Articles are accepted on the basis of significance, scientific merit and applicability. Authors are requested to base their reports on the basis of original work carried out by themselves or their groups. Manuscripts should not be submitted to more than one journal at a time.

All articles are processed through a system of peer-reviewing. Each article is assessed independently by one or two referees and comments sent back to the authors for revision, as required. The final decision lies with the Editor.

Original research articles are preferred. In order to widen the scope of communications, the following formats are made available: Editorials, original articles, case reports, clinical reviews, research un-searched, bronchoscopy / radiology quiz, practical applications, clinical problem series, clinico-pathological conferences, commentaries, anecdotes, medical humanities, general perspectives, letter to editor /Book review, correspondence column and so on.

All articles should be submitted online at the journal website (www.journalonweb.com/lungindia). Presentation of manuscripts should conform with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Bio-medical Journals (See Ann Intern Med 1997; 126:36-47).

SALIENT FEATURES OF THESE RECOMMENDATIONS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

• General
  Manuscripts must be accompanied by a covering letter. This must include: Information on prior or duplicate publication or submission elsewhere of any part of the work as defined earlier in this document.

• A copyright formsigned by all co-authors should be submitted at the time of new submission.

• A statement of financial or other relationship that might lead to a conflict in interest.

• A statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, that the requirements for authorship stated earlier in this document have been met, and that each author believes that the manuscript represents honest work

• The name, address, and telephone number of the corresponding author, who is responsible for communicating with other authors about revisions and final approval of the proofs. The letter should give any additional information that may be helpful to the editor, such as the type of article in the particular journal that the manuscript represents and whether the author(s) would be willing to meet the cost of reproducing colour illustrations. The manuscript must be accompanied by copies of any permission to reproduce published material, to use illustrations or report information about identifiable people, or the name people for their contributions.

Preparation of manuscript
Example (Dummy formats) of manuscript segments may be seen in the form of templates given on website of the journal. Manuscripts should be prepared using any standard word processing software and should have following segments

1. First page file
The ‘First Page File’ should carry

• The title of the article.

• The name of author and highest academic degree(s).

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

• The name and address of the author responsible for correspondence and reprint requests about the manuscript

• Source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs etc should be disclosed.

• A short running title of no more than 50 characters (count letters and spaces) must be provided. For example your manuscript heading “Episodic breathlessness in the patients of interstitial lung disease: a prospective observational study” may be given a short title as: “breathlessness in interstitial lung disease” which is of 43 characters. This is essential for pagination in the journal.

•  Acknowledgements
  Acknowledgements may be made to contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, such as:

- General support by a department chair
            - Acknowledgements of technical help
            - Financial and material support

• A statement of conflict of interests should be made.

2. Main article file

Title

Abstract and key words
This file should carry an abstract (of no more than 150 words for unstructured abstracts or 250 words for structured abstracts). ‘Structured abstract’ means a description that is constructed using sub-headings, e.g., background, methods, results and conclusions (see dummy example on website). The abstract should state the purpose of the study or investigation, basic procedures (selection of study subjects of laboratory animals; observational and analytical methods), main findings (giving specific data and their statistical significance, if possible), and the principal conclusions. It should emphasize new and important aspects of the study or observations.

Below the abstract, authors should provide and identify as such, 3 to 8 key words or short phrases that will assist cross-indexing the article and may be published with the abstract.

Introduction
State the purpose of the article and summarize the rationale for the study or observation. Give only strictly pertinent references and do not include data or conclusions from the work being reported.

Materials and Methods
Describe your selection of the observational or experimental subjects (patients or laboratory animals, including controls) clearly. Identify the age, sex, and other important characteristics of the subjects. The definition and relevance of race and ethnicity are ambiguous. Authors should be particularly careful about using these categories. Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer’s name and address in parentheses), and procedure in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. 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. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration. Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol (study population, interventions or exposures, outcomes, and the rationale for statistical analysis), assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the methods of masking (blinding). 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
When 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 1983. Do not use patients’ names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative materials. 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.

Statistics
Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Avoid relying solely on statistical hypothesis testing, such as the use of P values, which fails to convey important quantitative information. Discuss the eligibility of experimental subjects. Give details about randomization. Describe the methods for and success of any blinding of observations. Report complications of treatment. Give numbers of observations. Report losses to observation (such as dropout from a clinical trial). References for the design of the study and statistical methods should be standard works when possible (with pages stated) rather than to papers in which the designs or methods were originally reported. Specify any general use computer program used, e.g. SPSS, etc.

Results
Present your 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 summarize 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 those for future research. Relate the observations to other relevant studies. Link the conclusions with the goals of the study but avoid unqualified statements and conclusions not completely supported by the data. In particular, authors 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.

Acknowledgements
At an appropriate place in the article (the title page footnote or an appendix to the text, see the journal’s requirements), one or more statements should specify:
 

• Contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, such as general support by a department chair
• Acknowledgements of technical help
• Acknowledgements of financial and material support
• Relationships that may pose a conflict of interest. Persons who have contributed intellectually to the paper but whose contributions do not justify authorship may be named and their function or contribution described - for example, “scientific adviser,” “critical review of study proposal,” “data collection” or “participation in clinical trial”. Such persons must have given their permission to be named. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from persons acknowledged by name, because readers may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions. Technical help should be acknowledged in a paragraph separate from that acknowledging other contributions.
   

References

Following should be observed while citing the references:

• References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text.

• Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in parentheses as superscript after punctuation.

• 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.

• Avoid using abstracts as references. 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.

• References to papers accepted but not yet published should be designated as “in press” or “forthcoming”; authors should obtain written permission to cite such papers as well as verification that they have been accepted for publication.

• Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as “unpublished observations” with written permission from the source. For scientific articles, authors should obtain written permission and confirmation of accuracy from the source of a personal communication.

• The references must be verified by the author(s) against the full text original documents.

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

There are two components of a reference. One is bibliographic elements and another is punctuation marks. Both should be 100% accurate. Routine six bibliographic elements are name of authors, title of article, journal abbreviation, year published, volume and page numbers. Seven routine punctuation marks are coma between author names, full stop at the end of authors list, full stop at the end of title of article, space after abbreviation of journal name, semicolon after year of publication, colon after volume number and full stop at end of reference.

Articles in Journals

a) Person as author(s)

If more than six authors, list the first six authors followed by et al. Write last name first followed by initial letters of first and middle names in capital letters without full stop. The title should be exactly the same as that of article. Journal name should be standard PubMed abbreviation, full journal name should not be written. This is followed by year of publication. Then the volume number is written. Finally, page numbers appear (380-390 to be written as 380-90). Thus, a standard journal article is written as:

Echeverria RF, Baitello AL, Pereira de Godoy JM, Espada PC, Morioka RY. Prevalence of death due to pulmonary embolism after trauma. Lung India 2010;27:72-4.

b) Organization as author

If an article is written by some organization in place of particular author (s), reference should start with name of organization. For example-

The Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. Clinical exercise stress testing. Safety and performance guidelines. Med J Aust 1996; 164:282-4.

c) Article in Press

Leshner AI. Molecular mechanisms of cocaine addiction. N Engl J Med. In Press 1996.

d) Electronic Material
For journal article in electronic format some additional information should be provided, like:

Morse SS. Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases. Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 1995 Jan-Mar [cited 1996 Jun5]; 1(1): [24 screens]. Available from URL : http://www.cdc.gov/ ncidod/EID eid.htm. Accessed on (date).

Books and other Monographs

It also starts with authors names in same style as mentioned in journal article. Then editor’s name, text books title, edition number and publishers name should appear in sequence. This is followed by year and page numbers. For example-
a) Personal author(s)

Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996. Editor(s), complier(s) as author Norman IJ, Redfern SJ. editors. Mental health care for elderly people. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1996. 5.

b) Chapter in a book

Name(s) of author (s) of the chapter is followed by title of chapter. Other information is written in the similar style as above:

Philips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York : Raven Press: 1995. p. 465-78. 6.

Tables
Type each table with double spacing on a separate page . Do not submit tables as photographs (Images). Number tables consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each. Give each column a short or abbreviated heading. Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain in footnotes all nonstandard abbreviations that are used in each table separately.

Illustrations (Images/Figures)
 

During initial electronic submission, good quality images should be uploaded separately the given at place on manuscript submission site . One image is usually allowed for each 500 words of the manuscript. If it is essential to include more images, the images may be clubbed together and named like- figure 1a, 1b, 1c etc. Once your article is accepted, you are supposed to submit hard copies of the required number of complete sets of figures. Figures should be professionally drawn and photographed; freehand or typewritten lettering is unacceptable. Instead of original drawings, X-ray films, and other material, send sharp, glossy, black and white photographic prints, usually 127 x 173mm (5x7 inches) but no larger than 203x254mm (8x10 inches). Letters, numbers and symbols should be clear and even throughout and of sufficient size that when reduced for publication each item will still be legible. Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends for illustrations, not on the illustrations themselves. Each figure should have a label pasted on its back indicating the number of the figure, author’s name at top of the figure. Do not write on the back of figures or scratch mark them by using paper clips. Do not bend figures or mount them on cardboard. Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background. If photographs of people are used, either the subject must not be identifiable or their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph. Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text. If a figure has been published, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. Permission is required irrespective of authorship or publisher except for documents in the public domain.

Legends for Illustrations
Type or print out legends for illustrations using double spacing, starting on a separate page, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. When symbols, arrow, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one clearly in the legend. Explain in the internal scale and identify the method of staining photomicrographs.

Units of Measurements
Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units (meter, kilogram, or litre) or their decimal multiples. Temperatures should be given in degree Celsius. Blood pressure should be given in millimetres of mercury. All haematologic and clinical chemistry measurements should be reported in the metric system in terms of the International System of Units (SI). Editors may request that alternative or non-SI units be added by the authors before publication.

Abbreviations and Symbols
Use only standard abbreviations. Avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement.

Summary of manuscript preparation

A. Have I prepared the First Page File correctly?

1. Covering letter

2. Title page-

Title

Name of authors (first, middle and last names) and their highest degree with

institutional affiliations

Address/ e-mail address, phone and fax number (if available) of author

responsible for correspondence

Word count, abstract and text separately, excluding references

Short title not more than 45 characters

Acknowledgements, if any, should be mentioned in first page file. This file is not

utilized during peer review process.

B. Have I prepared the Main Article File correctly?

1. Title of article- do not use all capital letters or underline

2. Do not use name of authors in this file

3. Abstract- Structured for original and review article, non-structured for others

4. Key words 3-8, standard MeSH terms

5. Introduction, Material and methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions

6. Standard references with accurate bibliographic information and punctuations

7. Tables with title, legends or foot notes on a separate page

8. Check your manuscript for any of the gross grammatical mistake

9. Do not include acknowledgement or any other personal information in this file

which can disclose the identity of the author.

C. Have I arranged good quality Images, if applicable?

Upload high quality images separately, hard copy prints /additional information

may be required to be submitted once the article gets provisionally accepted.

D. Have I uploaded the Copyright Form signed by all authors?

An electronic plagiarism check is incorporated into the submission website, therefore, please avoid copy and paste from other sources during preparation of your manuscript. The manuscript may be returned back to you for technical modification if above instruction are not complied with, usually before the peer review process starts. For further clarification of points you may e-mail us- editor @ lunindia . com . Kindly always indicate manuscript number (ID) and title during correspondence or e-mail. Lung India receives more articles than it can publish. Acceptance rate is about 10 per cent. The manuscript provisionally accepted is assigned to a particular issue. We can not publish all the articles provisionally assigned to that issue because of relevance of text and space limits of the journal.

Following are steps for electronic submission:

Requirements

• Computer and internet connection

• Web-browser(preferably newer version- IE 5.0 or NS 4.7 or above)

• Cookies and java script to be enabled in web-browser

1. Registration

• Login into www.journalonweb.com/lungindia and signup as new author

• This is a two step self explanatory process

1. Article submission

• Files needed are first page file, article file and images, if any

• Click on ‘Submit a new article’ under ‘New Article.’

• Follow the steps (three steps for article without images and five steps for with images)

• On successful submission you will receive an acknowledgement quoting the manuscript numbers

1. Tracking the progress

• Click on ‘In Review Article’ under ‘Submitted Articles’

• The table gives status of article and its due date to move to the next phase

• More details can be obtained by clicking on the manuscript ID.

• Comments sent by the editor and referee will be available from these pages.

1. Submitting a revised article

• Click on ‘Article for Revision’ under ‘Submitted Articles’

• Click on ‘Revise’

• From the first window you can modify Article Title, Article Type.

• First Page File and Images could be modified from second and third window, respectively

• The fourth step is uploading the revised article

• Include the referee’s comments along with point to point clarifications at the beginning of revised article file

• Upload the revised article against new article file

-browse, choose your file and then click ‘Upload’ or click ‘Finish’

• On completion of revision process you will be able to check the latest file uploaded from Article Cycle (In Review Article-> click on manuscript ID-> latest file will have a number with ‘R’)

Online submission checklist (please use ready-made templates available at the website author’s area)

1. First Page File (text, rtf, doc or PDF file)

With covering letter, title page including short running title and

acknowledgement, etc.

2. Article File (text, rtf, doc or PDF file)

Text of article, beginning from Title, Abstract, Key words, Introduction

Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, References and

Tables. File size limit is 1 MB.

Do not include images for manuscript, name of authors,

acknowledgements or any other identity marks such as ‘tracking’ in

this file

3. Images (jpeg, gif, tiff, etc)

Submit good quality images. Each Image should be less than 1MB in size.

Do not include tables in this file

4. Copyright form

Should be submitted at the time of submission. Maximum file size is

400 KB. Preferable file type is PDF.