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Archives of Pharmaceutical Sciences- Ain Shams University (APS-ASU)

I.EHICS IN PUBLISHING

II.GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

III. PUBLICATION CHARGES

 

I. Ethics in Publishing 

Key author responsibilities 

Authorship:

1. Report only real, un-fabricated data.
2. Declare any conflicts of interest.
3. Submit to one journal at a time. 

Avoid:

1. Fabrication: making up research data.
2. Falsification: manipulation of existing research data.
3. Plagiarism: previous work is taken and passed off as one's own.
4. Multiple publications of the same work, never submit your manuscript to more than one journal at a time. 

Important note: all submitted manuscripts are checked for plagiarism. 

 

The following papers will not be accepted for publication:

• Studies on people not approved by an accredited Ethics Committee with approval number or without written informed consent from the subject or legal guardian.
• Studies on animals not approved by an accredited Ethics with the approval number and Animal Care Committee.
• Manuscripts that report preliminary results or only confirm previously reported results.

 

AI use by authors

Authors should not list a generative AI technology as a co-author or author of any submitted manuscript. Generative AI technologies cannot be held accountable for all aspects of a manuscript and consequently do not meet the criteria required for authorship.

If the author of a submitted manuscript has used written or visual content produced by or edited using a generative AI technology, this use must follow all journal guidelines and policies. Specifically, the author is responsible for checking the factual accuracy of any content created by the generative AI technology. Authors must also check that any written or visual content produced by or edited using a generative AI technology is free from plagiarism.

If the author of a submitted manuscript has used written or visual content produced by or edited using a generative AI technology, such use must be acknowledged in the acknowledgements section of the manuscript and the methods section if applicable.

 

II. Guide for Authors

• Language:

APS ASU requires manuscripts submitted to meet international English language standards to be considered for publication. Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). To avoid unnecessary errors, you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' functions of your word processor.

• Article types

Original research

Review Article

Mini review

Editorial

Case study 

 

• Files to be submitted by author:

1. Title page
2. Manuscript main file (file without author names)
3. Figures files
4. Copyright transfer agreement download the file (Copyright transfer agreement) sign and upload it on the online submission system) 

-While submitting your paper you will be asked for three potential reviewers. Indicating three reviewers is mandatory. 

 

1. Title page

         The title page should contain the following information:

1. Title of the article. Use a concise and informative title. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible. It should not exceed two printed lines
2. Name(s) of all author(s) with affliation(s). Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the official e-mail address of each author. Also include the Name, complete mailing address, including zip code, telephone number, fax number and e-mail of author to whom correspondence should be sent.

•   Correspondance Indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. The corresponding author(s) should be marked with an asterisk in the author list. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.

3. Declarations

Declarations should be included in the title page and NOT in the main manuscript. It should include the following:

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Authors should mention not applicable if not present

Consent to publish 

Authors should mention “not applicable” if not present

Availability of data and materials

The authors should mention the data generated or analyzed during this study whether all are included in the main manuscript and/or in the additional supporting file or specific data repository (if present).

Competing interests

The authors should declare if any competing interest exists or they declare that have no competing interests

Funding Statement

The authors should declare if any funding was obtained from any agency or any institutional support (if present)

or Mention (No funding source was received) if this was unavailable and the article is self-funded by the authors.

Authors’ contributions

All authors that contributed to the work presented in this paper should be declared and the role and contribution of each author should be mentioned.

Examples of such statement:

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [full name], [full name] and [full name]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [full name] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Acknowledgments

Authors should acknowledge any agency, institution, department or any members for their support and providing facilities whenever needed. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proofreading the article, etc.).

 

2. Manuscript main file (without author names)

This should include the manuscript title, abstract, keywords, introduction, material, and methods; Results, Discussion, References. (see below)

• The text of a manuscript can only be accepted as a Microsoft Word file created with MS Word as a "doc" or "docx" (Times new roman; size 14 for Headings and 12 for text). This file also will include the tables while the figures are uploaded separately.
• The entire document should be single-spaced and must contain page and line numbers in order to facilitate the review process

Title: Use a concise and informative title. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible. It should not exceed two printed lines. 

 Abstract

A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results, and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself. 250 words maximum

Graphical abstract: Although a graphical abstract is optional, its use is encouraged as it draws more attention to the online article. The graphical abstract should summarize the contents of the article in a concise, pictorial form designed to capture the attention of a wide readership.

Keywords Immediately after the abstract, provide 5-7 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. The keywords should be separated by; and will be used for indexing purposes.

Abbreviations Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed after the keywords. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article. 

 

Original research

Subdivision - numbered sections: divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections.

Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2,), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to 'the text'. Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its separate line. Capitalize each word in titles. 

Organizing the manuscript:

1. Introduction
2. Material and methods (including Statistical analysis if available)
3. Results
4. Discussion
5. References

NOTE: 

• Tables including their titles are inserted into their suitable places within the main manuscript file
• Figure Titles and Legends are placed after the references. However, figures are uploaded separately and submitted as JPEG or TIFF formats with high resolution (600 dpi). 

 

Introduction

State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results. 

Materials and methods

Provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described. Ethics approval must be mentioned (including committee number and date) for any clinical or animal studies. 

Theory/calculation

A Theory section should extend, not repeat, the background to the article already dealt with in the Introduction and lay the foundation for further work. In contrast, the calculation section represents a practical development on a theoretical basis. 

Statistics

Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Avoid relying solely on statistical hypothesis testing, such as the use of P values, which fails to convey important information about effect size. References for the design of the study and statistical methods should be to standard works when possible (with pages stated). Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Specify the name, version, and country of the user computer software. 

Results

The results should be clear and concise. 

Discussion

This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them as compared to relevant updated references available. A combined Results and Discussion section will be accepted. Avoid extensive and/or self-citations of published literature. 

Limitations (if any)

To ensure that you provide an accurate context for your work and give readers sufficient information to properly evaluate the relevance and impact of your results, they must be included. Indicate your limitations. 

Conclusions

The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section. 

Recommendations

Tell the reader about prospects and implications in one or two sentences that arise either from findings or from avoiding limitations. 

Appendices

If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. Similarly, for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc. 

Citation in text

Cite references in the text by number(s) in square brackets [ ] in line with the text. The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given..Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Number of references

No. of references in research article should not exceed 50 and review articles not more than 90 references. At least 35-40% of the total number of references must be within the last 4-5 years of the time of submission. 

Web references

As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

Reference style

The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the "List of Journals Indexed" in Index Medicus (www.nlm.nih.gov). List all authors, for more than 6 authors the first 6 should be listed followed by "et al."

The author should Insert DOI (if available) at the end of each reference in the reference section.

List

Number the references in the list in the order in which they appear in the text.

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:

1. Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA. The art of writing a scientific article. J Sci Commun 2000; 163:51–9.

Reference to a book:

2. Strunk Jr W, White EB. The elements of style. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan; 1979.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:

3. Mettam GR, Adams LB. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones BS, Smith RZ, editors. Introduction to the electronic age. New York: E-Publishing Inc; 1999, p. 281–304. 

Tables

• Tables must be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in the text.
• All explanatory information should be given in a footnote below the table.
• All abbreviations must be defined in this footnote, even if they are explained in the text.
• Tables must be understandable without referring to the text.
• Tables in Excel must be cell-based; do not use picture elements, text boxes, tabs, or returns in tables.
• For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table.eg. Table 1. Effect of different extracts on........... 

3. Figures File

Figures must be submitted separately with high-resolution version (600 dpi) as TIFF or JPEG format. The use of color figures is free of charge. The following guidelines must be observed when preparing figures. Failure to do so is likely to delay the acceptance and publication of the article.

• Each figure of a manuscript should be submitted as a single file.
• Figures should be numbered in the order they are first mentioned in the text and uploaded in this order.
• Figure titles and legends should be provided in the main manuscript, after tables in a separate page, not in the graphics file.
• The aim of the figure legend should be to describe the key messages of the figure, but the figure should also be discussed in the text.
• Figures with multiple panels should use capital letters A, B, C, etc. to identify the panels.
• Individual figure files should not exceed 5 MB. If a suitable format is chosen, this file size is adequate for extremely high-quality figures.
• Figure Title must be written as: Fig. 1. Effect of different extracts on...........

To use a reproduced figure or table, you must obtain permission from the owner of the copyright of the original figure or table (usually the publisher), and you must also include attribution to the original source(s) in your manuscript in the Source notes below the reproduced figure or table.

4. Copyright and License

-     Copyright on any open access article published in the APS-ASU journal is retained by the author(s).

-     Authors also grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its integrity is maintained and its original authors, citation details and publisher are identified.

-     Authors grant Ain Shams University a copyright transfer agreement to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher.

-     Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles under the following conditions: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

 For more information: 

This work is licensed underhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

Supplementary material

Data that are not of primary importance to the text, or which cannot be included in the article because they are too large or the current format does not permit it (such as videos, raw data traces, PowerPoint presentations, etc.), can be uploaded as supplementary material during the submission procedure and will be displayed along with the published article.

 

Review article

A review article should provide a synthetic and critical analysis of a relevant area and should not be merely a chronological description of the literature. A review article by investigators who have made substantial contributions to a specific area in pharmaceutical sciences will be published by invitation of the Editors. However, an outline of a review article may be submitted to the Editors without prior consultation. If it is judged appropriate for the Journal, the author(s) will be invited to prepare the article for peer review. Review articles should be less than 6000 words, excluding the abstract and references. 

 

Case study

Articles describing clinical cases that have significant novel original observations, are instructive, include adequate methodological details and provide conclusions. These should be less than 2000 words, excluding the abstract and references, and have no more than two figures and tables. Structured headings are desirable. Please note the below comments regarding obtaining written informed consent.

Links to the Human and Animal Rights

There are numerous resources available that can aid authors and journals in improving article quality. As examples, some resources NLM encourages journals and authors to reference are:

• Human research: Helsinki Declaration as revised in 2013
• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: PRISMA guidelines
• Case reports: the CARE case report guidelines
• Clinical trials: CONSORT
• Animal studies: ARRIVE and Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals
• Research ethics committee Faculty of pharmacy Ain Shams University (http://www.enrec.org/directory)

III. Publication Charges

• In order to recieve the official acceptance letter, and to publish the manuscript online, authors are responsible to pay the "Article processing charges (APC)". The charge is 700 L.E for Egyptians and 200 $ (USA Dollars) for authors outside Egypt. We routinely waive charges for authors from low-income countries. For other countries, article-processing charge waivers or discounts are granted on a case-by-case basis to authors with insufficient funds. Authors can request a waiver or discount during the submission process.

To pay the article processing charges (APC) for publication, follow these steps:

1. After acceptance, a publication charge letter will be sent to the corresponding author by e- mail.
2. The corresponding author will be responsible to pay the required charge to the following account:

• Account name: برنامج الساعات المعتمدة - البنك المركزي المصري
• Bank account number: 9/450/82853/2
• OR through instapay on the following IBAN NO. EG970001000100000009450828532

3. After payment, the receipt should be scanned and sent to the following email: aps@pharma.asu.edu.eg 
4. Upon recieving the receipt, the acceptance letter will be sent to the corresponding author by e-mail.

• Please contact the editorial office if you have any questions.