Tips Before Submitting a Manuscript

Pre-Submission Guide

Tips Before Submitting a Manuscript

A practical checklist to help authors prepare a complete, relevant, and publication-ready manuscript for the Journal of Health and Nutrition Research.

Reduce the Risk of Initial Rejection

A manuscript may be returned before external peer review when it is outside the journal's scope, does not follow the required template, lacks sufficient scientific or ethical information, has unclear language, or is incomplete. Completing the checks below can improve submission readiness, although it does not guarantee acceptance.

Essential Checks Before Submission

1

Scope and Relevance

Read the official Focus and Scope carefully. Confirm that the topic, population, outcomes, and article type are relevant to health, nutrition, or the journal's stated coverage.

2

Novelty and Contribution

State the research gap and explain what the study adds. The contribution should be specific, scientifically meaningful, and supported by the study design and results.

DOC

Template and Structure

Use the current journal template. Check font, spacing, headings, article structure, word limits, citation style, tables, figures, and required declarations.

EN

Language Quality

Use clear academic English and consistent terminology. Professional translation, language editing, or proofreading is recommended when needed. Avoid submitting unreviewed machine translation.

ETH

Ethics and Integrity

Provide ethics approval, informed consent, trial registration, or animal welfare information when applicable. Disclose funding, conflicts of interest, and relevant permissions.

FILE

Files and Metadata

Ensure author names, affiliations, email addresses, title, abstract, and keywords are consistent between the manuscript and the online submission system.

Section-by-Section Evaluation Checklist

Title, Abstract, and Keywords

  • Title: Clear, concise, specific, and representative of the study; avoid unnecessary length and ambiguous wording.
  • Abstract: A standalone summary containing the objective, methods, main results, and conclusion or implications.
  • Keywords: Specific, searchable, relevant to the topic, and not merely repetitions of words already used in the title.

Introduction

  • Provide sufficient background and current scientific context.
  • Identify the unresolved problem or research gap.
  • Explain the study's relevance and expected contribution.
  • State the objective, aim, or hypothesis clearly.

Methods

  • Define the study design, setting, period, participants, and eligibility criteria.
  • Justify the sample size and describe the sampling method.
  • Describe materials, instruments, software, sources, and versions.
  • Explain data collection and statistical analysis in reproducible detail.
  • Report ethics approval and consent information when applicable.
  • Use an appropriate reporting guideline for the study design when relevant.

Results

  • Present findings clearly and in a logical sequence.
  • Include all results needed to answer the research objective.
  • Ensure numbers are consistent across the abstract, text, tables, and figures.
  • Cite every table and figure consecutively in the manuscript.
  • Use readable labels, units, legends, and appropriate statistical reporting.

Discussion

  • Interpret the findings rather than repeating the Results section.
  • Relate the findings to the research question and relevant literature.
  • Compare agreements and differences with previous studies.
  • Provide critical analysis, plausible explanations, and implications.
  • Discuss limitations, potential bias, and appropriate generalizability.

Conclusion

  • Answer the study objective using findings presented in the manuscript.
  • Avoid unsupported claims or conclusions beyond the study data.
  • Provide realistic implications, applications, or future research directions.

References

  • Use recent, relevant, credible, and traceable sources.
  • Ensure every in-text citation appears in the reference list and vice versa.
  • Follow the journal's required reference style consistently.
  • Verify author names, titles, years, journal details, and DOI information.
  • Use a reference manager such as Mendeley or Zotero where helpful.

Final Submission Package

□  All authors have approved the submitted version.
□  The manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere.
□  Author names, affiliations, and corresponding-author details are correct.
□  Ethics, consent, funding, conflicts of interest, and contributions are declared as applicable.
□  Tables, figures, captions, and supplementary files are complete and readable.
□  Reused material has appropriate permission and attribution.
□  Similarity, citation accuracy, and reference authenticity have been checked.
□  The final manuscript is clean, complete, and matches the online metadata.

Common Initial Screening Risks

×  Topic or article type is outside the journal's scope.
×  Journal template or submission instructions are ignored.
×  Research gap, novelty, or objective is unclear.
×  Methods are incomplete or cannot support the conclusions.
×  Required ethics or consent information is missing.
×  Language quality prevents clear scientific evaluation.
×  Data, tables, figures, citations, or references are inconsistent.
×  Submission files, declarations, or author metadata are incomplete.

This checklist supports manuscript preparation but does not guarantee peer review or acceptance. Editorial decisions remain based on journal fit, scientific merit, research integrity, and compliance with journal policies.