Publisher

Dietitians Association of Nigeria (DAN) is a national professional association of dietitians and assistant dietitians in Nigeria. The Association promotes health through food, nutrition and diet planning. It is working hard with government to establish the Dietitians Registration Council to regulate the professional training and practice of dietitians. The Association is working to ensure standardization of dietetic practice through accreditation and reaccreditation of recognized dietetic education programmes. It encourages its members to adopt evidence-based, ethical practices and life-long continuous professional development. It advocates for dietitians in Nigeria and looks forward to providing a quality assurance programme for accredited dietetics education programmes, dietetic internship. It encourages its members to adopt applied research and best practices in nutrition and dietetics.

Sources of Support

The journal is sponsored with funding support from Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), sales of hard copies and article processing charges

BUSINESS MATTERS

Subscription

Annual subscription price

Individual (member)                                                                             N2, 500.00

Non-member                                                                                        N3, 000.00

Student Rate                                                                                         N1, 500.00

Institution (Local)                                                                                 N4, 500.00

Institution (International)                                                                      $150.00

Individual (International)                                                                      $100.00

Advertisement Rate

(a) Full Page

Black and White                                                                                   N35, 000.00

Colour                                                                                                  N45, 000.00

(b) Half page

Black and White                                                                                   N30, 000.00

Colour                                                                                                  N40, 000.00

(c) Inside Back

Black and White                                                                                   N40, 000.00

Colour                                                                                                  N50, 000.00

(d) Back Cover

Black and White                                                                                   N50, 000.00

Colour                                                                                                  N65, 000.00

Peer Review

All submitted manuscripts are examined by Editorial Board and sent out to two referees. Authors are usually notified within 8 to 10 weeks as to the acceptability of their manuscripts. The corresponding or submitting author submits the paper to the journal email which jdanscientific@gamil.com. The journal’s editorial office checks the content of the manuscript and arrangement in-line with journal’s author guidelines to make sure it includes the required sections and style of the journal. The quality of the paper is not assessed at this point. The Editor-in-Chief (EIC) checks that the paper is appropriate for the journal and is sufficiently original and interesting. If not, the paper may be rejected without being reviewed any further. The handling editor sends invitations to 2 reviewers who will conduct a thorough review of the manuscripts double blind (the authors name (s) and affiliation (s) is/are removed before sending out and the author (s) do not know the reviewer). An initial 21 days (subject to extension) is given to the reviewers to review the manuscripts and make recommendations using the journal reviewers’ guide. Based on the recommendation of the reviewers, the manuscript is sent to the corresponding author for revision. After the authors have revised the manuscript, a decision is taken by Editor-in-Chief whether the manuscript will be accepted/needs further revision/rejected based on the reviewers’ recommendation. The final decision is take by the EIC. After which, authors are asked to pay article processing charge (APC) as determined by the editorial board if their manuscript was accepted for publication. Before the final prints, galley proofs are sent to authors to read and effect final minor corrections.

Open Access Policy

All research articles published in Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria are fully open access: immediately freely available to read, download and share. Articles are published under the terms of a Creative Commons license which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Publication Scheduling

This journal publishes one volume with two issues per year.

General

NATIONAL OFFICERS OF DIETITIANS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (DAN)

Dtn. Prof. Olivia Afam-Anene Ph.D., RDN       National President

Dtn. Emmanuel Ogbuigwe M.Sc., RDN          1St National Vice President

Dtn. Tolulope Folarin M.Sc., RDN                   2nd National Vice President

Dtn. Patience Chima MPH, RDN                    National Secretary

Dtn. Ubong David M.Sc., RDN                       Assistant National Secretary

Dtn. Patrick Ogbonna B.Sc., RDN                 National Treasurer

Dtn. Dr. Chika Ndiokwelu Ph.D., RDN        Country Rep., ICDA

Dtn. Jane Anyanwu B.Sc. RDN                      National Financial Secretary

Dtn. Abdulsalami Ahmad B.Sc., RDN          National Auditor

Dtn. Hannah Enuka RD, B.Sc                        National Publicity Secretary

Dtn. Dr. Aloysius Maduforo Ph.D., RDN      Editor-In-Chief

Dtn. Prof. E. K. Ngwu Ph.D., RDN.               Immediate Past President

Dtn. Prof. Ogechi Nzeagwu Ph.D., RDN      Chairman of Education Committee

 

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria (JDAN) is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) the journal follows the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of malpractice. COPE was established to provide a range of services and products aimed primarily, but not exclusively, at editors and publishers of academic journals and to provide advice and guidance on best practice for dealing with ethical issues in journal publishing. COPE consults editors and publishers on allaspects of publication ethics and, in practically, how to handle cases of research and publication misconduct. It is possible to find an example of a recognized publication ethics and malpractice statement at https://publicationethics.org/files/2008%20Code%20of%20Conduct.pdf. A code of conduct and guidelines can be found at https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines.

All the editors, authors and reviewers of the Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria agree upon standards of proper ethical behavior and accept the responsibility for fulfilling the following duties and responsibilities as set by the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Editors

(https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines). Our key expectations of authors, peer-reviewers and editors, and penalty for malpractice are as follows:

Editors’ Responsibilities

  • Editors have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article.
  • To accept an article when reasonably certain.
  • Editors should have no conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject/accept.
  • When errors are found to promote publication of correction or retraction.
  • To preserve anonymity of reviewers.
  • To act in a balanced, objective and fair way while carrying out their expected duties, without discrimination on grounds of gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, ethnic or geographical origin of the authors.

Editors Should:

  • Persist general duties and responsibilities of editors.
  • Editors should be responsible for everything published in their journals.
  • Strive to meet the needs of readers and authors.
  • Constantly improve the journal.
  • Ensure the quality of the material they publish.
  • Champion freedom of expression.
  • Maintain the integrity of the academic record.
  • Preclude business needs from compromising intellectual standards.
  • Always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

Reviewers’ Responsibilities

  • To contribute to the decision-making process, and to assist in improving the quality of thepublished article by reviewing the manuscript objectively.
  • Reviewers should have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the research founders.
  • Reviewers should point out relevant published work which is not yet cited.
  • Reviewed articles should be treated confidentially.

Authors’ Responsibilities

  • Authors are obliged to participate in peer review process.
  • All authors have to contribute significantly to the research.
  • Statements that all data in the articles are real and authentic.
  • All authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
  • No plagiarism, no fraudulent data is allowed.
  • It is forbidden to publish same research in more than one journal.
  • Authors should ensure that any studies involving human or animal subjects conform to national, local and institutional laws and requirements.

Publication Ethics Issues

  • Monitoring/safeguarding publication ethics by the editorial board.
  • Maintain the integrity of the academic record.
  • Preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards.
  • Always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed

Monitoring: The EIC must ensure to establish the mechanism for monitoring and safeguarding of publishing ethics. All the complaint received from the reviewers or the authors or anybody else should be taken into the proper consideration and an appropriate action will be taken promptly for such complaints.

Plagiarism

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted and permission has been obtained where necessary.

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have influenced the reported work and that give the work appropriate context within the larger scholarly record. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source.

Plagiarism takes many forms, from ‘passing off’ another’s paper as the author’s own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others.  Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical behaviour and is unacceptable. Thus, in the event that a JDAN publisher or editors are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct the publisher or editor shall deal with allegations appropriate.

Duplicate Publication: If duplicate publication is found or noticed from other sources, editorial board should check the status. If the duplicate publication is confirmed as intentional thing, then the following actions will be carried out: This should be reported to editorialboard, author(s), and president of every author’s institute; This should be sent to the publisher who published same (or very similar) article; Article will be removed; All authors’ name willbe marked as black list, and these authors cannot submit any article to Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria for 5 years or for an indefinite period.

Plagiarism (including self-plagiarism): If plagiarism is found or noticed from other sources,

editorial board should check the status. If the plagiarism is confirmed as intentional thing, then the following actions will be carried out: This should be reported to editorial board, authors, and president of every author’s institute; This should be sent to publisher who published same or similar article; Article will be removed; All authors’ name will be marked as black list, and this author(s) cannot submit any article to Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria for 5 years or for an indefinite period.

Duplicate submission: If duplicate submission was found or noticed from other sources, the editorial board should check the status. If the duplicate submission was confirmed as intentional thing, then the following actions must be imposed: Review process will be terminated; The reason should be sent to reviewers, editorial board, authors, and president of every author’s institute; All authors’ names will be marked as black list, and these authors cannot submit any article to Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria for 5 years or for an indefinite period.

Retraction & Corrections: The published articles will be retracted if there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable. The retraction can be a result of scientific misconduct or honest error. To maintain the integrity of the scientific record, the retracted article will not be removed from the journal's website, however a notice of retraction will be posted and is made freely available to all readers. Retraction can be published by the authors or the editor or the publisher. In rare cases involving legal infringement, the Publisher may remove an article. Bibliographic information about the article will be retained to ensure the integrity of the scientific record. We follow the COPE guidelines in such case. Sometimes it may be necessary to publish corrections/erratum in an article published in the Journal to maintain the integrity of the academic record. An appropriate notice regarding the correction will be placed and made freely available to the readers. We are always willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

Article withdrawal:
We expect our authors to comply with best practice in publication ethics as well as in quality of their articles. To avoid withdrawal of articles we sincerely request the corresponding author to undertake the issues related to authorship, publication ethics and accurateness of data and results at the time of submission of manuscript.

If an article found to violate the ethical publishing guidelines of the journal such as duplicate submission, fraudulent data, plagiarism, false claim of authorship etc. the article will be withdrawn by the journal. In case the article is under ‘Online first’ stage the journal will remove the article from website and an appropriate note for article withdrawal will be posted.
No response from the authors to journal communication after review and provisional acceptance is also considered as withdrawal of article.

Preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards:
We believe that the funding agencies and sponsors should not be able to influence the author's findings or the decision making. The editor should maintain the integrity of the academic record, preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards, and always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

Ethics approval and consent to participate
Manuscripts reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must: include a statement on ethics approval and consent (even where the need for approval was waived), include the name of the ethics committee that approved the study and the committee’s reference number if appropriate. In addition, studies involving animals must include a statement on ethics approval. If your manuscript does not report on or involve the use of any animal or human data or tissue, please state “Not applicable” in this section.

Conflicts of interest
Authors must declare all sources of support for the research and any association with a product or subject that may constitute conflict of interest.

Consent for publication
If your manuscript contains any individual person’s data in any form (including individual details, images or videos), consent for publication must be obtained from that person, or in the case of children, their parent or legal guardian. All presentations of case reports must have consent for publication. You can use your institutional consent form if you prefer. You should not send the form to us on submission, but we may request to see a copy at any stage (including after publication).

Availability of data and materials
All manuscripts must include an ‘Availability of data and materials’ statement. Data availability statements should include information on where data supporting the results reported in the article can be found including, where applicable, hyperlinks to publicly archived datasets analysed or generated during the study. By data we mean the minimal dataset that would be necessary to interpret, replicate and build upon the findings reported in the article. We recognize it is not always possible to share research data publicly, for instance when individual privacy could be compromised, and in such instances data availability should still be stated in the manuscript along with any conditions for access.

 

Publishing Ethics

Monitoring: The EIC must ensure to establish the mechanism for monitoring and safeguarding of publishing ethics. All the complaints received from the reviewers or the authors or anybody else should be taken into proper consideration and appropriate action should be taken promptly for such complaints.

Retraction & Corrections: The published articles will be retracted if there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable. The retraction can be a result of scientific misconduct or honest error. To maintain the integrity of the scientific record, the retracted article will not be removed from the journal's website, however, a notice of retraction will be posted and is made freely available to all readers. Retraction can be published by the authors or the editor or the publisher. In rare cases involving legal infringement, the Publisher may remove an article. Bibliographic information about the article will be retained to ensure the integrity of the scientific record. We follow the COPE guidelines in such cases. Sometimes it may be necessary to publish corrections/erratum in an article published in the Journal to maintain the integrity of the academic record. Appropriate notice regarding the correction will be placed and made freely available to the readers. We are always willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

Article withdrawal: 

We expect our authors to comply with best practices in publication ethics as well as in the quality of their articles. To avoid withdrawal of articles we sincerely request the corresponding author to undertake the issues related to authorship, publication ethics, and accurateness of data and results at the time of submission of the manuscript.

If an article is found to violate the ethical publishing guidelines of the journal such as duplicate submission, fraudulent data, plagiarism, false claim of authorship, etc. the article will be withdrawn by the journal. In case the article is under the ‘Online first’ stage the journal will remove the article from the website and an appropriate note for article withdrawal will be posted.

No response from the authors to journal communication after review and provisional acceptance is also considered as withdrawal of the article.

Preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards: 

We believe that the funding agencies and sponsors should not be able to influence the author's findings or the decision-making. The editor should maintain the integrity of the academic record, preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards, and always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Manuscripts reporting studies involving human participants, human data, or human tissue must: include a statement on ethics approval and consent (even where the need for approval was waived), include the name of the ethics committee that approved the study, and the committee’s reference number if appropriate. In addition, studies involving animals must include a statement on ethics approval. If your manuscript does not report on or involve the use of any animal or human data or tissue, please state “Not applicable” in this section.

Conflicts of interest

Authors must declare all sources of support for the research and any association with a product or subject that may constitute a conflict of interest.

Consent for publication

If your manuscript contains any individual person’s data in any form (including individual details, images or videos), consent for publication must be obtained from that person, or in the case of children, their parent or legal guardian. All presentations of case reports must have consent for publication.

You can use your institutional consent form if you prefer. You should not send the form to us on submission, but we may request to see a copy at any stage (including after publication). 

Availability of data and materials

All manuscripts must include an ‘Availability of data and materials statement. Data availability statements should include information on where data supporting the results reported in the article can be found including, where applicable, hyperlinks to publicly archived datasets analysed or generated during the study. By data, we mean the minimal dataset that would be necessary to interpret, replicate and build upon the findings reported in the article. We recognize it is not always possible to share research data publicly, for instance when individual privacy could be compromised, and in such instances, data availability should still be stated in the manuscript along with any conditions for access.

Abstracting and Indexing

The Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria is indexed in:

  1. Society of African Journal Editors
  2. Academic Accelerator
  3. African Journal Online (AJOL)
  4. All papers published in JDAN from 2021 have digital object identifier (DOI)

The Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria is undergoing review to be indexed in SCOPUS. We are working hard to get the Journal Indexed in Clarivate Analyticus as soon as possible.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement is based, in large part, on the guidelines and standards developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The relevant duties and expectations of authors, reviewers, and editors of the journal are set out below.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF AUTHORS
By submitting a manuscript to the Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria, the author(s) warrant that the manuscript is their own, original work and that it has neither been published previously nor is currently being considered for publication elsewhere. They also warrant that the sources of any ideas and/or words in the manuscript that are not their own have been properly attributed through appropriate citations and/or quotes.
An author should not normally publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in multiple journals or publication venues. Such redundant publication is generally considered to constitute unethical publishing behavior, and if discovered may result in a manuscript under consideration being rejected, or a published article being retracted.

Authors of manuscripts reporting on original research should present an accurate account of the work performed, accompanied by an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the manuscript. The manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. The fabrication of results and the making of fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and may be cause for rejection or retraction of a manuscript or published article.

Where the manuscript reports on commercial software, hardware, or other products, authors must include a declaration at the beginning of the manuscript in which they must either state that no conflict of interest exists or describe the nature of any potential conflict. All sources of financial support for the research should also be disclosed in the manuscript.

The author(s) of a manuscript agree that if the manuscript is accepted for publication in Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria, the published article will be copyrighted using a Creative Commons “Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike” license. This license allows the author(s) to retain the copyright but also allows others to freely copy, distribute, and display the copyrighted work, and derivative works based upon it, under certain specified conditions.

Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission to include any images or artwork for which they do not hold copyright in their articles or to adapt any such images or artwork for inclusion in their articles. The copyright holder must be made explicitly aware that the image(s) or artwork will be made freely available online as part of the article under a Creative Commons “Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike” license.

The authors’ names should be listed on the article in order of their contribution to the article, and all authors take responsibility for their own contributions. Only those individuals who have made a substantive contribution should be listed as authors; those whose contributions are indirect or marginal (e.g., colleagues or supervisors who have reviewed drafts of the work or provided proofreading assistance, and heads of research institutes/centers/labs) should be named in an “Acknowledgments” section at the end of the article, immediately preceding the Reference List. The corresponding author must ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included in the article and that all listed co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the article and agreed to its publication.

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in an article of his/hers that has been published in the Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria, he/she has an obligation to promptly notify the editors and cooperate with them to correct the article or retract it as appropriate.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF REVIEWERS
Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria reviewers perform work for the journal on a volunteer basis. Given that most of these individuals are in full-time employment, their reviewing activities for the Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria must, by necessity, not be their top priority. Reviewers are free to decline invitations to review particular manuscripts at their discretion, for example, if their current employment workload and/or other commitments make it prohibitive for them to complete a review in a timely fashion and to do justice to the task in the available timeframe. They should also not accept manuscript review assignments for which they feel unqualified.

Reviewers who have accepted manuscript assignments are normally expected to submit their reviews within three weeks. They should recuse themselves from the assignment if it becomes apparent to them at any stage that they do not possess the required expertise to perform the review, or that they may have a potential conflict of interest in performing the review (e.g., one resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, institutions, or companies associated with the manuscript).

Privileged information or ideas obtained by reviewers through the peer review process must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents, and must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria Editor-in-Chief.

When conducting their reviews, reviewers are asked to do so as objectively as possible, refraining from engaging in personal criticism of the author(s). They are encouraged to express their views clearly, explaining and justifying all recommendations made. They should always attempt to provide detailed and constructive feedback to assist the author(s) in improving their work, even if the manuscript is, in their opinion, not publishable.

Reviewers should identify in their reviews relevant published work that has not been cited by the author(s), together with any instances in which proper attribution of sources has not been provided. They should call to the responsible editor’s attention any major resemblances between a manuscript under consideration and other published articles or papers of which they are aware, as well as any concerns they might have in relation to the ethical acceptability of the research reported in the manuscript.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF EDITORS
The Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria has the ultimate responsibility for deciding if a manuscript submitted to the Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria should be published, and in doing so is guided by the journal’s policies as determined by the Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. The Editor may consult with the Associate Editor and other members of the editorial team, as well as with reviewers, in making publication decisions.

The editors will evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to the race, color, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the author(s). They will not disclose any information about a manuscript under consideration to anyone other than the author(s), reviewers and potential reviewers, and in some instances the Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria editorial board members, as appropriate. Additionally, the editors will make every effort to ensure the integrity of the blind review process by not revealing the identity of the author(s) of a manuscript to the reviewers of that manuscript, and vice versa.

When evaluating a manuscript for publication, in addition to considering standard criteria pertaining to the rigor of the manuscript, the quality of its presentation, and its contribution to humanity’s stock of knowledge, the editors will also seek evidence that ethical harms have been minimized in the conduct of the reported research. They will question whether the benefits outweigh the harms in the particular study’s case. Since the Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria welcomes the submission of manuscripts from any country, it is necessary to recognize that laws and regulations regarding research ethics and ethical approval vary worldwide. As such, the editors may need to seek clarification in this regard with the author(s) and request that they supply a letter from the relevant institutional ethics committee or board that approved the research.

The editors will be guided by COPE’s Guidelines for Retracting Articles when considering retracting, issuing an expression of concern about, and issuing corrections pertaining to articles that have been published in the Journal of Dietitians Association of Nigeria. They are committed to working closely with research organizations and institutions in line with CORE’s advice on Cooperation between Research Institutions and Journals on Research Integrity Cases.


Journal Identifiers


eISSN: 2635-3326
print ISSN: 2141-8209