General instructions

Submit original and two copies of the manuscript to: Editorial Secretariat , African Journal of Traumatic Stress, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University P.O. Box 7072 Kampala, Uganda Email: ajts@gmail.com. The AJTS has no charges for papers accepted for publication. Papers published in the Journal should be evidence based and should have relevance to trauma. They can be research papers, reports, reviews, personal stories short communications or news worthy briefs. Manuscripts should be typewritten on white A4 paper using font size 12, double spaced and should not be more than 15 pages excluding references, tables, graphs, pictures or charts with wide margins (2 cm) and line numbered where possible.

Title

Should be brief and reflect the main theme of the paper. It should be less or equal to 15 words.

Authors

Names should appear below the title and below which the address should be typed.

Abstract

An Abstract in English should, if possible, be accompanied by French translation and Vice Versa. It should include key words, arranged alphabetically with one the first letter of the first key word capitalized. Key words should be separated by commas. Abstracts should be limited to a maximum of 250 words and should contain salient features of the study, briefly indicating Title, Introduction, Objectives/aim, Methods, Results and main Conclusions. Single solid lines should separate the by-line material from the Abstract and the Abstract from the main text.

Text

Should appear in the following order: Title (maximum 20 words), Authors and their adresses, Abstract, Introduction, Methods/Methodology, Results/findings, Discussion, Conclusion, Recomendation and policy implication where applicable, Acknowledgement(s) and twenty or less reference listings should follow Vancouver or Boston styles. Main section headings should be bold, centred and of uppercase letters. Do not underline the title or section headings. Subsections should also be bolded and when included only the first letter of the subsection should be capitalized. Use SI units of measurement and undeline all Latin words and scientific names. Use numerals before standard units of measurements e.g. 3g, 9 days, 36 hr: otherwise use words for numbers one to nine and numerals for large numbers. Non standard abbreviations should be avoided and where used, they should be explained at their first mention.

Introduction

Provide a survey of literature, Aims/objectives and clearly justify the need for the study.

Methods/Methodology

This should be informative enough to enable readers to interpret the results obtained. Particular attention should be paid to the design, analysis and statistics. References for the methods used should be included.

Results

Should be concise. Avoid reproducing information already in tables.

Discussion

This section may be combined with results but generally should be separate. It should indicate clearly the significance and implications of the results obtained. Inferences and opinions should be distinguished from facts and should not duplicate results except to introduce or clarify points. Reference should be made to published literature. Acknowledgements: Financial contributors, pre-paper reviews etc deserve acknowledgement.

References

Only articles or books published or are in press may be cited. Where need be, copies of the publishers’ letter of acceptance should accompany all such citations. The references should be arranged sequentially by numbers (Vancouver style) or alphabetically (Boston style). Authors should be referrred to in the text by name and year eg: (H.S Wako and M. Mukasa, 2001). Role of higher education in the Third World. Curent Sciences 81(8)868 If there are more than 3 authors quote only 3 and put et al and leave out the rest. Within the text, references should be given as; Lin and Liu (2000) and if many citations cite as Okello (1981), Otim (1993). For books list as: Smiths G. (1987). Changes in composition of pathogen populations caused by resistance to fungicides. In Population of plant pathogens, their dynamics and genetics. Cook M.S and Cohen, C.E (Eds), pp 227-237. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford. Personal communication may be cited only in the text, giving names, date and institution or organization of source of information. For websites: Kariuki T. (1997). Report on the Joint JSPRS Commission III/IV Workshop ‘3D Reconstruction and Modelin gof Topographic Objects, Stuttgart, Germany. http://www.radig.inform tic. tu-muenchen.de/ISPRS/WG-114-1V2-Report.html (accessed 28 arch 2005).

Tables and figures

Tables and figures should be self explanatory, without reference to the text or other tables and figures. Captions should be brief but adequately describe contents. The word Table should be in Upper case letters and should be numbered with arabic numerals. Figure captions should be typed on a separate sheet of paper. In the text spell out the word Table but abbreviate Figure to Fig. Capitalize the first letter of table column and row headings. Footnotes are designated with superscript lowercase letters.

Graphs

Should be boxed and cordinates and abscissions marked with index lines. Pictures and illutrastraions may be in black and white or colour and of a size that allows reduction of up to 50%.

Paper revision

An author receiving editorial recommendations for revision should submit the revised manuscript within 4 weeks otherwise longer intervals will be treated as new manuscripts. Gully page proofs will normally be sent to the author for correction if time permits. For style and format, authors are advised to consult the most recent issue of African Journal of Traumatic Stress.