Guide for Authors

For Kertas of Health and Environmental Science (KHES)

1. Manuscript Submission

Authors are invited to submit their manuscripts via the KHES online submission system at:

https://kertassci.com/journal/index.php/khes/submission

Please use the official KHES manuscript template. [Insert KHES Template Download Link]

Authors are encouraged to write directly within the template to maintain formatting standards.

2. Types of Manuscripts Accepted

  • Full Research Articles (3500–8000 words, min. 10 pages, ≥20 references)

  • Review Articles (4000–10000 words, ≥100 references)

  • Case Reports (1500–2000 words, ≥40 references)

KHES welcomes manuscripts addressing health sciences, environmental sciences, public health, clinical and biomedical research, environmental health, sustainability, and interdisciplinary research connecting human health and the environment.

3. Manuscript Format and Structure

  • Page: A4, margins 30 mm (top/left/right), 25 mm (bottom)

  • Format: Single-spaced, single-column, Times New Roman, 12 pt

  • All pages numbered; justified alignment

  • Use ‘Symbol’ font for Greek characters

  • Language: Clear and fluent English

Sections to include:

  1. Title Page

  2. Abstract (max 250 words)

  3. Keywords (3–6 terms)

  4. Highlights (optional, max 5 bullet points, 100 characters each)

  5. Graphical Abstract (optional)

  6. Introduction

  7. Materials and Methods

  8. Results and Discussion

  9. Conclusions

  10. Acknowledgements

  11. Funding

  12. Conflict of Interest

  13. Author Contributions

  14. Ethical Approval and Informed Consent, where applicable

  15. References (IEEE Style)

  16. Appendices

  17. Figures and Tables (embedded in-text)

  18. Supplementary Materials (optional)

4. Title & Author Information

  • Use clear and descriptive titles and avoid unnecessary abbreviations or formulas.

  • List all authors’ full names and affiliations using superscript numerals where necessary.

  • The corresponding author must be indicated with an asterisk (*) and must provide a complete email and postal address.

  • Authors are encouraged to provide their ORCID identifiers.

5. Abstract and Keywords

  • Abstract: Provide a concise summary of the study objectives, methods, principal findings, and conclusions.

  • Keywords: Provide 3–6 terms relevant to the manuscript for indexing and discoverability.

For research articles, authors are encouraged to structure the abstract clearly around the study background or objective, methods, results, and conclusions where appropriate.

6. Optional Elements

  • Highlights: Short bullet points emphasizing the novelty, principal findings, or significance of the study.

  • Graphical Abstract: A visual summary of the research. Recommended formats include TIFF, EPS, PDF, and MS Office formats. Suggested size: 50 × 130 mm at 96 dpi.

7. Section Guidelines

  • Introduction: Present the scientific or health/environmental context, research problem, significance, relevant literature, and study objectives.

  • Materials and Methods: Provide sufficient detail to allow evaluation and, where appropriate, replication of the study. Established methods should be appropriately cited.

  • Results and Discussion: Present findings clearly and interpret them in relation to previous research, scientific significance, practical implications, and limitations.

  • Conclusion: Summarize the principal findings, contributions, and implications of the research without simply repeating the results.

For studies involving human participants, animals, clinical data, biological materials, or other ethically sensitive research, the relevant ethics approval information must be provided.

8. Abbreviations and Units

  • Define abbreviations at first use.

  • Avoid unnecessary abbreviations.

  • Use SI units throughout the manuscript. Where non-SI units are necessary, provide appropriate SI equivalents.

9. Acknowledgements & Funding

Authors should acknowledge individuals, institutions, laboratories, healthcare facilities, field organizations, or other contributors who assisted with the research but do not meet the criteria for authorship.

List all sources of funding and their grant numbers. If the research received no specific funding, authors may state:

“This study was not supported by any grants from funding bodies in the public, private, or not-for-profit sectors.”

10. Conflict of Interest Statement

Authors must disclose any financial or non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research.

If no conflicts exist, authors should state:

“The authors declare no conflicts of interest.”

11. Author Contributions

Authors should describe individual contributions using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) where applicable.

Example:

  • M.H. Hammoud (Conceptualization; Methodology; Writing – original draft; Supervision)

  • Q. Benshi (Data curation; Investigation; Formal analysis; Writing – review & editing)

All listed authors must have made a meaningful contribution to the work and approved the final manuscript.

12. References Style (IEEE)

  • References should be numbered in square brackets [ ] according to their order of appearance in the manuscript.

  • Journal articles, books, book chapters, conference papers, reports, patents, theses, datasets, and online materials must follow the IEEE reference format.

  • Use “et al.” where required according to the journal's reference formatting rules.

  • Authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and completeness of all references.

13. Appendices, Figures, and Tables

  • Appendices: Identify appendices using letters such as A, B, etc., with numbering such as Eq. (A.1) and Table A.1.

  • Figures: Submit high-resolution figures, preferably 300–600 dpi. Figure captions should appear below the figure.

  • Tables: Tables must be provided in editable format, numbered sequentially, and accompanied by captions above the table.

  • Figures and tables should be cited in the text in numerical order.

For clinical, biomedical, or health-related images, authors must ensure that personally identifiable information is removed unless explicit consent for publication has been obtained.

14. Supplementary Material

Supplementary material may include:

  • Additional tables

  • Additional figures

  • Datasets

  • Methodological information

  • Multimedia files

  • Videos

  • Other materials supporting the research

Supplementary files must directly complement the manuscript. Once published, supplementary material should generally be regarded as part of the permanent scholarly record.

15. Reproduction Permission

Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission to reproduce figures, tables, photographs, questionnaires, datasets, or other copyrighted material previously published elsewhere.

Proof of permission may be requested during the editorial or production process.

16. Peer-Review Process

  • All manuscripts undergo an initial editorial screening to assess their relevance to the scope of KHES, scientific quality, originality, ethical compliance, and adherence to submission requirements.

  • Manuscripts passing the initial screening undergo double-blind peer review by at least two independent reviewers.

  • Authors may be requested to suggest up to three potential reviewers with appropriate expertise and valid institutional email addresses.

  • Suggested reviewers must not have conflicts of interest with the authors or their institutions.

  • The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection.

17. Research Ethics

Research published in KHES must comply with internationally accepted ethical principles and applicable institutional and national regulations.

Where applicable:

  • Studies involving human participants must report approval from an appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee.

  • Authors must provide the name of the approving institution and approval or protocol number where available.

  • Informed consent must be obtained from participants when required.

  • Research involving animals must comply with recognized ethical and welfare standards and receive appropriate institutional approval.

  • Clinical studies should comply with applicable clinical research and reporting requirements.

  • Authors must protect participant confidentiality and privacy.

  • Environmental sampling, field research, biological materials, and protected species research must comply with relevant permits, regulations, and ethical requirements.

18. Language & Plagiarism

  • Manuscripts must be written in clear, professional, and scientifically appropriate English.

  • Authors are responsible for ensuring the linguistic quality of their manuscripts before submission.

  • All submissions are screened using Turnitin or other appropriate similarity-detection tools.

  • Plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, inappropriate image manipulation, duplicate publication, and other forms of research or publication misconduct are prohibited.

19. Online First Policy

Accepted articles may be published online as “Online First” before assignment to a specific issue.

The Online First article constitutes the published scholarly record. Changes after publication will only be made through the journal's formal correction, retraction, or other post-publication procedures where appropriate.

20. Self-Citation Policy

Authors are encouraged to avoid excessive or unnecessary self-citation. Self-citations should normally be limited to no more than 5 citations or 20% of the reference list, whichever is lower, unless scientifically justified.

References must be selected based on their relevance to the manuscript rather than for the purpose of artificially increasing citation counts.

21. Galley Proofs

Galley proofs will be provided to the corresponding author before final publication.

  • Proofs should be used primarily to correct typographical, formatting, or production errors.

  • Substantial changes to the accepted manuscript are not normally permitted at this stage.

  • Corrected proofs must be returned within 72 hours of receipt.

22. Copyright

  • Authors retain copyright and ownership of the intellectual property rights in their articles.

  • Authors grant KHES the non-exclusive rights necessary to publish, distribute, preserve, and archive the article.

  • KertasSci SDN BHD may be designated as the original publisher.

  • Articles are published under the journal's applicable Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

23. Publication Fees

Kertas of Health and Environmental Science (KHES) charges an Article Processing Charge (APC) of USD $100 for accepted articles.

  • There is no submission fee.

  • There is no charge for rejected manuscripts.

  • There are no additional charges based on article length, figures, tables, or supplementary materials.

  • The APC applies only after a manuscript has been accepted for publication.

Articles submitted during the journal's announced APC-waiver periods are processed according to the waiver conditions in effect at the time of submission.

24. Length Requirements

Full Research Articles should normally contain:

  • A minimum of 10 pages

  • A minimum of 3500 words, excluding references and appendices

Authors should ensure that manuscripts contain sufficient methodological and analytical detail to support scientific evaluation and reproducibility where applicable.

25. Submission Checklist

Before submitting, authors should ensure that:

  • One author has been designated as the corresponding author

  • Complete author names, affiliations, and contact details have been provided

  • The manuscript follows the official KHES template and formatting requirements

  • The title, abstract, and keywords have been provided

  • All figures, tables, and captions are included and properly cited

  • References have been checked for accuracy and formatting

  • Funding information has been provided

  • Conflict of interest information has been declared

  • Author contributions have been specified

  • Ethical approval and informed consent statements have been included where applicable

  • Required permissions for reproduced materials have been obtained

  • Supplementary files, if applicable, have been uploaded

  • The manuscript has not been published previously and is not under consideration by another journal

  • All authors have reviewed and approved the submitted version