AIMS AND SCOPE
Health Sciences and Disease, is an open source, peer reviewed medical journal that covers all aspects of medicine, pharmacy, biomedical and health sciences, including public health and societal issues. It is an “online first” publication, which means that all the publications articles appear on the website before being included in the print journal. The papers are published in full on the website, with open access. Our vision is to be the leader medical journal in our region. Our mission is to inform and educate all the health professionals and to promote constructive debate on health issues that matter in the management not only of diseases but of health as a whole.
Health Sciences and Disease is the official publication of the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Yaoundé I. Its team is based in Yaounde (Cameroon).
Acceptance of manuscripts is based on the originality, the quality of the work and validity of the evidence, the clarity of presentation, and the relevance to our readership. Publications are expected to be concise, well organized and clearly written. Authors submit a manuscript with the understanding that the manuscript (or its essential substance) has not been published other than as an abstract in any language or format and is not currently submitted elsewhere for print or electronic publication.

JOURNAL FACTS
Publisher
Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, The University of Yaounde I.

Indexing
HSD is indexed by Google Scholar, DOAJ, ROAD, JournalTOCs, African Index Medicus (WHO).
As an institutional publication of the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Yaounde I, Health Sciences and Disease is accredited by the Conseil Africain et Malgache pour l’Enseignement Supérieur (CAMES) (N° 220)

Health Sciences and Disease home page: http://hsd-fmsb.org

Contact information
hsdeditor3@gmail.com. / nkooamvenes@gmail.com
Health Sciences and Disease
Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
PO Box 1364, Yaoundé Cameroon.

ISSN (print): 1684-2782 / EISSN (online) : 2309-6535

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS
The preferred way for submission is the online submission. Please, refer to the instructions to authors and to the Health Sciences and Disease home page: http://hsd-fmsb.org. Otherwise, manuscripts can be addressed to nkooamvenes@gmail.com.

LANGUAGES OF SUBMISSIONS
English, French

EDITORIAL POLICIES
Ethics
HSD’s Policy Committee follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for guidance on policies and procedures related to publication ethics. The policies for HRA have been adapted from those three advisory bodies and, where necessary, modified and tailored to meet the specific content, audiences, and aims of HSD.
Peer review process
Research manuscripts are initially checked by the editor in chief or section editor for identification of gross deficiencies. At this stage, the proposal may be rejected. After this initial screening, articles are sent to one or two-reviewers whose names are hidden from the author and whose review is guided by a checklist (single anonymized review). The review summary is signed by the reviewer and is not posted with article. The review process may take days to weeks to reach a final decision that is the responsibility of the editor in chief. The duration from submission to publication may take one to six months (average: 6 months). So, the authors should avoid contacting the editorial office less than 6 weeks after the initial submission.
Plagiarism, scientific misconduct
Manuscripts are randomly checked for plagiarism with available free tools. Those proven of plagiarism are returned to the authors without peer review. The editors reserve the right to request that the authors provide additional data collected during their investigations. The editors also reserve the right to send a copy of the manuscript and data in question to the author’s dean, university, or supervisor or, in the case of an investigation being funded by an agency, to that funding agency for appreciation.
Conflict of interest
At the time of submission, authors are asked to disclose whether they have any financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that may influence directly or indirectly the work submitted for consideration.
Human and animal studies
Manuscripts reporting results of prospective or retrospective studies involving human subjects must document that appropriate institutional review board (IRB) approval and informed consent were obtained (or waived by the IRB) after the nature of the procedure(s) had been fully explained. In any case, medical research involving human subjects should comply with the Declaration of Helsinki (2013).
Authorship
To be listed as an author, an individual must have made substantial contributions to all three categories established by the ICMJE (http://www.icmje.org): (a) “conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data,” (b) “drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content,” and (c) “final approval of the version to be published.” Individuals who have not made substantial contributions in all three categories but who have made substantial contributions either to some of them or in other areas should be listed in acknowledgments.
Please limit the number of authors to ten when this is feasible.
Content licensing - Open access compliance
Since 2013 , articles published in HSD are Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher, provided the original work is properly cited.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)–Assisted Technology
At submission, the authors should disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)–assisted technologies in the production of the publication and how AI was used. However, authors should not list AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author.
ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGES (APC)
Article submission is free of charges, but if your paper is accepted for publication, you will be asked to pay article processing charges to cover publications costs, depending on the type, complexity and length of the work, and on the number of authors
FAST TRACK
Inquiries about fast track, manuscript status and preparation, as well as letters to the editor, should be directed to:
Nko’o Amvene Samuel
Editor-in-Chief, Health Sciences and Disease
Email: nkooamvenes@gmail.com

COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
• Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
• Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
• Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.