Instructions to Authors
Aim and Scope: International Journal of Nutrition Sciences (IJNS/ Int J Nutr Sci) is an official quarterly publication. IJNS publishes nutrition research that addresses community nutrition, clinical nutrition, cellular and molecular nutrition, food science and technology in an online-only format, after peer review processing. In addition to community and clinical nutrition, IJNS covers topics in vivo and in vitro regarding diet, nutrients and nutritional milieu. Submitted manuscripts must comply with IJNS's Instructions for Authors. Manuscripts outside of the scope of IJNS are returned without the delay of a full review, generally within a week of submission.
Editorial Independency: The International Journal of Nutrition Sciences (IJNS) is sponsored financially by Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, but it benefits from editorial freedom. The editors evaluate and accept articles based only on significance, originality, validity, and adherence to the aims and scope of the journal. Our editorial policy is consistent with the principles of editorial independence presented by WAME.
http://wame.org/editorial-independence
Submission of Manuscripts: Manuscripts should be sent through the online submission system: (https://ijns.sums.ac.ir/contacts)
Journal Publication Policy on Charging Author/Authors
Since October 7, 2023, the payment of fee is mandatory for all types of manuscripts sent to the International Journal of Nutrition Sciences (IJNS). Invited articles are exempt from the article charges.
Please note that manuscripts submitted to IJNS for review and possible publication, will be processed only when the following conditions are met:
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International Authors |
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Acceptance Fee based on Article Type |
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Original Article |
200 US Dollars |
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Review Article |
180 US Dollars |
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Brief Report |
160 US Dollars |
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Case Report |
140 US Dollars |
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Letter to the Editor |
120 US Dollars |
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Iranian Authors |
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Acceptance Fee based on Article Type |
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Original Article |
20,000,000 Rls |
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Review Article |
19,000,000 Rls |
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Brief Report |
17,500,000 Rls |
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Case Report |
17,000,000 Rls |
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Letter to the Editor |
16,000,000 Rls |
The fee for Iranian Authors should be deposited in the account number 1553004528 with Identity Code 6104-3386-6521-8653 at Bank Mellat.
Note: Corresponding or first author from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences would recieve 30% discount for publication fees upon acceptance.
.To follow the instructions for the above payments please click on this link.
Please make sure that a copy of your payment receipt is attached to your submission as an image file (upload it on to the journal site).
It should be noted that all deposits are non-refundable and a paper may be rejected by the Editors without being sent for review. Furthermore, the article submission fee and acceptance fee are used to support journal related activities and cover editorial service and production of an article.
The publication ethics and malpractice statement contains the subjects as below:
Publication and authorship:
List of references, financial support; - no plagiarism, no fraudulent data; - forbidden to publish same research in more than one journal.
Peer Review Process: The articles are primarily evaluated by our statisticians and internal screeners who check the articles for any methodological flaws, format, and their compliance with the journal’s instructions. Then a submission code will be allocated and all the future contacts should be based on this code. Through a double-anonymized review, the articles will be reviewed by at least two external (peer) reviewers. Their comments will be passed to the authors and their responses to the comments along with the reviewers’ comments will then be evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief, and a final reviewer who can be a member of the Editorial Board. The final review process will be discussed in regular editorial board sessions and on the basis of the comments, the Editors-in-Chief will decide which articles should be published. Judgments are objective; - reviewers have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the research funders. It should be noted that articles submitted by the staff and editors of the IJNS will also be subjected to peer review and the editor plays no role in the review or decision.
Please note: All authors of accepted articles are required to sign an authorship statement. If your article is accepted for publication. you will be required to submit this form immediately: a delay in submitting the form signed by all authors will result in a delay in publication.
Ethical Considerations: Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) flowcharts and guidelines are approached in confronting any ethical misbehavior. The Journal also follows the guidelines mentioned in the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals
issued by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (http://www.icmje.org/#privacy). Monitoring/safeguarding publishing ethics by editorial board; - Guidelines for retracting articles; - Maintain the integrity of the academic record; - Preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards; - Always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed. - no plagiarism, no fraudulent data.
Human and Animal Rights Statement: Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must have been approved by an independent local, regional or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, institutional review board).
When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. The care and use of experimental animals should comply with acceptable international animal welfare guidelines and policies. Further guidance on animal research ethics is available from the Guideline for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals in Iran. For reports of such studies, authors should refer to the ARRIVE guidelines checklist.
Informed consent: All patients and participants of the research should be thoroughly informed about the aims of the study and any possible side effects of the drugs and intervention. Written informed consent from the participants or their legal guardians is necessary for any such studies. The Journal reserves the right to request the related documents.
Authorship: Based on the newly released Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, by the ICMJE, “an Author” is generally considered to be someone who meets the following conditions 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work.
Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content.
Final approval of the version to be published.
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Plagiarism: Authors are not allowed to utilize verbatim text of previously published papers or manuscripts submitted elsewhere. All submitted manuscripts will be checked for possible similarity in any part of the work by iThenticate plagiarism checker. Based on the amount of plagiarism detected in a manuscript, it will be passed to the authors and ask them to rephrase copied phrases or include as direct quotations with references. COPE’s flowcharts and guidelines are approached in cases in which plagiarism is detected.
Data Fabrication/Falsification: Falsification is the practice of omitting or altering research materials, data, or processes so that the results of the research are no longer accurately reflected. Fabrication is the practice of inventing data or results and reporting them in the research. Both of these misconducts are fraudulent and seriously alter the integrity of research. Therefore, articles must be written based on original data and use of falsified or fabricated data is strongly prohibited.
Image Manipulation: The IJNS encourages authors to send their original images. All digital images in manuscripts accepted for publication will be checked for inappropriate manipulation. No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable as long as they are applied to the entire image and do not misrepresent any information present in the original, including the background. The editors will request the original data from the authors to compare the manipulated figures in cases suspected of inappropriate manipulation.
Copyright: If a manuscript contains any previous published image or text, it is the responsibility of the author to obtain authorization from copyright holders. The author is required to obtain and submit the written original permission letters for all copyrighted material used in his/her manuscripts.
Open Access Policy: This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
Retraction Policy: The IJNS uses the COPE flowchart for retraction of a published article
(https://publicationethics.org/files/u661/Retractions_COPE_gline_final_3_Sept_09__2_.pdf) to determine whether a published article should be retracted.
Assignment of Copyright and Authorship Responsibilities:
Your article will not be published unless a Copyright Assignment Form has been signed and received by IJNS. Click to access this form.
You hereby warrant that “This article is an original work, has not been published before and is not being considered for publication elsewhere in its final form either in printed or electronic form”.
Confidentiality
Reviewers who seek assistance from a colleague in the performance of a review should acknowledge these individuals' contributions in the written comments submitted to the editor. These reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of the manuscript as outlined above, which may prohibit the uploading of the manuscript to software or other AI technologies where confidentiality cannot be assured. Reviewers should disclose to journals if and how AI technology is being used to facilitate their review. Reviewers should be aware that AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Reviewers who seek assistance from a colleague in the performance of a review should acknowledge these individuals' contributions in the written comments submitted to the editor. These reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of the manuscript as outlined above, which may prohibit the uploading of the manuscript to software or other AI technologies where confidentiality cannot be assured. Reviewers should disclose to journals if and how AI technology is being used to facilitate their review. Reviewers should be aware that AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased.
Requirements for Different Types of Articles
Original articles: Should contain a structured abstract, 3-5 keywords, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgement (if applicable), references, maximum 5 tables and 4 figures. The length should not exceed 3500 words (4500 words for clinical trials) excluding the references, abstract, figures and tables. 15-40 references can be stated for original articles. Various types of original articles include clinical trials, case-control studies, cohort studies, and cross-sectional studies.
Clinical trials: CONSORT checklist should be considered and the CONSORT flow diagram should be added as a figure. RCTs should be registered and their registration number should be mentioned in the title page.
Observational studies (case-control studies, cohort studies, and cross-sectional studies): STROBE checklist should be considered. Additionally, PRISMA checklist should be checked for meta-analysis and systematic reviews.
Animal studies: Authors should follow the ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) guidelines for animal studies. The precise genotype, strain, source, sex, and age of animals studied must be provided in the manuscript. All animal studies must have been approved by the appropriate institutional review board(s).
Brief reports: Should contain a structured abstract, 3-5 keywords, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgement (if applicable), references, maximum 2 tables and figures. The word count should not exceed 2000 words excluding the references, abstract, figures and tables and about 10-25 references should be stated.
Case reports: Should contain a non-structured abstract, 3-5 keywords, introduction, case presentation, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgement (if applicable), conflict of interest, references, maximum 1 table and maximum 3 figures. The word count should not exceed 2000 words excluding the references, abstract, figures and tables and about 5-25 references should be stated. Case reports should optimally be accompanied by relevant figures to document findings.
Review articles: Should contain a non-structured abstract, up to 100 references and 5000 words.
-Narrative reviews: Narrative reviews should contain the critical assessment of the current knowledge of the field.
-Systematic reviews and meta-analysis: Systematic reviews of RCTs or Observational studies will be accepted by the journal. The protocol of the study should adhere to PRISMA or MOOSE guidelines for systematic reviews of RCTs or Observational studies, respectively.
Letters to the Editor: Letters should not exceed 1000 words. Letters discussing articles published in the IJNS should be submitted at most within 4 months after the publication of the main article. Letter editorial review and will be edited for clarity. Letter require editorial review and acceptance before publication. IJNS does not accept letters that are unrelated to the previous publication of the journal or those that contain personal slander or invective. It should contain conflict of interest. Up to 10 references should be stated.
Editorials: Editorials should not exceed 1000 words. It contains discussions in IJNS without critical view. References can be from IJNS or other journal and should not exceed 10. It should contain conflicts of interest and requires peer review for acceptance.
Sections of Original and Brief Report of the manuscript: Should be divided into the following sections: (1) Title page, (2) Abstract and Keywords, (3) Introduction, (4) Materials and Methods, (5) Results, (6) Discussion, (7) Acknowledgements, (8) Conflict of interest, (9) References, (10) legends, (11) Appendices if available, (12) Tables, (13) Figures.
General format: Prepare your manuscript text using a Word processing package (save in *.doc, *.docs or *.rtf format). Submissions of text in the form of PDF files are not permitted. Manuscripts should be double-spaced, including text, tables, legends and references. Numbering each page and each line is required. Please avoid footnotes; use instead, and as sparingly as possible, parenthesis within brackets. Enter text in the style and order of the journal. Type references in the correct order and style of the IJNS. Type unjustified, without hyphenation, except for compound words. Type headings in the style of the journal. Use the TAB key once for paragraph indents. Where possible use Times New Roman for the text font 12 and Symbols for the Greek and special characters. Use the word processing formatting features to indicate Bold, Italic, Greek, Maths, Superscript and Subscript characters. Clearly identify unusual symbols and Greek letters. Differentiate between the letter O and zero, and the letters I and l and the number 1. Mark the approximate position of each figure and table. Check the final copy of your paper carefully, as any spelling mistakes and errors may be translated into the typeset version.
Paper Preparations:
Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Assisted Technology
At submission, the authors should disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in the production of submitted work. Authors who use such technology should describe, in both the cover letter and the submitted work, how they used it. Chatbots (such as ChatGPT) should not be listed as authors because they cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work. Authors should carefully review and edit the result because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors should not list AI and AI assisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. Authors should be able to assert that there is no plagiarism in their paper, including in text and images produced by the AI. Humans must ensure there is appropriate attribution of all quoted material, including full citations.
Cover letter should contain a statement that you will not resubmit your article to another journal until the reviewing process will be completed. Also please indicate whether the authors have published or submitted any related papers from the same study.
Title Page of the article should include 1- the title of the article; 2- authors’ names; 3- name of the institution where the work was done; 4- running title (short form of the main title presented on the top of pages); 5- complete mailing address, telephone, and email address of the corresponding author, and 6- the contribution of authors, this page is unnumbered.
Abstract should be structured for original articles and brief providing background/objective for the study, methods, results, and conclusion. It should not exceed 250 words altogether. Number this page as page 1. Preferably, abbreviations should not be mentioned in the abstract.
Keywords are used for indexing purposes; each article should provide 3-5 keywords selected from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).
Introduction should provide a context or background and specifies the purpose or research objective of the study or observation.
Method must indicate clearly the steps taken to acquire the information. Be sure that it includes only information that was available at the time the plan or protocol for the study was written. It should be detailed (including: inclusion and exclusion criteria, etc.) and may be separated into subsections. Repeating the details of standard techniques is best avoided.
For reports of randomized controlled trials, authors should refer to the CONSORT statement (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/consort/). All randomized clinical trials should be registered at any RCT Registry approved by the WHO and their registration number should be mentioned in the title page (https://www.who.int/clinical-trials-registry-platform). For research conducted in Iran, it is advised to register at IRCT (www.irct.ir).
Reporting guidelines such as STROBE, STARD, and PRISMA would help you to produce high quality research and to provide all required information and evidence for related methodology. EQUATOR Network website would help you in using these guidelines. Authors are encouraged to refer to the SAGER guidelines for reporting of sex and gender information in study design, data analyses, results, and interpretation of findings: (www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/sager-guidelines/).
The software used for statistical analysis and description of the actual method should be mentioned.
Statistics: All manuscripts selected for publication will be reviewed for the appropriateness and accuracy of the statistical methods used and the interpretation of statistical results. All papers submitted should provide in their Methods section a subsection detailing the statistical methods, including the specific method used to summarize the data, the methods used to test their hypothesis testing and (if any) the level of significance used for hypothesis testing.
Results: should be presented in chronological sequence in the text, table, and illustration. Organize the results according to their importance. They should result from your own study.
Tables and illustrations: must be cited in order which they appear in the text; using Arabic numerals. Tables should be simple and should not duplicate information in the text of the paper. Tables should also have a title above and an explanatory footnote below. The letter p in p value must be italic. Figures should be provided only if they improve the article. For radiographic films, scans, and other diagnostic images, as well as pictures of pathology specimens or photomicrographs, send the high resolution figures in jpeg or bitmap format. Color photographs, if found to improve the article, would be published at no extra-charge at the print version of the journal. Type or print out legends for illustrations on a separate page, and explain the internal scale and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.
Figure: Figures should be limited to the number necessary for clarity and must not duplicate data given in tables or in the text. They must be suitable for high quality reproduction and should be submitted in the desired final printed size so that reduction can be avoided. Figures should be no larger than 125 (height) x 180 (width) mm (5 x 7 inches) and should be submitted in a separate file from that of the manuscript. . Figures should be saved in Tiff or Jpeg format at a resolution of at least 300 pixels per inch at the final printed size for colour figures and photographs, and 1200 pixels per inch for black and white line drawings.
Discussion: should emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow them. Possible mechanisms or explanations for these findings should be explored. The limitations of the study and the implications of the findings for future research or clinical practice should be explored.
Conclusion: should state the final result that the author(s) has (have) reached. The results of other studies should not be stated in this section.
Supplementary Materials: such as movie clips, questionnaires, etc. may be published on the online version of the journal.
Acknowledgment: Any technical help, general, financial, and material support or contributions that need acknowledging, but do not justify authorship, can be cited at the end of the text.
Conflict of interest: All authors must make a formal statement at the time of submission indicating any potential conflict of interest that might constitute an embarrassment to any of the authors if it were not to be declared and were to emerge after publication. Such conflicts might include, but are not limited to, shareholding in or receipt of a grant or consultancy fee from a company whose product features in the submitted manuscript or which manufactures a competing product. All authors must submit a statement of Conflict of Interest to be published at the end of their article. If no Conflict of Interest is declared, this will be stated in the article using the following wording: ‘Conflict of Interest: none declared’ It is a condition of publication that a statement declaring any conflict of interest is included in the manuscript on first submission. Failure to insert a statement for all authors will delay the review process. Authors are preferably asked to fill the uniform disclosure form available through:(http://www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf).
References: should be complied numerically according to the order of citation in the text in the Vancouver style. The numbers of references should not preferably exceed 40 for original articles, 100 for review articles, 15 for brief and 10 for case reports. The references should be arranged by Endnote software.
For the references credited to more than 3 authors please provide the name of the first three authors and represent the remaining authors by the phrase “et al.”
For various references please refer to “the NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers”. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/). For all references, please add DOI and PMID at the end of the references.
Referencing AI-generated material as the primary source is not acceptable.
Listed below are sample references.
Journal Article:
Cetinkaya A, Bulbuloglu E, Kantarceken B, et al. Effects of L-carnitine on oxidant/antioxidant status in acetic acid-induced colitis. Dig Dis Sci. 2006;51:488-494. DOI:10.1007/s10620-006-3160-9. PMID:16614957.
Complete Book:
LK Mahan, JL Raymond. Krause’s Food & The Nutrition Care Process. 14th ed. St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier; 2017.
Chapter in Book:
Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw- Hill; 2002.p.93-113.
Website:
National Kidney Foundation. What is a kidney biopsy? https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/kidney-biopsy. Accessed February 5, 2015.
Language and Style:
Contributions should be in either American or British English language. The text must be clear and concise, conforming to accepted standards of English style and usage. Non-native English speakers may be advised to seek professional help with the language.
All materials should be typed in double line spacing numbered pages. Abbreviations should be standard and used just in necessary cases, after complete explanations in the first usage. The editorial office reserves the right to edit the submitted manuscripts in order to comply with the journal’s style. In any case, the authors are responsible for the published material.
Correction of Errata:
The journal will publish an erratum when a factual error in a published item has been documented.
For further information please contact the Editorial Office:
Tel: +98-71-37250054
Fax: +98-71-37257288
Email: ijns@sums.ac.ir , eftekhari_ijns@sums.ac.ir
WhatsApp Number: +98-9170666935
Submission Preparation Checklist:
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
For the references credited to more than 3 authors please provide the name of the first three authors and represent the remaining authors by the phrase “et al.”
Privacy Statement: The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.