The Indian Journal of Medical Ethics aims to encourage discussion on health care ethics from the perspective of India, South Asia and the developing world.  The journal's guidelines for authors are based on the ICMJE guidelines for authorship  (www.icmje.org).

General principles
We welcome original and thoughtful submissions examining issues of health care ethics in India and other developing countries.

We frown upon unethical practices such as plagiarism, duplicate publication, 'salami' publication, and efforts to influence the review process with practices such as gifting authorship, inappropriate acknowledgements and inappropriate references.  Further, authors must respect patients' right to privacy.

IJME may carry articles critical of health care professionals while ensuring that they are given a chance to respond to such articles.  IJME  will publish anonymous submissions under very specific circumstances: the article must make an important point about a problem in the medical profession, and it must not identify any particular person. The decision to publish such articles will be reviewed by at least three editors, and may include a legal consultation.

Articles are reviewed initially by one of the editors and may also be reviewed by external, non-journal based referees. Articles may be blinded for the author's name to reviewers, and reviewers will remain anonymous to the author. We aim to review papers within a month of submission. All final decisions on publication are made by the editor. Commissioned articles will also be subject to review.

All reviewers - both journal editors and external peer reviewers -- will be expected to respect the confidentiality of submissions, and not to use knowledge of the submission, before publication, for personal gain. They must also state any competing interests that might influence their comments. Reviewers will be expected to destroy copies of submitted manuscripts.

Reviewers are asked to examine a submission and answer questions such as the following: Does it address issues relevant to the Indian medical scene? Is it topical?  Is the issue discussed from another country's/culture perspective? Will it influence practice?  Is the information new? Is the interpretation warranted? Does it make loose generalizations? Are there any major omissions?  

Reviewers' comments will be sent to reviewers of the same manuscript and reviewers may be informed of the editor's decision.

Articles accepted for publication may be edited for language, clarity and length. Authors will be sent their edited manuscript, by email, for pre-publication approval.

Copyright for all articles published in IJME rests with IJME unless specifically stated otherwise.

Submission categories
Submissions are welcome for the following sections:

• Articles on ethical aspects of clinical practice, research and health policy, including from the international perspective;
• Research ethics;
• Discussion articles around a pre-planned theme;
• Research and clinical case studies;
• Perspectives or experiences for the  section "Medical students speak"
• Reports and Comments,
• Letters from 'here and there',
• Articles on medicine and law,
• Book, film and other media reviews, and 
• Selected summaries.

Well-written and thoughtful personal anecdotes that have a bearing on health care ethics may be considered for publication as a Comment.  Material is also welcome for the sections "From the press" and "From other journals".  Editorials are written by members of the editorial boards or commissioned, as are case study responses.

Responses to published articles can help promote further debate on the issues discussed in the journal. Substantial comments will be considered for the Response section or may presented with other comments as part of a "Controversy". Shorter letters will be considered for the correspondence section. 

Submission components
The covering letter accompanying a submission must include the following information:

• Title of the article
• Names, affiliations, mailing addresses, and telephone numbers and of all authors, and the email address of the corresponding author
• A statement of any sponsorship or relevant competing interests, financial or otherwise (this may be published in the journal or on the website). 
• If the manuscript is authored by more than one person, a statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, with details of the contributions made by the various authors. All authors must send a statement of authorship to the journal.  We prefer that a scanned copy of the signed letter be sent by email.
• A statement of any submissions of very similar work, with references if to the previous submission if applicable.
• Written consent for the use of patient information: references to patient information should not contain any identifying information.
• Non-structured abstracts of 100-150 words are required for articles and are also encouraged for other sections. Abstracts must be an accurate reflection of the article's contents.
• Please acknowledge contributions made by others to your manuscript, but only if this contribution is significant, and not significant enough to warrant co-authorship. Please read the ICMJE guidelines (www.icmje.org) for any clarifications on this issue.

Email submission is preferred. Please send editorial correspondence to: sandhya_srinivasan@vsnl.com . Emailed submissions will be acknowledged by email, usually within 72 hours of receipt.

Style
IJME's readership includes people from different specialties as well as non-medical backgrounds. Please write in a clear and direct style.  Write in the active voice, avoid long sentences and make minimum use of abbreviations.  

Word count
Most articles published in the journal have a word count of between 1,600 and 2,400 words inclusive of references. Submission to the following sections should have a maximum word count of 850: reviews, letters from here and there, and correspondence. While we encourage short contributions, longer submissions are also considered on occasion.

References
Please limit the number of references to those essential to justify the point being made.  Please use internet-based references and personal communications with care. Please get permission from the source to cite personal communications, and include them in brackets in the text, with details of the date if possible. Authors may be asked to provide evidence of permission to cite personal communications.

References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text. They should appear within parentheses in the text, and not in superscript, with the full list of references listed at the end of the article. The journal follows the ICMJE's Uniform Requirements for references (please see: www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html ).  Please format the references accordingly. Please verify references against the original documents before submitting the article. The author is responsible for the accuracy of the references. Papers with incomplete references or those not given in the ICMJE format are likely to returned to the authors for correction before being sent for review.
 
Tables and figures -- which enhance understanding of a paper -- are welcome.