship

MJAPFN follows ICMJE authorship criteria. Each author must contribute substantially, participate in drafting/revising, approve the final version, and accept accountability. Author contributions must be declared using the CRediT taxonomy. ORCID iDs are strongly recommended. Authorship changes after submission require written explanation, signed agreement from all authors, and editorial approval.

AI Use Policy: Only humans can be authors. Use of AI tools is permitted for language editing, translation, reference formatting, or code assistance, but must be disclosed in a formal AI Use Statement (tool, provider, version, dates, and scope). AI may not be used to generate data, participants, citations, or analyses. Confidential/unpublished manuscripts may not be uploaded to public AI systems.

Research Ethics, Approvals & Data Sharing

• Human and animal studies require ethics committee approval with name and reference number.
• Clinical trials must be prospectively registered in a WHO-recognized or ICMJE-approved registry, with registration number in the abstract.
• Written consent is required for identifiable data/images, stated in the manuscript.
• A Data Availability Statement must accompany clinical trials. We encourage depositing datasets in repositories such as Zenodo, Dryad, and Figshare with DOIs.
• Use RRIDs for biological resources.

Reporting Guidelines

Authors should comply with standard reporting guidelines relevant to their study design, such as:

• CONSORT:  Randomized Controlled Trials
• STROBE: Observational Studies
• PRISMA 2020: Systematic Reviews & Meta-analyses
• CARE: Case Reports
• SPIRIT: Clinical Trial Protocols
• STARD: Diagnostic Accuracy Studies
• TREND: Nonrandomized Behavioral & Public Health Interventions
• COREQ: Qualitative Research
• CHEERS: Health Economic Evaluations
• ARRIVE 2.0.: Animal Studies

A comprehensive list of reporting guidelines can be accessed through the EQUATOR Network).

Format and Require Documentation

• Cover letter
• Authorship Declaration and Agreement
  (authors, affiliations, corresponding author, funding, Conflict of Interest, ethics approval, trial registration, data availability, AI Use Statement and Agreement)
• Title page
• Blinded manuscript
• Ethical Approval letter (for original article)
• Patient consent (for identifiable data/images)
• Figures/tables with permissions
• Supplementary files with DOIs where possible

Manuscript Rejection

Manuscripts may be rejected for reasons including, but not limited to:

• Lack of originality or novelty
• Methodological flaws
• Failure to follow submission guidelines
• Plagiarism or publication misconduct
• Poor language quality
• Out-of-scope content

Preliminary rejection may occur for incomplete or incorrectly formatted submissions. Authors may be invited to revise and resubmit when appropriate.

Peer Review

MJAPFN operates a double-blind peer review. Submissions undergo initial screening for scope, formatting, and originality. At least two independent reviewers evaluate each manuscript; a third may be consulted if recommendations conflict. Decisions: Accept; Minor Revision; Major Revision; Resubmit Elsewhere; Decline.
Timelines: Initial decision 7–14 days; peer review 6–12 weeks; publication within ~6 months. Authors must provide a point-by-point response to reviewers. Reviewers and editors must declare conflicts of interest and maintain confidentiality.

Misconduct, Plagiarism & Retractions

All submissions undergo similarity checks (iThenticate/Turnitin). Forms of plagiarism include verbatim copying, patchwriting, inadequate paraphrasing, reuse of visuals without permission, translation plagiarism, and redundant/self‑plagiarism. Serious/willful cases result in rejection or retraction, following COPE guidance. Citation manipulation, data/image falsification, and peer-review manipulation are prohibited.

Publication and Decision Timeline

• Initial Decision: 7–14 days (without external review)
• Peer Review Process: Usually completed within 6–12 weeks
• Final Decision & Publication: Most accepted manuscripts are published within 6 months.

Authors are advised to check their submission status regularly and ensure that editorial communications are not filtered into spam/junk folders.

Manuscript Categories & Word Limits

Note:

• Original Articles: reference counts should be appropriate to the study (no strict limit).
• Clinical Experiences: ≤1,500 words; abstract ≤150 words; up to 10 references.

Referencing & Citations

Every article receives a DOI; corrections/retractions are linked to the original record. We recommend Crossref Crossmark for version control and update transparency. MJAPFN uses the Vancouver (ICMJE) numeric style:

In text: sequential superscript numbers (^1,2,3…), reusing numbers for repeat citations.

Reference list: numbered in citation order; list up to 6 authors, then “et al.”; include DOIs where available.

Examples

• Journal article: Shrestha R, Adhikari P, Lama S, et al. Title of article. Med J APF Nepal. 2025;1(1):5 10. doi:10.xxxx/xxxxx
• Book: Gordis L. Epidemiology. 6th ed. Elsevier; 2019.
• Chapter: Smith J. Disaster triage. In: Brown T, ed. Military Medicine. Springer; 2022:45 63.
• Webpage: World Health Organization. Oxygen sources and distribution. Published 2023. Accessed 1 Sep 2025. WHO site
• Dataset: Khanal S. Trauma registry (v2) [dataset]. Zenodo; 2023. doi:10.xxxx/zenodo.xxxxx
• Software: R Core Team. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation; 2025. R Project

Your original “Citations, DOIs & Article Updates” section is preserved here and augmented with the formal Vancouver style specification and examples.

Contact Inquiry 

Medical Journal of Armed Police Force Nepal (MJAPFN)
Nepal APF Hospital, Balambu, Kathmandu, Nepal
Phone: +977-01-4315224
Email: editor@mjapfn.org.np