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Mesopotamian Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

Author Guidelines

Contents

About the Journal

The Mesopotamian Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare (MJAIH) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal dedicated to publishing high-quality, original scholarship at the intersection of artificial intelligence and healthcare. The journal provides a rigorous platform for research that advances AI-enabled clinical practice, health systems, and biomedical innovation.

For detailed information about the journal’s scientific coverage, editorial standards, and publication policies, please consult the journal’s Aims and Scope page and Editorial Policies page.

As an open-access publication, MJAIH ensures that accepted articles are made immediately and permanently available online, enabling readers worldwide to read, download, share, and build upon published work. This model maximizes visibility and promotes meaningful impact across clinical, academic, and industrial communities.

MJAIH publishes manuscripts in English only.

MJAIH welcomes the following article types: Original Articles, Short Communications, Review Articles, Mini Reviews, and Editorials.

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Language

All submissions to MJAIH must be written in clear, concise, and professional English. Authors who are not confident in their academic English, whether because of language background or writing experience, are strongly encouraged to seek professional language editing before submission.

Reviewers are responsible for evaluating the scientific quality, methodology, and contribution of a manuscript, not for correcting grammar or rewriting the text. Poor language quality may reduce clarity, weaken the presentation of results, delay the review process, or lead to rejection if it significantly limits scientific evaluation.

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Types of Articles

MJAIH publishes four main categories of scholarly contributions:

  1. Original Articles
    Full-length research papers presenting substantial and novel contributions to AI in healthcare. Submissions typically include strong methodological grounding, clear evaluation design (e.g., internal/external validation), and well-justified implications for healthcare practice, policy, or patient outcomes.
  2. Short Communications
    Concise reports of significant findings or timely innovations that do not require a full-length format. These submissions must be complete manuscripts and are limited to a maximum of 4 figures and tables combined, with an overall length of up to 3,000 words.
  3. Review Articles
    Comprehensive reviews synthesizing current evidence in a defined area of healthcare AI. These papers are typically under 10,000 words, include an unstructured abstract, and present up-to-date references. MJAIH also considers meta-analyses as review articles when appropriately designed and reported, particularly when they provide educational value and strong clinical relevance.
  4. Mini Reviews
    Focused, shorter reviews addressing important and recent developments in specific subfields. Mini reviews are limited to 5,000 words and should be tightly structured, evidence-based, and clearly targeted to the journal’s scope.
  5. Editorials
    Reflective or invitational pieces authored by the journal’s editors or distinguished guest editors. These papers typically address current trends, emerging ethical challenges, or significant shifts in the landscape of AI in healthcare. Editorials serve to provide context for a themed issue, comment on papers published within the journal, or offer a strategic vision for the field. While these submissions are generally shorter (up to 2,000 words), they must remain scholarly, evidence-based, and aligned with the journal’s mission to advance healthcare through intelligent technology.

Before Submission

Before submitting to MJAIH, authors must ensure that their manuscript meets the following requirements:

  1. Originality
    The manuscript must be original and must not be previously published or under review by another journal or conference.
  2. Ethics Compliance
    All applicable ethical requirements must be satisfied. Where relevant, the manuscript must include an Ethics Approval statement, particularly for studies involving human participants, animals, sensitive data, or restricted/non-public datasets.
  3. Language Quality
    The English language must be of acceptable academic standard, with minimal grammar errors and clear scientific expression.
  4. Formatting
    The manuscript must follow the journal’s template and formatting instructions.
  5. Figures Quality
    Figures must be high quality, clearly readable, and prepared according to technical standards. Where required, figures should be uploaded as separate files.
  6. References
    References must be correctly formatted and numbered sequentially as they appear in the text, following the journal’s reference style.
  7. Scope and Quality
    Only manuscripts that demonstrate suitable quality and align with MJAIH’s scope will proceed to peer review.
  8. Policy Compliance
    Submissions must comply with all journal policies, including research ethics, data integrity, and publication ethics.

Manuscripts that do not meet these requirements may be returned for correction or rejected before entering peer review.

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Preparation of Manuscripts

To support an efficient review and production process, MJAIH asks authors to prepare manuscripts carefully and consistently.

  • Manuscripts should be submitted as Microsoft Word files through the journal’s online submission system.
  • For articles with extensive mathematical content, LaTeX submissions may be accepted where applicable.

Formatting expectations:

  • Double line spacing
  • Times New Roman font
  • Fully justified text
  • Single-column body layout
  • Appropriate use of bold/italics/subscripts/superscripts where helpful for clarity
  • Continuous line numbering across the manuscript
  • Clearly numbered pages

Authors are strongly encouraged to use spell-check and grammar-check tools to reduce avoidable errors and improve readability.

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Specific Elements

  • Equations: Use an equation editor (e.g., MathType) for all mathematical expressions.
  • Tables: Create tables using the table function in your word processor.
  • Headings: Use a decimal heading system, up to three levels (e.g., 1., 2., 2.1, 2.1.1).

Online Submission

All manuscripts must be submitted through the journal’s online submission system. Only a submitting author listed on the manuscript may submit, and that person assumes full responsibility for all communications and updates during the submission and peer-review process.

At present, the system supports Microsoft Word files, and there is no strict page limit. If technical issues prevent successful submission, authors should contact the support team at: .

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Initial Evaluation

Upon submission, all manuscripts undergo an initial screening by the Editorial Office to confirm:

  • completeness of the submission files,
  • compliance with formatting and policy requirements,
  • alignment with ethical standards, and
  • overall suitability for the journal scope.

All submissions are also screened for similarity and originality using professional plagiarism-detection tools such as iThenticate. Manuscripts that fail to meet ethical standards, show problematic similarity, are incomplete, or are poorly structured may be returned to the authors for correction or declined before peer review.

After these checks, the Editorial Office consults with the Editor-in-Chief to determine whether the manuscript fits MJAIH’s scope and meets minimum scientific quality thresholds. Submissions with insufficient priority, weak novelty, major methodological concerns, or poor language quality may be rejected at this stage.

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Submission Declaration and Verification

By submitting to MJAIH, authors confirm that:

  • the work is original and not under consideration elsewhere,
  • all authors have read and approved the manuscript,
  • the submission is authorized by relevant institutional authorities (where applicable), and
  • if accepted, the manuscript will not be published elsewhere in the same form (in any language or medium) without written permission from the copyright holder.

To protect academic integrity, manuscripts are screened for similarity and potential plagiarism using iThenticate.

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Article Structure

Manuscripts should be compiled in the following order:

  1. Title page
  2. Abstract and Keywords
  3. Introduction
  4. Materials and Methods (or Methodology / Patients and Methods, as appropriate)
  5. Results
  6. Discussion (Results and Discussion may be combined)
  7. Conclusion
  8. Declarations
  9. References

Title Page

The title page must be in English and include:

  1. Title
    A brief, accurate, and descriptive title. Avoid citations, compound numbering, and non-standard abbreviations. Use 14-point Times New Roman, bold, centered.
  2. Authors and Affiliations
    Provide full names for all authors. Use superscript lowercase letters for affiliations. Affiliations should include department, faculty/college, institution, city, P.O. Box or zip code (if applicable), and country. Primary affiliation should reflect where most work was conducted. If an author moved institutions, list the research affiliation and optionally note current affiliation.
  3. Corresponding Author
    Mark the corresponding author with an asterisk and provide contact details in a footnote. Include ORCID where available.

Abstract

The abstract must be standalone (no citations) and not exceed 300 words. It should state purpose, methodology, major results, and primary conclusions. Define uncommon abbreviations at first use. Format: 9-point Times New Roman, non-bold.

Keywords

Provide keywords separated by semicolons. Format: 10-point Times New Roman, non-bold.

Introduction

A concise section without subheadings. Provide rationale and context, but avoid excessive background.

Materials and Methods

Provide enough detail for reproducibility. Reference established methods and clearly describe modifications. Include vendor details (company, city, country) for reagents/equipment when relevant. Provide details of statistical tests and significance thresholds.

Results and Discussion

May be combined. Results should be organized logically and presented clearly. Tables/figures should support the main message. Discussion must interpret significance, address limitations, relate to prior work, and suggest future directions rather than repeating results.

Conclusion

A brief statement summarizing goals and importance. Include new hypotheses or recommendations only when justified.

Statements and Declarations: Include all applicable declarations as separate items. Further information is provided in the Statements and Declarations section below.

References

Cite references in-text using Arabic numerals in square brackets, consecutively in order of appearance.

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Figures

Figures should be cited consecutively in the manuscript. If the article is accepted, authors may be asked to submit figure source files separately.

Acceptable formats include vector (e.g., EPS, WMF) and bitmap. Bitmap images should generally be at least 300 dpi, unless scientifically justified. If labels exist, separate layers for image and labels are preferred.

Use “Fig. 1” and “Figs. 2, 3–5” conventions. Multi-part figures should use lowercase letters (a, b, c). Captions should be placed below figures and formatted in 9-point Times New Roman, bold, with only the first word capitalized.

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Tables

Tables must be cited consecutively and include descriptive titles. Units must appear in column headings when needed. Avoid vertical lines. Titles should appear above tables and be formatted in 9-point Times New Roman, bold, with only the first word capitalized.

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Nomenclature and Units

Use SI units wherever possible. If other units are used, provide SI equivalents in parentheses. Tables and figures must follow the same convention and include necessary conversion notes in legends or footnotes.

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Statements and Declarations

A Statements and Declarations section is mandatory and must appear immediately before the References. All applicable declarations should be presented under separate subheadings.

Acknowledgment(s)

Recognize contributions that do not meet the criteria for authorship. This section may also be used to acknowledge non-financial support not captured elsewhere.

Funding

Declare all sources of funding for the research and publication, including grant support and APC funding where applicable. Use standard funder names and provide correct grant details. If the work was conducted as part of employment without external funding, the employer should be stated. Authors should also indicate whether the funder had any role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to publish.

Examples:

  • “This research received no external funding.”
  • “This work was supported by [Funder Name] [Grant Number].”
  • “The APC was funded by [Funder Name].”

Competing Interests

All authors must declare any relevant financial or non-financial competing interests. If none exist, this should be stated explicitly. The submitting author must ensure that all co-authors comply. Where relevant, authors should also state the role of the sponsor.

Examples:

  • “The authors declare no conflict of interest.”
  • “The sponsors had no role in the design, execution, interpretation, or writing of the study.”

Author Contributions

Provide author contribution statements. Use of the CRediT taxonomy is recommended.

Examples:

  • “All authors contributed to the study conception and design…”
  • A detailed CRediT breakdown, where appropriate.

Data Availability Statement

State where the supporting data can be accessed, or explain why they cannot be shared.

Examples:

  • “Data are available in [repository name/link].”
  • “Data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.”
  • “No datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.”

Ethical Statements

Where applicable, manuscripts must include relevant ethics and consent statements. Under the journal’s updated policy for new submissions, these statements should be included in the Statements and Declarations section before the References. Ethical statements are not required where they are not applicable to the study. Further details are provided below.

Ethical Approval

For studies involving human participants, animals, biological materials, sensitive data, or restricted/non-public datasets, authors should state the name of the approving ethics committee, institutional review board, or other relevant authority, together with the approval number or reference identifier where applicable. If formal ethics approval was not required or the study was exempt, this should be stated clearly and justified.

For studies involving human participants, authors should also state whether informed consent to participate was obtained. If consent was waived, the basis for the waiver should be explained.

If the manuscript includes identifiable individual data, case details, photographs, medical images, or other material requiring publication consent, authors must confirm that written informed consent for publication was obtained from the individual or, where applicable, from a parent, legal guardian, or other authorized representative.

Proofs

Page proofs will be sent to the corresponding author for checking typesetting accuracy, completeness, and minor errors. Corrections should be returned in a single response within 48 hours. Proofreading is the responsibility of the authors. If no response is received within the specified timeframe, publication may proceed.

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Revised Manuscripts

Revised manuscripts should be submitted within one month of the editorial decision, unless otherwise stated. Revision does not guarantee acceptance. Authors must respond clearly to each reviewer comment and justify any disagreements.

Revised submissions should include:

  • a tracked-changes version, or a version with changes clearly highlighted;
  • a response-to-reviewers document; and
  • a clean revised manuscript with no tracked changes.

After Acceptance

After acceptance, the manuscript enters production for copyediting and typesetting.

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Peer Review

MJAIH uses a rigorous peer-review process and expects high academic standards. Manuscripts passing editorial screening are sent to independent reviewers. The journal operates a double-blind peer review model, keeping author and reviewer identities confidential.

The final decision to accept, revise, or reject a manuscript rests with the Editor-in-Chief or a designated editor, based on reviewer reports and editorial assessment. The Editor-in-Chief retains overall responsibility for the journal’s editorial standards and published content.

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Supplementary Materials

Authors may submit supplementary files to be published online alongside the article. Each supplementary file should include the article title, journal name, author names, affiliations, and the corresponding author’s email. Supplementary files are published as received, without reformatting.

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Article Processing Charge (APC)

MJAIH applies an Article Processing Charge (APC) of 1,000 USD upon acceptance. There is no submission fee. The APC supports peer review operations, production, hosting, indexing services, and long-term accessibility under open access.