GULU UNIVERSITY MEDICAL JOURNAL

Gulu University Medical Journal (GUMJ) 2009/2010 Vol 5.
Gulu University Medical Journal:
Guide lines for contributors.
Gulu University Medical Journal (GUMJ) is an annual
publication.
Potential authors are encouraged to submit
contributions to the following areas as per the theme
communicated annually:
1. Methodologically sound primary medical
research.
2. Critical analysis of the current or proposed health
policy measures based on national and international
experiences.
3. Case studies, real life situations and experiences
relevant to the annual theme communicated.
4. Review of relevant books in the field of health and
development.
5. Letters to the editors expressing opinions, concerns,
views and suggestions on fields of potential interest
to the journal readership.
6. Short communications on forthcoming or other
events relevant to the journal readership.
The approach should be practical, academic and not
only theoretical.
The following guidelines should be adhered to:
• Articles must be original, must not exceed 500
words (about 10-12 pages) be double spaced, in
font size 12 and have margins of 1 inch all round.
They should follow the rule of one space only after
all punctuation, including full stops.
• Referencing must follow Harvard system (author
and year of publication mentioned in the text
and all references listed alphabetically at the end
of the article). The author’s name and the date
of publication are quoted in the text, e.g.”….. as
reported by Ogola (Ogola 1986).” When works by
more than one author are quoted, only the name of
the first author appears in the text, followed by “et
al” and the year. In the reference list, the reference
will be listed in alphabetical order of the author’s
name. If the authors are many, only the first five
must be cited, their names being followed by “et
al”.
The Vancouver system is also accepted. References are
numbered sequentially in the text, either in brackets
or as a superscript, e.g. “…. As reported by Ogola (3)”
or “.. as reported by Ogola.3” superscript, numbers
are usually put after punctuation. In the reference list,
they should be in numerical order following the order
in which they appear in the text.
• Only one system must be used, consistently, in the
same article.
• All references must be complete and accurate and
must contain the following details:
Journal articles:
1. Names and initials of authors.
2. Date of publication.
3. Title of the article
4. Name of the journal.
5. Volume number.
6. Number of the first and the last page of the quoted
article.
Examples of how to write references in the
reference list:
Wheeler, M. and Ngcougo, N (1990). “ Health
Manpower planning in Botswana”. World Health
Forum, 11, 394-405.
Hornby, P., Ray, D., Shipp, P.J., Hall, T.L., 1980,
Guidelines For Health Manpower planning. WHO,
Geneva.
• Titles of books and journals must be in italics.
• Electronic references must be accompanied by
the full date (month, day, year) of the last access
by the author, e.g..http:/www.who/articles.html.
Retrieved October 31, 2007.
• Footnotes are not encouraged.
• Acronyms must be written in full the first time they
are used in the text: i.e. Gulu University Medical
Journal (GUMJ) publishes medical Information.
• Tables and figures must be included only if essential
for understanding the text.
• The same data should not be presented in both
tables and graphs.
• All Tables must have a number, a short title and
the source of the data contained (if not primary).
In the text, they must be referred to by number.
• Articles should, generally, have the following
sections:
• 1) titles page (the title must be as short as possible.
Gulu University Medical Students’ Association (GUMSA) Passion for life 62