About the Journal

Facts about the Journal

The Calabar Journal of Health Sciences (CJHS) is a peer-reviewed international journal with a double-blind review process. Its frequency of publication is semiannual. The Calabar Journal of Health Sciences (CJHS) is published in E-Journal format and the journal is also available in print on demand.

Scope of Calabar Journal of Health Sciences

CJHS is a peer-reviewed journal which publishes reports of research on health disciplines within the diverse fields of Basic Medical Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Clinical and Dental Sciences, Climate Change impact on Health; emerging and re-emerging Diseases, Clinical Psychology, Community Medicine, Environmental and Occupational Health, Ethno-phamacognosy, Health Research Ethics, Medical Laboratory Science, Medico-Legal Aspects of Health, Nursing Science, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Primary Health Care, Public Health and Sports Medicine.

The mission of this journal is to publish, promote, educate and spread the knowledge of basic and clinical sciences in a manner that enables readers to clearly comprehend concepts and practices and encourage further researches. The journal publishes original research papers, papers on technical innovations, review articles, case reports, and letters to editors. The journal allows free access to its articles.

About the cover page

Centre Block:  Calabar is the home of the University of Calabar (founded in 1975) and the capital of Cross River State, Nigeria. The metropolis is situated between Latitudes 4º30ʹN and 5º15ʹN and Longitudes 7º30ʹE and 8º15ʹE along the banks of Calabar River and about 50 nautical miles north of Cross River estuary. The city which was the seat of the Niger Coast, Oil River and Southern Protectorates has a rich history steeped in colonialism that reflects the long-standing contact with Europe from early 15^th century. The Calabar Slave History Museum is replete with relics of the trade in oil palm products and slaves. Today, the state the city are burgeoning tourist haven in the West African sub-region.

Top Left:  The state is a location of a rich medley of tropical flora, typified by the tropical rain forest vegetation, so expansive and lush that it generates a climate of its own.  It is a virgin habitat for a variety of monkeys, flocks of gaudy plumaged canopy birds, vast underbrush communities of rodents and a wealth of insect lives.

Top Right:  The state is in a region endemic for loaiasis, a lymphatic and blood filariasis transmitted by the bite of the high canopy blood-sucking deer fly (mango fly) of the genus Chrysops.  In infected persons, the adult worm often migrates beneath the conjunctiva (eye worm) or in the subcutaneous tissue, causing itchy fugitive swellings called “Calabar swellings”.

Bottom Right:  The “Calabar beans,” (esere, in Efik), named for the place where the plant was first described, are shelled from pods of a herbaceous legume, Physostigma venenosum.  The seeds have high content of the alkaloid ‘physostigmine’ (eserine), the “ordeal poison”.  In the local folk lore, the seeds were used in the trials of suspects of grave social crimes and witchcraft.  Each suspect was made to chew and swallow a mouthful of the beans or drink a cup of the elixir.  Guilt was usually established by prompt death from poisoning.  Today, eserine as physostigmine salicylate has found its niche in clinical pharmacology as an antidote for reversible inhibition of acetyl cholinesterase activity, reversible of atropine activity and inhibition of anticholinergic drug toxicity of the central nervous system.

Bottom left:  The iconic symbols represent the vast range and usage scopes of the disciplines in the health sciences.

Editorial Policy

It is the policy of CJHS that all manuscripts submitted for publication are reports from original research.  Authors are required to state that the manuscript submitted or one substantially the same has not been published, is neither concurrently under review for publication nor will be published elsewhere.  In all submissions on experimental research involving humans, CJHS requires authors to state that informed consent was obtained from patients or their parents or guardians and that clinical studies has been cleared by the Ethnical Review Committee of the author’s institution and any other relevant health authority.  Protocols and guidelines for the conduct of research on animals must conform to international standard. Statements, views and opinions in manuscripts, communications and advertisements in CJHS represent those of authors or advertisers and who therefore absolutely accept responsibility or liability for such opinions and views and endorse any such products or services.