Author Guidelines

AUTHOR GUIDELINES

The Journal of Biomedical Sciences and Health (JBSH) publishes scholarly work in biomedical sciences and health. Authors should follow these instructions together with the journal's Publication Ethics and Editorial Policies, Peer Review Process, and Open Access Policy.

Scope and Focus

JBSH considers manuscripts in biomedical and health-related fields, including medical sciences, pharmacology and traditional herbs, biology and life sciences, genetics and molecular biology, bioinformatics and biotechnology, immunology, anatomy and physiology, tropical infection and parasitology, and clinical health sciences.

Types of Manuscripts

  1. Original Research Article — original empirical biomedical or health research; maximum 6,000 words excluding abstract, references, tables, and figure legends.
  2. Systematic Review — systematic evidence synthesis, with or without meta-analysis; maximum 8,000 words. Authors should follow PRISMA or another appropriate evidence-synthesis reporting guideline.
  3. Narrative Review — critical, structured synthesis of a clearly defined biomedical or health topic; maximum 8,000 words.
  4. Case Report — clinically or scientifically informative individual or small series of cases; maximum 4,000 words. Authors should follow the CARE guideline and must obtain consent for publication when an individual could be identifiable.

Language and File Format

  • Language: English, written clearly and professionally.
  • File format: Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx).
  • Paper size: A4.
  • Font: Times New Roman, 12 pt unless the current journal template specifies otherwise.
  • Line spacing: double-spaced unless the current journal template specifies otherwise.
  • Margins: approximately 2.5 cm.
  • Pages should be numbered consecutively.

Manuscript Structure

Title Page

  • Concise and informative title, preferably no more than 20 words.
  • Full author names without academic titles or degrees.
  • Department/institution, city, and country for each author.
  • Corresponding author's name and valid email address.
  • ORCID iD is strongly encouraged for all authors.

Abstract and Keywords

Original Research Articles should normally use a structured abstract of approximately 150–250 words containing Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. Review articles and Case Reports may use an abstract structure appropriate to the article type. Provide 3–5 relevant keywords.

Main Text

Original Research Articles should normally contain Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. Review articles should use a transparent structure appropriate to the review method. Case Reports should include sufficient clinical/scientific context, case information, relevant investigations/interventions, outcomes, discussion, and the required consent statement.

Declarations

Where applicable, manuscripts should include the following statements near the end of the manuscript:

  • Ethics approval and, where applicable, informed consent to participate.
  • Consent for publication for identifiable case material.
  • Competing interests.
  • Funding.
  • Author contributions; JBSH encourages the CRediT taxonomy.
  • Data Availability Statement.
  • Acknowledgments.
  • Disclosure of material use of generative AI or automated tools, when relevant.

Research Ethics and Reporting

Research involving humans must state the approving or exempting ethics committee and the approval/reference number where applicable. Informed consent must be obtained when required. Identifiable personal information or images may be published only when scientifically necessary and supported by explicit consent for publication. Animal research must state compliance with relevant institutional and national standards and appropriate ethical approval.

Authors should use reporting guidelines appropriate to the study design, for example CONSORT for randomized trials, STROBE for observational studies, PRISMA for systematic reviews, ARRIVE for animal research, and CARE for case reports.

Study-Specific Reporting

  • Randomized trials: describe sequence generation, allocation concealment, blinding, sample-size rationale, participant flow, prespecified outcomes, and harms. Give the trial registry, registration number and registration date where applicable; disclose and explain retrospective registration or non-registration.
  • Observational research: report the sampling frame, eligibility, sample-size rationale, confounders, missing-data handling, and limitations of causal interpretation.
  • Laboratory and animal research: report biological and technical replicates separately, controls, reagent and instrument identification, calibration where relevant, and reproducible protocols.
  • Systematic reviews: provide the full reproducible search strategy for every source, dates searched, eligibility criteria, selection process, flow diagram, study-level extraction, risk-of-bias methods and results, and protocol registration or an explanation of its absence. Identify reviewers and their contributions transparently in the appropriate declarations.
  • Narrative reviews: explain the literature-selection approach, identify the review contribution, and distinguish established evidence from hypotheses.
  • Statistics: define the unit of analysis and report group sizes, variability, effect estimates and confidence intervals where appropriate, exact p-values, assumptions, and limitations. Do not replace missing observations with invented or predicted research results.

Case Report Requirements

  • Follow the CARE reporting guideline where applicable.
  • Protect patient anonymity and remove unnecessary identifying information.
  • State clearly that informed consent for publication was obtained when the patient could be identifiable.
  • If consent is not required under an applicable institutional policy, explain the basis in the manuscript.
  • Authors remain responsible for obtaining permission for third-party images or records.

Tables and Figures

  • Number tables and figures consecutively in the order cited.
  • Provide a clear title above each table and a clear legend below each figure.
  • All tables and figures must be cited in the main text.
  • Avoid duplicating the same data in text, tables, and figures.
  • Provide publication-quality figures; 300 dpi or higher is recommended for raster images.
  • Acceptable common image formats include PNG, JPEG, and TIFF.

References

JBSH uses Vancouver style. References should be numbered in the order of first citation and should contain accurate bibliographic information, including DOI where available. Authors are responsible for checking every reference against the original source. The reference list should emphasize relevant and current peer-reviewed literature without artificial citation inflation or citation manipulation.

Originality and Similarity Screening

Submitted work must be original and must not be simultaneously under consideration by another journal. Manuscripts may be screened with similarity-detection software. Similarity percentages are interpreted editorially; a numerical score alone does not establish plagiarism or misconduct. Duplicate publication, unattributed copying, citation manipulation, fabrication, and falsification are not permitted.

Authorship and Contributions

All listed authors must have made substantial scholarly contributions, approved the submitted version, and agreed to be accountable for the work. Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged. Changes to authorship after submission require a written explanation and agreement from all affected authors.

Competing Interests and Funding

Authors must disclose relevant financial and non-financial competing interests. If none exist, authors should state that no competing interests are declared. All material sources of funding or support should be identified.

Data Availability

Manuscripts should include a Data Availability Statement explaining where supporting data may be accessed or describing legitimate ethical, legal, privacy, or contractual restrictions. Non-sensitive data, code, protocols, and other reproducibility materials should be deposited in a trustworthy repository where reasonably possible.

Generative AI and Automated Tools

Artificial intelligence tools cannot be authors. Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, citations, confidentiality, and integrity of submitted work. Material use of generative AI for text, images, analysis, coding, or other scholarly tasks should be transparently disclosed when relevant. Disclosures must identify the tool and version where known, the purpose and extent of use, and how outputs were verified. AI-generated content must not be used to fabricate data or citations. Peer reviewers must not use AI to perform manuscript review; editor use is restricted as set out in the Publication Ethics policy.

Submission and Peer Review

  1. Submit the manuscript and required declarations through the JBSH online submission system.
  2. The editorial office performs an initial screening for scope, completeness, reporting quality, ethics, and potential text overlap.
  3. Manuscripts that proceed to peer review are assessed under the journal's double-blind process by at least two independent reviewers with relevant expertise.
  4. Authors should respond point by point when revision is requested and identify changes clearly.
  5. The final decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief or an appropriately delegated independent editor. An editor who is an author or has another relevant conflict is excluded from handling and deciding that manuscript.

Revision Package and Response to Reviewers

For revision requests issued from 4 October 2026 onward, submit the following through the existing OJS submission:

  1. A clean revised manuscript and a marked copy showing the changes, with matching version labels and dates.
  2. A response document addressing every editor and reviewer comment separately. Use the reviewer number supplied by the editor; do not seek or disclose reviewer identities.
  3. For each comment, reproduce the comment, give the author response, describe the actual change, and specify the revised page, section, table or figure. Explain disagreements with evidence; do not mark a change as completed when it was not made.
  4. Any updated reporting checklist, analysis output or supplementary material needed to support the changes. Explain changes to the study design description, outcomes, analysis or conclusions using the original protocol and data.

Response Format

Comment ID: Reviewer 1, Comment 1
Reviewer/editor comment: [Insert the supplied comment.]
Author response: [Explain the response and supporting evidence.]
Change made: [Quote or describe the actual change, or explain why no change was made.]
Location in revised manuscript: [Page, section, paragraph, table or figure.]
Supporting file: [File name/version, if applicable.]

Authors must preserve the original research record. Missing results, approvals, randomization procedures, instrument details or reviewer comments must not be invented. A revision remains subject to assessment by the handling editor and, where needed, the reviewers.

Proof Approval and Metadata Accuracy

Before publication, authors must check the final proof against the accepted manuscript and verify all names, affiliations, identifiers, abstract, keywords, tables, figures, statistical values, references and DOI links. Remove tracked changes, comments, template instructions, and unresolved editorial prompts. Each reference in OJS metadata must match the final published PDF. Editorial approval and author proof approval must be recorded in OJS before the article is released.

Scientific corrections after publication follow the journal correction policy. Publication dates, review histories, affiliations and research results must not be changed merely to improve accreditation eligibility.

Copyright and Licensing

Authors retain copyright in their work. JBSH does not require transfer of copyright to the journal. Published articles are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license unless a clearly identified third-party item states otherwise.

CC BY 4.0 permits sharing and adaptation, including commercial reuse, provided appropriate credit is given, a link to the license is provided, and changes are indicated. See the Open Access Policy and CC BY 4.0 license.

Publication Fees

JBSH charges no fees at any stage from submission through publication. There is no submission fee, editorial processing fee, article processing charge (APC), page charge, colour/figure charge, language-editing charge, membership charge, or withdrawal fee. See the Article Processing Charges and Other Author Fees policy.

Required Submission Materials

  • Manuscript file in an accepted editable format.
  • Cover letter, when requested by the journal.
  • Required ethics, consent, competing-interest, funding, authorship/contribution, and data-availability declarations.
  • High-quality figure files when figures are included.
  • Any reporting-guideline checklist required for the study/article type.

JBSH does not require authors to transfer copyright. Any author declaration or license agreement must be consistent with author-retained copyright and CC BY 4.0.

Contact

JBSH Editorial Office
Biomedical Sciences Study Program, Faculty of Nursing and Health
Universitas Karya Husada Semarang
Jl. R. Soekanto No. 46, Sambiroto, Tembalang, Semarang 50276, Central Java, Indonesia
Email: jbsh@unkaha.ac.id
Journal website: https://ejournal.unkaha.ac.id/index.php/jbsh

These strengthened reporting and proof requirements apply to submissions and editorial processing from 3 October 2026 onward. Earlier article formats may differ; substantive errors are handled through the correction policy rather than silent rewriting.

Last updated: 4 October 2026.