Editorial Policies

All manuscripts submitted to IJMA will be subjected to peer-review and are therefore expected to be of high quality. Manuscripts submitted for publication consideration must have the ability to contribute to the field of maternal and child health and HIV/AIDS as it impacts the MCH populations. Prior to submitting a manuscript, authors are encouraged to always ask themselves: what is the small contribution that my manuscript contributes to the field? Contributions may be in research, practice, or policy.

IJMA applies a very rigorous review process in determining which articles are accepted and eventually published. IJMA Editors understand the value of rapid dissemination of knowledge; however, the journal will not compromise the rigor of its review policy for expediency of publication. We strive for a rapid review and subsequent publication of high-quality manuscripts. Legitimate requests for expedited review, for example, to support graduate school graduation, academic tenure and promotion reviews (TPR) will be duly considered on a case-by-case basis, at the discretion of the editors.

Manuscript Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to IJMA passes through the following seven (7) steps:

1. An author submits a manuscript;
2. The Managing Editor or Senior Editorial Assistant assigns the manuscript to the Editor-in-Chief;
3. The Editor-in-Chief conducts a scope review to determine if the manuscript falls within the journal's scope, is aligned with the editorial priorities, and sufficient quality;
4. If the manuscript does not fall within the journal's scope, the submission is declined at this point. If the manuscript falls within journal's scope, the Editor-in-Chief assigns the manuscript to the Editor or a Section Editor (the "Assigned Editor") who will oversee the manuscript's peer-review;
5. The assigned Editor sends the manuscript for peer-review; he/she identifies reviewers and oversses the reviews;
6. Upon receipt of peer-reviewed manuscript, the Editor or Associate recommends a decision based on his/her review and comments from reviewers' recommendations, editorial priorities, manuscript quality, and discussion with fellow editors, where necessary; and
7. The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision on the manuscript and sends a decision letter informing the author(s) of this decision.

Single Blind Review

IJMA operates a single blind review system. This means that the names of the reviewers are hidden from the authors but the reviewers know the authors. Single-blind reviews foster reviewer anonymity and allows for impartial decisions free from influence by the author(s). Submitted manuscripts are usually reviewed by at least two peer-reviewers. Peer reviewers recommend to the Editor whether a manuscript should be accepted, revised or rejected. They also use a confidential section to alert the Editor of any issues relating to suspected author misconduct such as plagiarism and unethical behavior.

Review of Manuscripts by Editorial Board Members

IJMA Editors and Editorial Board members are expected to set the research agenda for the journal and for the field. The journal welcomes the submission of research papers from the scientific community that includes members of its editorial boards. To avoid the conflict of editors overseeing the peer-review of their work, submissions that list editorial board members as coauthors are handled in a different way from other submissions. Editors are not allowed to make decisions on their own papers. Those manuscripts are overseen by other editors or senior editorial board members who are not the authoring editors/editorial board members. That coauthor is not assigned to review the work. Reviewers should feel capable of fair and unbiased reviews when reviewing articles for the journal and are expected to declare any potential conflict of interest upon receipt of a review request. As with other submissions, those submissions undergo the same rigorous review process undergone by other submissions. On occasions, the journal may decide, in addition to the above measures, that it is more prudent to employ a double-blind review in the review of these manuscripts. 

To be published in the journal, a manuscript must receive favorable review from at least one peer-reviewer. If a manuscript receives an even review by two reviewers, the Editor-in-Chief or Editor or a senior member of the editorial board will make the final recommendation upon review of the manuscript. Reviewers submit their reports on the manuscripts along with their recommendation of one of the following actions:

1. Accept manuscript unaltered (this is very rare!)
2. Accept manuscript after minor changes
3. Accept manuscript after major changes
4. Revise and resubmit for re-review
5. Reject manuscript

After receiving and reviewing comments from all the external reviewers, the Editor makes the final decision, which may be one of the following:

1. Accept manuscript unaltered (this is very rare!)
2. Accept manuscript after minor changes
3. Accept manuscript after major changes
4. Revise and resubmit for re-review
5. Reject manuscript.

If the Editor recommends Publish Unaltered, the manuscript is accepted for publication. If the Editor recommends, Consider publishing after minor changes, the authors are notified to prepare and submit a final copy of their manuscript with the required minor changes suggested by the peer-reviewers.

Only the Editor reviews the revised manuscript after the minor changes have been made by the authors. Once the Editor is satisfied with the final manuscript, the manuscript will be accepted for publication and sent for copyediting and then production.

Authors will receive a portable document file (PDF) galley proof of their manuscript as it is set to publish in the journal for review. Authors are usually allowed only one opportunity to review and identify errors introduced during the production process. Authors will have 2-3 days to review and return the PDF galley proof.

IJMA operates a continuous publication model. Accepted papers are published on a rolling basis. Papers published in one calendar year are serialized into one Volume and 2 or more issues. Special collections or journal supplements are included under the respective Volumes and Issues in which they are published.

IJMA is an open-access journal. Open access publishing provides unrestricted access via the Internet to peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles. Open access publishing is a model for publishing scholarly journals. It provides immediate, worldwide, barrier-free access to the full text of all published articles. Open access allows readers to view, download, print, and redistribute any article without a subscription, enabling far greater distribution of an author's work than the traditional subscription-based publishing model.

Unrestricted and Unlimited Access

IJMA and the editorial board believe that the scientific community and the general public can unlimitedly and immediately access all content published in our journals for free as soon as it is published online. We believe that immediate, worldwide, barrier-free, open access to the full text of research articles is in the best interests of the scientific community.

Open Access License-Creative Commons

IJMA applies the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL) to all works we publish under open access. Under the CCAL, authors retain ownership of the copyright for their article, but authors allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy articles in IJMA, so long as the original authors and source are cited. We allow the reuse and remixing of contents of the journal following the CC BY 4.0 license. Authors are allowed to deposit versions of their work in an institutional or another repository of their choice as allowed by the above license. For more information about CCAL, and to read the human-readable summary or the full license legal code, please click here.

Article Processing Charges (APC) Table (in U.S. Dollars)

Notes: (1) Click here to find out which group your country falls under. (2) Requests for waivers or discounts must be included in the cover letter during manuscript submission.

Note: For articles over the prescribed word limit (as shown in the table below), we will charge an additional $99.00 US dollars article processing charge for every 0-500 words over the limit. We will charge an additional $59 for each additional table or figure over the prescribed limit due to additional work required. Our goal is to ensure that all submissions comply with the prescribed word limit so that the need for extra publication charges does not arise. We will review manuscripts and determine the costs beforehand. Any overage charges should be discussed and an amount agreed upon at the time of article submission. We will not charge our authors without their interest or consent. Please contact the editorial office for any questions about this: submissions@mchandaids.org.

Country Classification: To determine where your country falls, please visit the World Bank Country and Lending Groups here.

Once an article has been published, no significant change should be made to the article. Grammatical errors and similar edits will be considered, but any changes related to the content of the article would violate the ethics of the peer-review processes. Accordingly, the journal will charge $199.00 US dollars for any significant changes needed to be made after the article has been published.

The journal continues to pursue opportunities for content abstracting and indexing (A&I). We recognize the importance of indexing researchers' published papers in major A&I services and we are determined to meet these expectations. The journal has been set up to meet the eligibility criteria for acceptance by indexing organizations, including scientific rigor, academic leadership, technological capabilities, peer-review, etc.

Abstracting & Indexing Strategy:

IJMA is currently indexed and abstracted in the following:

PubMed/PubMed Central (PMC/PubMed)
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Index Copernicus. 

U.S. Library of Congress

IJMA deposits e-copies to the serial section of the U.S. Library of Congress (LOC) for archiving and preservation. This mandatory submission ensures that copies of articles published in IJTMRPH are preserved in perpetuity by the LOC.

Definition: Conflict of interest (COI) exists when there is a divergence between an individual's private interests (competing interests) and his or her responsibilities to scientific and publishing activities such that a reasonable observer might perceive the individual's behavior or judgment as motivated by considerations of the individual's competing interests. COI in biomedical publishing affects everyone with a stake in research integrity including journals, research/academic institutions, funding agencies, the popular media, and members of the public.

Forms of COI: COI may exist in numerous forms including financial ties, academic commitments, personal relationships, political or religious beliefs, and institutional affiliations. In managing COI, IJMA complies with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (ICMJE Recommendations), formerly known as The Uniform Requirements. All authors will be required to declare their COI, if any, during the manuscript submission. Reviewers are asked to declare their COI after they accept to review a manuscript. Editors should also declare their COI during the handling of a manuscript. IIJMA shall publish these declarations, or lack thereof, in the final publication.

Management of COI: The management of COI depends on disclosure because it is not possible to routinely monitor or investigate whether competing interests are present. COI disclosed by authors will be reviewed by the editorial leadership and appropriate action will be taken. As elucidated in our peer-review process, reviewers and Editors with COI will be excluded from the process of review of the manuscript that they present with COI. If competing interests surface from other sources after a manuscript is submitted or published, IJMA leadership will investigate allegations of COI, and depending on their nature, appropriate actions will be taken. If a manuscript has been published and COI surfaces later, the journal will publish the results of the investigation as a correction to the article and ask the author(s) to explain, in a published letter, why the COI was not revealed earlier during the submission and review process.

This journal follows the ICMJE’s data sharing statement policy which is detailed in an editorial (see Updates and Editorials).

According to ICMJE, manuscripts submitted to ICMJE journals that report the results of clinical trials must contain a data sharing statement as described below. In addition, clinical trials that begin enrolling participants on or after 1 January 2019 must include a data sharing plan in the trial's registration. The ICMJE's policy regarding trial registration is explained in detail here. If the data sharing plan changes after registration this should be reflected in the statement submitted and published with the manuscript, and updated in the registry record.

Data sharing statements must indicate the following:

• Whether individual de-identified participant data (including data dictionaries) will be shared (“undecided” is not an acceptable answer);
• What data, in particular, will be shared;
• Whether additional, related documents will be available (e.g., study protocol, statistical analysis plan, etc.);
• When the data will become available and for how long;
• By what access criteria data will be shared (including with whom, for what types of analyses, and by what mechanism).

The data sharing statement must be included in the Ethical Consideration section of your manuscript as Data Sharing Statement.

If you will not be sharing your data, you should insert the following statement in the Ethical Consideration section of your manuscript.

Data Sharing Statement: Deidentified individual participant data will not be made available.

Illustrative examples of data sharing statements that would meet these requirements are provided in the ICMJE table which is available on the committee’s website.
Here is an example of such a statement:
Data Sharing Statement: Deidentified individual participant data (including data dictionaries) will be made available, in addition, to study protocols, the statistical analysis plan, and the informed consent form. The data will be made available upon publication to researchers who provide a methodologically sound proposal for use in achieving the goals of the approved proposal. Proposals should be submitted to the corresponding author via email to the corresponding author.