Structure of Manuscripts

Authors are referred to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. Submitted manuscripts should be arranged in the order: Title page, Abstract, Keywords, Main text, Acknowledgments, Declaration of conflict of interest, References, Table(s) with caption(s) and Figure(s) with caption(s).

Abstract: The total word count should not exceed 300. It should be structured into Background and Purpose (previous information and the purpose of the present study); Methods (a description of the salient aspects of the methods used in the study); Results (findings from the study as they flow from the methods); Conclusion (the inference(s) that can be made from the study).

Keywords: These should be limited to five words that can help in indexing. The  name of plant or natural medicine should not be included in the keywords.

Main text: This should be divided into sections consisting of Introduction; Materials and Methods; Results; Discussion; Conclusion.

General formatting

Word count: Word count for title of manuscripts should not exceed twenty-five. There is no limit to the number of words for the main text but this should be indicated during submission.

Font type and size: Manuscripts should be prepared in Times New Roman font size 12.

Headings and subheads: Major heading should be in uppercase and boldfaced (e.g., MATERIALS AND METHODS) while subheads should be in boldface lower case but the first letters of keywords should be capitalized (e.g., Assay of Antioxidant Enzymes).

Paragraphs: They should not be indented but separated by line space.

Margins and line spacing: The top, bottom, right and left margins of pages should be 1.5 cm. Line spacing should be 1.5.

Pagination: Pages of manuscripts should be numbered using Arabic numerals and should in all cases be at the bottom centre.

Style Guidelines

General

  1. The spellings should conform to the British-type throughout the manuscript.
  2. Date of collection of natural product raw materials, the location including the geo-coordinates if possible should be indicated in the manuscript. Authors must ensure that the binomial (scientific name) has been confirmed by qualified persons and crossed-checked with other sources. Web databases such as International Plant name Index (IPNI) and W3Tropicos may be consulted for the correct scientific names of plants. The Latin binomial and the family name should be stated at first mention in the abstract and the text. The person that helped in the identification of the material should be indicated as well as the herbarium, aquarium or any such place where materials have been deposited for reference. The reference number of the specimen should also be indicated in the manuscript.
  3. All animal and human studies must have been approved by the relevant institutional ethical committee and evidence must be provided in the form of reference number of the letter of approval. In some situations, editors may require further proof of ethical approval such as pre-registration of the trial before patient enrolment.

Tables and Figures

  1. Tables and figures should be numbered serially e.g. Table 1, Figure 2.
  2. The title of each table should be at its top with clear and concise footnotes included as much as possible.
  3. The title of every figure should be at the bottom of the figure and should be followed immediately with clear and concise legend.
  4. The titles of tables and figures should be in single line spacing.
  5. Photographs and micrographs should be regarded as figures and must be of high resolution.

Use of Symbols and Abbreviations

  1. A list of abbreviations used in the manuscript should be submitted.
  2. Probability value should be written in the form P < 0.001.
  3. A space should be placed between a value and its unit (e.g. 12 mg/mL; 10 mM, 3000 rpm) unless for degrees (e.g. 37oC) and percentages (e.g. 17%).
  4. A space should not be left between values and the plus/minus symbol (e.g. 23.2±1.7).
  5. Sentences should never be started with values written in figures e.g. “Acetate buffer (0.1 mL) was pipetted into a tube” instead of “0.1 mL of acetate buffer was pipetted into a tube”.
  6. In all cases, SI units should be used.

References

  1. For in-text reference citation, “et al” should be written in italics and in the forms “… described by Thompson et al. (1998)” and “…a modification of a previously reported method (Akanmu et al., 2012).”
  2. The names of all the authors in a cited reference should be written out except if they are more than ten so that after the first ten names, they are followed by et al.
  3. Journal name, title of books, conference proceedings, conferences and theses should all be written in full and italicized.
  4. The format for citing references should be:
  • Journal article

Ogawa A, Johnson JH, Ohneda M, McAllister CT, Inman L, Alam T, Unger RH (1992). Roles of insulin resistance and beta-cell dysfunction in dexamethasone-induced diabetes. Journal of Clinical Investigations 90(2):497-504.

Marshall JM (1973). Effects of cathecolamines on the smooth muscle of the female reproductive tract. Annual Reviews of Pharmacology 13:19-32.

  • Chapter in an edited book

Ebeigbe AB, Arishe OO (2019). Methods in vascular smooth muscle research. In: Ozolua RI, Bafor EE (eds). A handbook of Techniques in Experimental Pharmacology, 1st edn, Mindex Publishing Co., Benin City. Pp 133-145.

  • Book, with personal author(s)

Vogel HG, Vogel WH, Scholkens BA (2002). Drug discovery and evaluation: Pharmacological assay, 2nd edn, Springer Verlag, Germany. Pp 430-431.

Ringsven MK, Bond D (1996). Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses, 2nd edn, Delmar Publishers, New York. Pp 123-125.

  • Book, Organization as author and publisher

UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (1974). Petroleum in the 1970s: Report of the ad hoc panel on projections of demand and supply of crude petroleum and products. New York: UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

  • Article in electronic form

WHO (2019b). The "World malaria report 2019" at a glance. Available at https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/world-malaria-report-2019. Accessed 16 Sepember, 2020.

  • Conference Proceeding

Kimura J, Shibaski (1996). Recent advances in clinical neurobiology. Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of Clinical Neurophysiology, October 15-19, 1995, Kyoto Japan. Elsevier, Amsterdam.

  • Thesis

Adewole A (2018). Effectiveness of some antihypertensive medications and their correlation with nitric oxide and lipid levels among newly diagnosed hypertensives in Benin City, Nigeria. M.Sc thesis, University of Benin, Benin City. Pp 78-80.