Manuscript Preparation

Manuscript Categories

C-RJPH publishes Full Papers, Communications, Reviews, Notes and Book Reviews.

Categories of Manuscripts

Review Articles (by invitation only)

Reviews provide a comprehensive summary of broadly-based topics of general interest to Public Health. Reviews are not limited as to the number of words, tables, figures and references that may be included. Unsolicited reviews are considered only if they are authored by investigators who have demonstrated expertise in the relevant areas. An author interested in preparing a Review for CRJPH should provide the title, abstract and a brief outline to the Editor-in-chief, requesting an invitation to submit a manuscript in this category.

Editorial Note

Manuscript in this category discusses important parts, overlooked aspects, or lacking parts of a previously published article. Articles on subjects within the scope of the journal that might attract the readers’ attention, may also be submitted in the form of a “Editorial Note.” Readers can also present their comments on the published manuscripts in the form of a “Editorial Note”.  Abstract, Keywords, and Tables, Figures, Images, and other media should not be included. The text should be unstructured. The article that is being commented on, must be properly cited within this manuscript.

Research Papers

Research Articles are comprehensive accounts of significant and original experimental and/or theoretical results that fit within the scope of C-RJPH. They contain innovative, original, hypothesis-driven research that is supported by sound experimental design, methodology, and data interpretation. C-RJPH publishes research articles in the multidisciplinary field of Public Health. Authors are asked to write their manuscripts in a clear, concise and excellent manner.

Articles should be original research work written in English in a concise and understandable manner. It is advised that authors who may want professional assistance with improving the English, or formatting in their manuscript should do so before submitting their manuscript. Manuscript should be in MS word, single-spaced on A4 paper size with 1 inch margins. Article should be in the order:

• Title Page
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Introduction
• Materials and Methods or Methodology
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Conflict of Interest
• Acknowledgement(s)
• References
• Tables, Figures etc. (embedded in the body of the manuscript)
• Authors contributions

The title should be concise and reflect the key elements of the research. The title should be followed by authors’ full name and affiliations. The corresponding author should be indicated with an asterisk and provide the full corresponding address (e-mail address and telephone number).

Ingredients of title

• Titles are of great importance for current awareness and for information retrieval.
• Avoid abbreviations and formulae, where possible.
• The wording of titles should be chosen carefully to provide information on the contents and to function as "points of entry" for information retrieval. Symbols, formulas, or arbitrary abbreviations should not be included in the title, except chemical symbols to indicate the structure of isotopically labelled compounds. Full title must be in sentence case.
• The title of the manuscript must be written in lower case except for the first word and proper nouns.

Author names and affiliations

• Author names must be given in full, with surnames (family names) all in capitals.
• Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names.
• Indicate all affiliations with a lowercase superscript number immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address.
• Author addresses must be given in English in the following order: Department, Faculty, University, City, Country, with numbers in superscript after each author name to indicate his/her address.  
• Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name for each author.

Corresponding Author

You should designate one author to act as corresponding author. Note that this is the person who will receive correspondence from C-RJPH editorial office and needs to be the person who will appear as corresponding author on the paper if accepted.

The manuscript has to be submitted online by the person who is in charge of correspondence at all stages of the editorial process, production, and post-publication. Ensure that phone/fax numbers with country and area codes) are provided, in addition to the e-mail address (preferably an institutional e-mail address) and the complete postal address. Contact details of the other authors must be kept up to date by the corresponding author.

Abstract

Abstract should start on a new page after the title page. A concise and factual abstract, which is unstructured, is required. Abstract should briefly state the purpose of the research, methodology, principal results, main findings, major conclusions and should not be more than 250 words. Abstracts should not be referenced and the use of abbreviations should be minimized and spelled out when first used.

Keywords

Abstract should be followed by 4-10 keywords, provided by the authors and separated by a 'comma'. The keywords should be listed in full without abbreviations.

Introduction

A referenced introduction should set the work in context. The introduction should be kept to a minimum length and relevant to the research described. It should state the rationale, justifications and objectives of the research. Detailed descriptions of routine experimental procedures should be avoided. The introduction must be designed to inform the reader of the rationale and significance of the study.

Materials and Methods or Methodology

Authors should provide sufficient experimental details to allow others to reproduce the findings presented, but where necessary, synthetic and bioassay protocols should refer to published procedures by literature citation of the original method and any later modifications used.  Where possible, supporting Information can be useful for presenting experimental details while limiting the size of the main document.

Ethical consideration on use of experimental animals and human subjects

Experiments involving the use of live animals must include a statement of approval by an ethical committee and certifying that such experiments were performed in accordance with all international guidelines and regulations. For experiments involving humans or tissue samples, a statement that informed consent was obtained from the subject or from the next of kin must be included.

Results and Discussion

The Results and Discussion may be combined into a single section or presented separately. They may also be broken into subsections with short, informative headings. Authors should present their data in a clear and interpretative manner. Presentation of data should not be duplicated. Discussion should interpret the results and relate them to existing knowledge in the field (with relevant literature). Supporting information can be used if this help to make the result clearer. All results presented in tabular form or graphical form should be comprehensively described in this section.

Conclusion

Authors should state their conclusions or the significance of their findings following the discussion of results. Conclusions should also be summarized in the abstract in order to place the author’s research in proper perspective. The main conclusions of the study should be presented in a short Conclusions section, which stands alone. You should explain whether your findings supported your hypothesis. Avoid using references in conclusion section.

List of abbreviations

If abbreviations are used in the text, they should be defined in the text where first used.

Tables and Figures/Graphics

Tables and figures showing the results of the experiment should be placed immediately after the text that describes it. Tables and figures should be placed within the body of the manuscript closed to the point where they are mentioned. All tables and figures should be referred to in the text of the manuscript.

Tables

Tables should have the following characteristics:

• The table should be created using table format feature. Ensure each data entry is in its own table cell.
• Tables should be without borders and shadings except for column headings and bottom border.
• Tables should be consecutively numbered using Arabic numerals.
• Tables should have a descriptive heading that, together with the individual column headings, makes the table self-explanatory.

Figures/Graphics

Figures/graphics should give the reader a quick visual representation of the important results and/or the essence of the paper without providing specific details.

Conflict-of-Interest Disclosure

A statement describing any financial conflicts of interest or lack thereof is published with each manuscript. During the submission process, the corresponding author must provide this statement on behalf of all authors of the manuscript.

Acknowledgements

Funding body and all those who assisted in the work but may not qualify as an author should be acknowledged.

In-text Citations

Parenthetical citation

One author: The surname of the author and year should be in parenthesis after the sentence and before the full stop. The Surname and the year should be separated by a comma (,). Example: Stress is a strain (Etim, 2026).

Two authors: The surnames of the authors, separated by an ‘ampersand’ (&) and year should be in parenthesis after the sentence and before the full stop. Example: Stress is a strain (Etim & Ndep, 2026).

Three or more authors: Only the surname of the first author should reflect, followed by et al., and the year in parenthesis. Example: Stress is a strain (Etim et al., 2026).

Narrative citation

One author: The surname of the author should be cited followed by the year in parenthesis, a comma before the sentence, then a full stop. Example; According to Etim (2026), stress is a strain.

Two authors: The surnames of the authors, separated by ‘and’ should be cited, followed by the year in parenthesis before the sentence, then a full stop. Example; According to Etim and Ndep (2026), stress is a strain.

Three or more authors: Only the surname of the first author should reflect, followed by et al. and only the year should be in parenthesis. Example; According to Etim et al. (2026), stress is a strain.

References

References should follow the APA citing and referencing style, 7^Th Edition;

The in-text citation is indicated by names of authors and year.

The reference list should be typed single-spaced and listed in alphabetical order.

Reference to a Journal Article:

Authors’ last names and initials of first names, year of publication in parenthesis, title of paper, full name of journal, volume number, Issue number, and first and last page numbers. If a journal article has a DOI, include the DOI in the reference.

One author

Etim, J. J. (2026). Title of paper. Cross-River Journal of Public Health, 1(1), 1-16. DOI

Two authors

Etim, J. J., & Ndep, A. O. (2026). Title of paper. Cross-River Journal of Public Health, 1(1), 1-16. DOI

For three or more authors: List all the authors.

Etim, J. J., Ndep, A. O., Inah, S. A., Ugbe, M. U., Nji, E. L., Onwusaka, O. C., Asagwara, C., & Okon, A. (2026). Title of paper. Cross-River Journal of Public Health, 1(1), 1-16. DOI

Reference to a web source

The full URL and the access date should be written in the Reference List. Any additional information (such as year of publication, source of publication, etc.) should be provided if known.

Reference to a book

Authors’ last names and initials of first names, year of publication in parenthesis, book title, publisher, town, country of publication. Example: Etim, J. J. & Ndep, A. O. (2026). Book title. Publisher, Town, Country.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book

Authors’ names, year of publication in parenthesis, title of chapter followed by the names of the editors of the book, book title, publisher, place of publication and country, and first and last page numbers. Example: Etim, J. J., & Ugbe, M. U. (2026) Title of chapter. In: Ndep, A.O., & Inah, S. A. (Editors) Book Title. Publisher, Place, Country, 125-137.