Submissions

Author Guidelines

Editorial Policy

Tropical Journal of Phytochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences publishes original research articles, review articles and scientific commentaries on all aspects of pharmaceutical sciences depending on their conceptual novelty and scientific quality. The journal welcomes articles in this multidisciplinary field, with a focus on topics relevant for drug action, drug discovery and development, conventional and emerging fields related to pharmaceutical sciences. Articles, which cannot be associated with pharmaceutical issues in any way, might be returned to authors without processing. Scientific commentaries and review articles are generally evaluated by invitation or assent of the Editors. Proceedings of scientific meetings may also be published as special issues or supplements to the Journal, upon decision by the editors.

Tropical Journal of Phytochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences publication ethics and publication malpractice statement is mainly based on the Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2011). Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Editors' responsibilities: Publication decisions on manuscripts

The editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which of the papers submitted to the journal will be published. The editor will evaluate manuscripts without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy. The decision will be based on the paper’s importance, originality and clarity, and the study’s validity and its relevance to the journal's scope. Current legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism should also be considered.

Confidentiality of information

The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted paper will not be used by the editor or the members of the editorial board for their own research purposes without the author's explicit written consent.

Reviewers' responsibilities: Contribution to editorial decisions

The peer-reviewing process assists the editor and the editorial board in making editorial decisions and may also serve the author in improving the paper.

Promptness

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and withdraw from the review process.

Confidentiality of information

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be disclosed to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

Standards of objectivity and conduct

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Acknowledgement of Reference sources

Reviewers should identify cases in which relevant published work referred to in the paper has not been cited in the reference section. The reviewer should be aware of any potential  conflicts of interest (financial, institutional, collaborative or other  relationships between the reviewer and author) and to alert the editor to  these, if necessary withdrawing their services for that manuscript. For research grants, the name of the funding agency and the grant number may be specified, as appropriate.

Disclosure and conflict of interest

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the papers.

Authors' duties: Reporting standards

Authors of original research reports should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data access and retention

Authors could be asked to provide the raw data of their study together with the paper for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available if practicable. In any event, authors should ensure accessibility of such data to other competent professionals for at least ten years after publication (preferably via an institutional or subject-based data repository or other data center), provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and legal rights concerning proprietary data do not preclude their release.

Originality, plagiarism and acknowledgement of sources

Authors will submit only entirely original works, and will appropriately cite or quote the work and/or words of others. Publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work should also be cited.

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication

In general, papers describing essentially the same research should not be published in more than one journal. Submitting the same paper to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Manuscripts which have been published as copyrighted material elsewhere cannot be submitted. In addition, manuscripts under review by the journal should not be resubmitted to copyrighted publications. However, by submitting a manuscript, the author(s) retain the rights to the published material. In case of publication they permit the use of their work under a CC-BY license [creativecommons.org], which allows others to copy, distribute and transmit the work as well as to adapt the work and to make commercial use of it.

Authorship of the paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors.

The corresponding author ensures that all contributing co-authors and no uninvolved persons are included in the author list. The corresponding author will also verify that all co-authors have approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

All authors should include a statement disclosing any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that may be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and to cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper in form of an erratum.

References

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). (2011, March 7). Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. 

Human and Animal Rights Policy

Authors should ensure that any studies  involving human or animal subjects conform to national, local and institutional  laws and requirements and confirm that approval has been sought and obtained  where appropriate. Authors should obtain express permission from human  subjects and respect their privacy. Unless the authors have written permission from the patient (or, where applicable, the next of kin), the personal details of any patient included in any part of the article and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and visual elements) must be removed before submission.

The journal ascertains that the research studies conducted abide by ethical as well as human and animal rights policies. Presentation of approval of Independent Ethics Committee (IEC) or Institutional Review Board (IRB) in case of ethical clearance for clinical studies and Institutional animal ethics committee (IAEC) for animal studies is mandatory.

In particular, the research studies involving human subjects or human data must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must comply with ethics guidelines of appropriate independent or institutional or national ethics committee. The information on this has to be stated clearly in the manuscript.

If the study involves experiments on animals, the author/s should clearly state that the experimental study protocol has been approved by the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC) constituted as per the guidelines laid by the committee for the purpose of control and supervision of experiments on Animals.

The authors must submit a statement detailing the name of the ethics committee and the reference number wherever required for the final acceptance and publication of the manuscript.

Use of animals

When reporting experiments on animals,  authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guides for the  care and use of laboratory animals were followed as in "Guide for the Care  and Use of Laboratory Animals" (www.nap.edu/ catalog/5140.html). The authors must mention  in the methods section of the manuscript that they had performed the study in  accordance with above-mentioned rules and, in the case of humans, emphasize  that they had received informed consent from the participants.

Informed Consent

If the research includes any study on humans, it must be stated that prior consent has been taken from the participant. Editors may request the authors to provide the documentation of the formal review and recommendation from the institutional review board or ethics committee responsible for oversight of the study.

Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest arises when the author, reviewer, or editor has any financial or personal interests that may influence the final decision-making process. The journal insists on submission to declare about the conflict of interest if any by authors. The author is expected to disclose this before publishing any article. The author should declare that the content submitted to the journal or the similar content under his/her authorship is not submitted for consideration or published elsewhere.

Corrections and Retractions

The journal follows a stringent policy against the publication of plagiarised or fraudulent research data in order to maintain the quality of the articles published. The journal encourages the identification of unintended mistakes and subsequent rectification in the form of published erratum in the next issue of the journal along with the page number and the citation of the original article.

In cases where the author fails to justify the ethical policies adhered during the research, detection of plagiarism or any other scientific misconduct the journal reserves the right to retract the article. In such cases it publishes the retraction notice in the next issue of the journal. The retracted articles are not considered as part of scientific literature anymore.

Clinical Trial Registration

Studies involving clinical trials should comply with the ICMJE guidelines. The registration of all clinical trials should be reported in manuscripts submitted to Tropical Journal of Phytochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The trial registration number (TRN) and date of registration should be included as the last line of the manuscript abstract.

Originality and Plagiarism    

Authors should confirm that all the work in the  submitted manuscript is original and to acknowledge and cite content reproduced  from other sources. The authors should obtain the written consent of the copyright-holder to reproduce any content (pictures, schemes, figures etc) from other sources (journals, books); and the authors should provide the editor with the permission.

To verify originality, your article will be checked by the plagiarism detection software iThenticate.

Reporting standards and Data Access and Retention    

Authors should maintain accurate records of  data associated with their submitted manuscript, and to supply or provide  access to these data, on reasonable request. Where appropriate and where allowed by employer, funding body and others who might have an interest, to deposit data in a suitable repository or storage location, for sharing and further use by others.

Fundamental errors in published works

Authors should notify promptly the journal editor or publisher if a significant error in their publication is identified. To cooperate with the editor and publisher to publish an erratum, addendum,  corrigendum notice, or to retract the paper, where this is deemed necessary.

Authors' Responsibilities

The  corresponding (submitting) author is solely responsible for communicating with  the journal and with managing communication between coauthors. Before  submission, the corresponding author ensures that all authors are included in  the author list, its order has been agreed by all authors, and that all authors  are aware that the paper was submitted. The responsibility for all aspects of manuscript preparation rests with the authors. Extensive changes or rewriting of the manuscript is not the responsibility of the Editors.

The journal also allows up to two co-corresponding authors to be specified as having contributed equally to the work or having jointly supervised the work. Each author is required to declare his or her individual contribution to the article: all authors must have materially participated in the research and/or article preparation, so roles for all authors should be described. The statement that all authors have approved the final article should be true and included in the disclosure.

The corresponding author is  welcome to suggest suitable independent reviewers when he/she submit his/her  manuscript, but the suggestion may not be followed by the journal.

Reviewers

All reviewers' comments must be responded to, and suggested changes be made. The author should detail the changes made in response to the referees' comments and suggestions in an accompanying letter. If the author disagrees with some changes, the reason, supported by data, should be given.

The editors may refuse to publish manuscripts from authors who persistently ignore referees' comments. A revised manuscript should be received by the editorial office no later than 2 months after the editorial decision was sent to the author(s); otherwise it will be processed as a new manuscript.

Galley proof preparation

After acceptance, the proof is  sent to the corresponding author, who circulates it to all coauthors and deals  with the journal on their behalf; the journal will not necessarily correct  errors after publication if they result from errors that were present on a  proof that was not shown to coauthors before publication. The corresponding  author is responsible for the accuracy of all content in the proof, in  particular that names of coauthors are present and correctly spelled, and that  addresses and affiliations are current. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to the editor-in-chief. Authors should check submitting the revised and corrected galley proof. Proofreading is solely the responsibility of the corresponding author.

Acknowledgement of Sources and Disclosure, Conflicts of Interest    

Authors should declare any potential conflicts of interest (e.g. where  the author has a competing interest (real or apparent) that could be considered  or viewed as exerting an undue influence on his or her duties at any stage  during the publication process).