Article sections

• Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Number subsections 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), then 1.2, etc.
• Use the numbering format when cross-referencing within your article. Do not just refer to "the text."
• You may give subsections a brief heading. Headings should appear on a separate line.
• Do not include the article abstract within section numbering.

Title page

You are required to include the following details in the title page information:

• Article title. Article titles should be concise and informative. Please avoid abbreviations and formulae, where possible, unless they are established and widely understood).

• Author names. Provide the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author. The order of authors should match the order in the submission system. Carefully check that all names are accurately spelled.
• Add affiliation addresses, referring to where the work was carried out, below the author names. Indicate affiliations using a lower-case superscript Arabic numeral immediately after the author's name and in front of the corresponding address. Ensure that you provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, the email address of each author.
• Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence for your article at all stages of the refereeing and publication process and also post-publication. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about your results, data, methodology and materials. It is important that the email address and contact details of your corresponding author are kept up to date during the submission and publication process.

Abstract

You are required to provide a concise abstract of maximum 300 words briefly stating the purpose of your study, methodology, key findings and main conclusion.

Keywords

You are required to provide 1 to 8 keywords for indexing purposes. Keywords should be written in English. Please try to avoid keywords consisting of multiple words (using "and" or "of"). We recommend that you only use abbreviations in keywords if they are firmly stablished in the field.

Introduction

The introduction should clearly state the objectives of your work. We recommend that you provide an adequate background to your work but avoid writing a detailed literature overview or summary of your results.

Material and methods

The materials and methods section should provide sufficient details about your materials and methods to allow your work to be reproduced by an independent researcher.

• If the method you used has already been published, provide a summary and reference the originally published method.
• If you are quoting directly from a previously published method, use quotation marks and cite the source.
• Describe any modifications that you have made to existing methods.

Results

Results should be clear and concise. We advise you to read the sections in this guide on supplying tables, artwork, supplementary material and sharing research data.

Discussion

The discussion section should explore the significance of your results but not repeat them. You may combine your results and discussion sections into one section, if appropriate. We recommend that you avoid the use of extensive citations and discussion of published literature in the discussion section.

Conclusion

The conclusion section should present the main conclusions of your study. You may have a stand-alone conclusions section or include your conclusions in a subsection of your discussion or results and discussion section.

Glossary

Please provide definitions of field-specific terms used in your article, in a separate list.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations which are not standard in the field should be defined in a footnote on the first page of your article.

Abbreviations which are essential to include in your abstract should be defined at first mention in your abstract, as well as in a footnote on the first page of your article.

Before submission we recommend that you review your use of abbreviations throughout your article to ensure that it is consistent.

Acknowledgements

Include any individuals who provided you with help during your research, such as help with language, writing or proof reading, in the acknowledgements section. Acknowledgements should be placed in a separate section which appears directly before the reference list.

Author contributions:

Corresponding authors are required to acknowledge co-author contributions as per the following roles:

• Conceptualization
• Data analysis
• Funding acquisition
• Investigation
• Methodology
• Project administration
• Supervision
• Writing – original draft
• Writing – review and editing

Funding Sources

Authors must disclose any funding sources who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article. The role of sponsors, if any, should be declared in relation to the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the report and decision to submit the article for publication. If funding sources had no such involvement this should be stated in your submission.

List funding sources in this standard way to facilitate compliance to funder's requirements:

Funding: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Global Health [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the Makerere University Research and Innovation Fund, Uganda [grant number zzzz]].

If no funding has been provided for the research, it is recommended to include the following sentence:

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

References

Any references cited within your article should also be present in your reference list and vice versa. Some guidelines:

• References cited in your abstract must be given in full.
• We recommend that you do not include unpublished results and personal communications in your reference list, though you may mention them in the text of your article.
• Any unpublished results and personal communications included in your reference list must follow the standard reference style of the journal. In substitution of the publication date add "unpublished results" or "personal communication."
• References cited as "in press" imply that the item has been accepted for publication.

Linking to cited sources will increase the discoverability of your research.

Before submission, check that all data provided in your reference list are correct, including any references which have been copied. Providing correct reference data allows us to link to abstracting and indexing services such as Scopus, Crossref and PubMed. Any incorrect surnames, journal or book titles, publication years or pagination within your references may prevent link creation.

We encourage the use of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) as reference links as they provide a permanent link to the electronic article referenced. See the example below, though be aware that the format of such citations should be adapted to follow the style of other references in your paper.

Reference format

Reference formatting using auto-referencing tools such as Mendeley , zotelo and endnote is encouraged.

Reference style

All citations in the text should use American Psychological Association (APA) 6 style as per examples below:

• Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication.
• Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication.
• Three or more authors: first author's name followed by 'et al.' and the year of publication.

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:

Kiganira, C.K., Walujo, J.B., Tagema, A., Nakirya, I. J. global.Health. 122, 20–44. https://doi.org/10.1019/j.sc.2023.00101.

Reference to a book:

Rwego, I., Acai, J.O., 2022. Project management, fourth ed. Makerere University Press, Kampala.

Reference to a chapter in a book:

Nakayenze, F., Gabengere, S.P., 2024. How to present descriptive statistics of your research, in: Bwire, J.S., Matiya, R.Z. (Eds.), Biostatistics for MVPM. E-Publishing Inc., Makerere University, pp. 36–78.

Reference to a website:

Uganda Virus Research Institute, 2024. Ebola statistics reports for Uganda. http://www.uvri.org/aboutebola/statistics/ebolastatsreport/ (accessed 10 July 2024).

Preprint references

We ask you to mark preprints clearly. You should include the word "preprint" or the name of the preprint server as part of your reference and provide the preprint DOI.

Where a preprint has subsequently become available as a peer-reviewed publication, use the formal publication as your reference.

If there are preprints that are central to your work or that cover crucial developments in the topic, but they are not yet formally published, you may reference the preprint.

Declaration of interests

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence or bias their work. Examples of potential competing interests include:

• Employment
• Consultancies
• Stock ownership
• Honoraria
• Paid expert testimony
• Patent applications or registrations
• Grants or any other funding

Authors with no competing interests to declare should state so.

Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing

Authors must declare the use of generative AI in scientific writing upon submission of the paper. The following guidance refers only to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyse and draw insights from data as part of the research process:

• Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies should only be used in the writing process to improve the readability and language of the manuscript.
• The technology must be applied with human oversight and control and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. Authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.
• Authors must not list or cite AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author on the manuscript since authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans.

The use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in scientific writing must be declared by adding a statement at the end of the manuscript when the paper is first submitted. The statement will appear in the published work and should be placed in a new section before the references list. An example:

• Title of new section: Declaration of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process.
• Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL /SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the published article.