Editorial and Writing Guidelines

 

 

Editorial Overview

 

At Datelinehealth Africa, we provide Africa-centred health content on a wide variety of topics with the highest emphasis on science based accuracy, reliability and quality of evidence.

 

All internally generated contents published on the Datelinehealth Africa website are produced by a staff of well qualified professional and freelance writers and contributory editors. The contents are produced through a variety of methods including researching evidence based professional publications, institutional news releases, interviews with diverse health stakeholders, including physicians, other healthcare professionals or experts; and from a variety of fact-checked sources.

 

All contents receive science-based review by our staff and by our science, health and medicine advisors on referral before publication. This is a critical step in our editorial production and we take the responsibility seriously.

 

Health contents in Datelinehealth Africa are written as a public service in support of the organisation’s mission; to promote public health and healthy living in Africa. The contents are designed to help people improve their health through health promotion tips, adopt prevention information, as well as understand the causes, risks, diagnosis and treatment of specific health and medical conditions.

 

Beyond filtering obscene and obviously offensive information, but subject to our commitment to the highest quality assurance, we undertake minimal filtration of the varieties of content that we provide our audience.

 

Our contents are aimed at supporting our reader’s health and helping them obtain reliable information to understand their conditions. They do not replace the advice of a qualified health professional who is familiar with an individual's medical needs. Read our disclaimer policy here.

 

Datelinehealth Africa does not charge anything or require subscriptions for public access to the contents on its website. While we solicit and maintain relationships with sponsors, grantors and advertisers in support of our mission, we insist on our editorial independence.

 

Our target audience is worldwide, but more so, the public especially in the Africa regions who seek knowledge and solutions about various science, health and medical conditions for themselves, their relatives, friends and others in their lives.  

 

Click here to learn more about the Datelinehealth Africa Inc., the parent company of Datelinehealth Africa – the digital platform.

 

Guideline to writers

 

I. Content Type

At Datelinehealth Africa, we encourage our staff and freelance writer, guest writers, contributors and editors to create original and plagiarism free contents with emphasis on the following criteria:

 

Relevance to Africa health and medical situations - We urge our writers to create content that are of high relevance to our core audience, i.e., people in Africa and Africans in the diaspora. To this end, contents created by our writers should cover breaking health news; drug and product launches, recalls, official public health alerts and advisories; and expert commentary on managing diseases and conditions and staying healthy.

 

Diseases and Conditions of Significance - We encourage our content creators to provide information on diseases and conditions common in Africa, as well as lay interpretations of the latest medical findings published in peer-reviewed medical journals globally as long as the content are of relevance to the people of Africa.

 

Health Trends – We also request our content creators to engage in topics of seasonal interests, such as "Cold and Flu"; allergies, public health awareness, cancer and other health awareness matters, and emerging health trends, such as the latest in nutrition, fitness, disease prevention, healthy living, alternative care methods, and much more.

 

II. Language, Content Style and Tone

As at this time, the dominant language of content presentation shall be British English. We hope to create content in French, Portuguese and few dominant ethnic languages of certain regions of Africa in the future.

 

When creating content for consumers, Datelinehealth Africa requires its content creators to use simple language and style with minimal medical jargons. The tone should largely be conversational and one that our audience can relate to at a personal level.

 

III. Content structure

All contents creators should produce content that is well structured, with good flow, and SE optimised for short and long tail keywords. The content title should be a draw for readers to engage with the rest of the content. Sentences should be short, paragraphing should be generous and spacing of submitted draft content should be set at 1.0

 

Content should also have appropriate headings and subheadings and commonly end with a call to action (i.e., Summary, Conclusion or Take away).

 

IV. More on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Here are a few simple ways that content creators can maximise their content’s discoverability and search results.

• Include a few of your article's keywords in the title of the article

• Do not use long article titles.

• Pick 5-8 keywords using a mix of generic and more specific terms on the article’s subject(s)

• Use the maximum amount of keywords in the first two sentences of the introduction or highlights

• Use some of the keywords in level 1 headings

 

V. Titles

Articles or blog titles should be attractive to readers and contain some of the primary keywords that the author needs the content to rank for or that meets readers search intents. The character count in the title (no spaces) should be kept at less than 60.

 

VI. Keywords

All article types require a minimum of four and a maximum of eight keywords. Blogs require at least three keywords. Content creators should include keywords in the content they submit for publication.

 

VII. Body Text

The entire body text shall be single-spaced and typed in Arial font, size 12.

 

The title shall be in Arial 18 bold, while the subheadings (H2s) shall be in Arial 16 bold. H3 - H4 sub-subheadings shall be in Arial 14 -16 bold.

 

In order to facilitate the review process, all submitted content should be written in editable word format and submitted in any of the following ways; as an email attachment in MS or Open word, or as Google Docs with grant of access to “anyone with the link”.

 

VIII. Figures, Images, Tables, etc.

All figures, images, tables, etc., submitted for publication must be JPEG formatted and be accompanied by description texts as well as alt texts.

 

Regardless of whether embedded in submitted content or not, any media (figures, images, tables, gifs, videos and, audios) to be posted with submitted content shall be emailed separately as .jpegs in the case of figures, images and tables, and as MP4 in the case of videos and audios.

 

Preferably, creative media that are submitted with content for publication should either be royalty free or be the original work of the content creator. Where royalty free media is submitted, the source and citation instruction of the media must be indicated (when available). In the case that a copyrighted media is submitted with any content for publication (with or without adaptation or modification), it will be the submitter’s responsibility to obtain either the permission or license of the copyright owner and follow the citation instructions requested by the copyright owner for use of the media.

 

IX. Use of Abbreviations

The use of abbreviations should be kept to a minimum. Non-standard abbreviations should be defined upon first use in the main text.

 

X. Citations and References

As Datelinehealth Africa requires its content creators to make evidence-based science the cornerstone of their content, they should provide reliable and credible citation of sources relied on in their content and also provide details of the citations in a reference list as applicable.

 

Non-profit governmental, academic, institutional and research centres are prefered sources for citations than for-profit corporations or personal blogs.

 

For short blogs, it may just be sufficient to state at the end of the blog, a source or few resources on which the blog content is based.

 

Preferred citation style is the Numerical citations. In this format, citations are represented in ascending numbers in parenthesis or in superscript after the claim. A number must correspond to an entry in the numbered reference list. Numbered citations in the body text should not be hyperlinked to their original data source or bookmarked to their respective numbered reference in the list of references.

 

A less preferred alternative citation style is the Parenthetical citations,  wherein you include identifying details of the source in parentheses in the text - usually the author’s last name and the publication date (i.e., author-date). Sometimes the publication date is omitted (i.e., author only).

 

With respect to the reference list, any of the well-known referencing styles in medicine are acceptable, so long as content creators are consistent in their preferred choice (e.g., NLM, Vancouver, and AMA styles). We generally encourage the use of the Vancouver style.

(See here for more details of the Vancouver in-text Citation and Reference list convention)

 

Here are examples of Vancouver style of listing references for non-journal website/webpage content:

 

Author(s)/Editor(s) surname Initial(s) - if available. Title. [Internet. publication or last update date]. Publisher: [Accessed or citation date]. Available from: URL

 

 

If a specific author cannot be found, attribute the citation to the publishing organisation or institution as shown below:

 

For the Vancouver style of listing references of peer reviewed journals, it would be helpful to look for, copy and paste referencing details frequently detailed in ”Cite this" or "How to Cite this article” links in most peer reviewed journal articles.

 

A copied "Cite this" example is shown below (with some modification):

Olatoye FJ, Akindele AJ, Awodele O. The role of Kolaviron, a bioflavonoid from Garcinia kola, in the management of cardiovascular diseases: A systematic review. Heliyon. 2024 Feb 29;10(5):e27333. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e27333. Available from here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10915569/

 

XI. Hyperlinking

Content creators are to generously build internal links with existing website resources that are relevant to their content. To do so, you should always search the Datelinehealth Africa website at the beginning of each content creation effort to identify related resources to use for internal link building. External hyperlinks in the body text should be limited to absolute necessities.

 

XII. Meta tags

For purposes of SEO compliance, every content submitted must be accompanied with a Meta-title. Meta Keywords and Meta description.

 

XIII. Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Content creators are free to use generative AI for their content creation process so long as

i. They take full responsibility for checking the factual accuracy of the AI content. This includes, but is not limited to, any quotes, citations or references.

ii. Images, Tables, etc., that are produced by or edited using a generative AI technology are checked to ensure they accurately reflect the data presented in the manuscript.

iii. Written or visual content produced by or edited using generative AI technology is free from plagiarism.

 

When a content creator uses a generative AI technology to produce any written or visual content or to edit a content, such use must be communicated to the Editor in Chief of the website or any person designated by this officer.

 

XIV. Plagiarism report

It is the responsibility of content creators to run their content prior to submission through a plagiarism tool and submit the report with their content as a proof of plagiarism free content creation. It is advised that the reference list be excluded from plagiarism checks as this may cause a higher plagiarism content report. An average of 20% plagiarism is currently the acceptable limit for all submitted contents

 

XV. Other Terms

By submitting a creative content (article, blog, vlog, photo, slideshow, video or podcast) for publication or use in Datelinehealth Africa or any of its associated media outlets, either as a work for hire or in any other capacity (volunteer, guest, etc.,) you hereby (a) give irrevocable warranty that you are the original creator of the content submitted, (b) take full and personal responsibility for any allegation or claim of plagiarism that may arise as a result of your submission (c) irrevocably grant Datelinehealth Africa a royalty-free, irrevocable, exclusive right but not the obligation, to post, air, edit, exhibit, telecast, cablecast, webcast, use, re-use, modify, adapt, publish, reproduce, license, sublicense, print, distribute, perform or otherwise use your submission(s) and accompanying personal identifying and other information you provide via all forms of media now known or hereafter devised, worldwide, in perpetuity through its multiple associated channels and/ or sublicenses.

 

Any information contained in a content or media submitted to DatelinehealthAfrica shall not be presented as professional medical advise or treatment unless otherwise presented by a licensed healthcare provider for educational or training purposes.

 

Writers of content materials agree to irrevocably indemnify DatelinehealthAfrica and any of its associated media entities from any liability whatsoever, including liability arising from third party action brought against the writer and or DatelinehealthAfrica as a result of a submission.

 

Submitters of content agree to waive their rights to the courts in settlement of disputes that may arise with Datelinehealth Africa and/or its associated media entities. Dispute (if any) between parties shall be settled amicably with or without arbitration. The Arbitration statute and procedures of the State of Delaware, USA shall apply.

 

DatelineHealth Africa Inc., reserves the right to update the guidelines at will and without prior notice. Please check back regularly for the latest update.

 

 

Published: May 16, 2024

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