Updated May 21st, 2010
Quarterly Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences follow
the uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to Biomedical
Journals as approved by the International Committee of Medical Journal
Editors (ICMJE) revised in October 2004 and recommended by PM&DC. This
Journal is Indexed by WHO Index Medicus (IMEMR) for EMRO Region,
ExtraMed, is covered by EXCERPTA MEDICA, Netherlands, CAB Abstract and
Global Health of UK, is registered with International Serials Data
System of France bearing ISSN No. 1017-4699. It is included in the
Directory of Open Access Journals (www.doaj.org)
on Internet. It is also approved by Pakistan Medical & Dental Council
since 1989 and College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP). Hence, all
those whose manuscripts are accepted and published will get the
necessary credit. (Abbreviated form: PaK J Med Sci.)
While submitting manuscripts, please carefully follow
the instructions given below:-
1. Always submit two printed copies of the article
and one copy on the CD, two sets of photographs, illustration, diagrams
etc.
2. Manuscript should be typed in double space on one
side of the A-4 size paper with clear margins on both sides. Tables as
well as illustrations should be typed and drawn on a separate paper. Do
not submit tables as photographs. Give each column an abbreviated
heading. Identify statistical measures such as standard deviation and
standard error of the mean. Make sure that each table is cited in the
text.
3. Figures should be professionally drawn and
photographed; freehand or typewritten lettering is not accepted. Instead
of original drawings, X-ray films and other, material, send sharp glossy
black & white photographic prints usually 5" x 7". Number the figures on
their back with author’s name. Do not bend figures and don’t paste them
on paper.
4. We accept only those manuscripts or data that have
not been previously published or submitted elsewhere for publication.
However, re-analysis of previously published data can be accepted.
5. In case the manuscript was earlier submitted to
some other Journal and was rejected, the authors must provide full
information for proper analysis.
6. All manuscripts by multiple authors must be signed
by all the authors.
7. Informed consent of the patients participating in
the study should be undertaken.
8. All studies must be approved by the relevant
Ethics Committee/Institution Review Boards of the respective
institutions.
9. The authors as well as reviewers are expected to
declare the conflict of interest if any.
10. Source of funding for the study should be clearly
mentioned.
11. The journal will accept:- (a) Guest Editorials on
important subjects of current interest, (b) Original Articles, (c)
Review Articles, (d) Case Reports, (e) Clinical Updates (f) Short
Communications and (g) Letters to the Editor. We do not accept
Knowledge, Attitude, Practice (KAP) studies, routine surveys. Only
selected animal studies are entertained.
12. The desired position of any figure or table
should be marked in the margin.
13. The manuscripts except special/short
communications & Guest Editorials should contain the following
sections:-
a. Title Page: The complete title of the
manuscript, the name of all the authors with their highest
qualifications, the department or institution to which they are
attached, address for correspondence with telephone numbers, e-mail, Fax
number and short running title of the article, source of funding, number
of figures, tables, total word count and total number of pages.
b. Conflicts of interest Notification Page:
When authors submit a manuscript they must disclose all financial and
personnel relationship that might bias their work. Authors must state
explicitly whether potential conflicts do or do not exist. They should
do so in the manuscript on a conflict of interest notification page that
follows the title page. Additional details can be provided if necessary
in a covering letter which accompanies the manuscript.
Authors of study funded by an agency with
proprietary or financial interest in the outcome must sign a statement
that they had full excess to all the data in the study and take complete
responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the
data analysis. This statement should be submitted along with the
manuscript.
c. Abstract: All original articles (maximum
length up to Two thousand five hundred words (2500) and up to twenty
five (25) references). It must
accompany a structured abstract up to 200 words which should cover
Objective, Methodology, Results, Conclusions and appropriate Key Words. It should state
Objective of the study, (Selection of study subjects or experimental animals; observational and
analytical methods, give specific data and their statistical
significance, if possible). Emphasize new and important aspects of the
study or observations. This page should contain structured abstract and
key words only. Authors need to be careful that the abstract reflects
the content of the article accurately.
d. Key Words: Below the abstract give few key
words not more than ten that will assist indexers in cross indexing the
article as they are published with abstract. Use terms from the Medical
Subject Headings (MeSH) list of index medicus, if suitable MeSH terms
are not yet available for recently introduced terms, present terms may
be used.
e. Case Report/Review Article: All review
articles and case reports should be preceded by a summary. Case Report
should have a maximum of up to One thousand (1000) words and not more
than ten (10) references. Do not include review of literature in case
report. Authors
submitting review manuscript should include a section describing the
methods used for locating, selecting, extracting and synthesizing data.
These methods should also be summarized in the abstract. Review Article
should have not more than Three thousand five hundred words (3500) and a
maximum of Forty (40) references.
f. Introduction: This should summarize the
purpose and the rationale for the study. It should neither review the
subject extensively nor it should have data or conclusions of the study.
g. Methodology:
This should include exact method or observation or experiment. If an
apparatus is used, it’s manufacturer’s name and address should be given
in parenthesis. If the method is established, give reference but if the
method is new, give enough information so that another author is able to
perform it. If a drug is used, its generic name, dose and route of
administration must be given. For patients, age, sex with mean age ±
standard deviation must be given. Statistical method must be mentioned
and specify any general computer programme used. The Info system used
should be clearly mentioned.
h. Results: It must be presented in the form
of text, tables and illustrations. The contents of the tables should not
be all repeated in the text. Instead, a reference to the table number
may be given. Long articles may need sub-headings within some sections
(especially the Results and Discussion parts) to clarify their contents.
Extra or supplementary materials and technical details can be placed in
an appendix where it will be accessible. It may be omitted from the
printed version but published in the electronic version of the journal.
i. Discussion: This should emphasize the
present findings and the variations or similarities with other work done
in the field by other workers. The detailed data should not be repeated
in the discussion again. Emphasize the new and important aspects of the
study and the conclusions that follow from them. It must be mentioned
whether the hypothesis mentioned in the article is true, false or no
conclusions can be derived.
j. References: All manuscripts should be
accompanied by relevant references and they should be typed on separate
sheet. Maximum number of references for Original Articles should not be
more than thirty, for Reviews up to forty five, Case Report and Special
Communications from five to fifteen. These references should also be marked in the text. The reference
list should also be typed in double space. The author should ensure
reference to locally published studies by doing proper literature
search. It may not be possible for the editor and reviewers to check the
accuracy of all reference citations. To minimize such errors author
should verify references against the original documents. The References
should be written in Vancouver style as per " Uniform requirements for
manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals" for details see ICMJE
website: www.icmje.org List all authors when there are six or
fewer. If there are seven or more list the first six followed by "et
al" Reference should provide the following information: Author’s
name with initials, full title of cited article, name of the journal in
which the article appeared (in abbreviated form), Year of Publication,
Journal’s Volume, Number and finally first and the last page numbers,
such as:-
"Niaz U, Hassan S, Hussain H & Saeed S. Attitudes
towards psychiatry in pre-clinical and post-clinical clerkships in
different medical colleges of Karachi. Pak J Med Sci 2003; 19(4):253-63.
( In case of multiple authors, list the first six
authors followed by et al. )
k. Reference from the books should have Authors name
and initials, full title of cited article, complete title of book, Name
of Editors, address (city) the publisher, first and last page numbers
and finally the year of publication, such as:-
"Haroon TS. How to plan a scientific study, ‘Medical
Writing’ (second edition),
Jawaid SA, Jafary MH & Zuberi SJ (Eds), Pakistan Medical Journalists
Association,
Karachi, Pakistan. pp 1-13, 1993".
l. In case of multicentre study or trial, the
reference should be given as Name of the Group or of study, exact title
of the study, full results or partial results, Name of the Journal,
Volume and Number, pages and the year. For example:-
"TIMI Study Group: Comparison of invasive and
conservative strategies after treatment with intravenous tissue
plasminogen activator in acute myocardial infarction.
Results of the TIMI Phase-II trail. N Eng J Med. 320: 618-627, 1989."
m. Newspaper articles: Malik Mahmood A,
autonomous hospitals, "Pulse" International, Karachi, Pakistan, 2000.
January 15-31, Page 1 & 2.
n. Citation of personal communications and
unpublished observations should be strictly limited and given in
brackets in the text. These should not appear in the list of references.
A paper may not be cited as "Under Publication or in Press" unless it
has been accepted for publication & the name of the Journal is given.
LETTER OF UNDERTAKING
Date: ______________
The Editor,
Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences,
C/o. Professional Medical Publications,
Room No. 522, 5th Floor, Panorama Centre Bldg. No.2, Saddar,
Karachi – Pakistan.
Dear Sir,
This is to confirm that the Manuscript entitled
_______________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
submitted for publication in Quarterly “Pakistan Journal of Medical
Sciences” has been read and approved by all authors, has not been
published in any other journal, is being exclusively contributed to
Pak J Med Sci and if accepted for Publication, it will not be
published in any other medical periodical in Pakistan or Overseas. We
also transfer all copyrights of this manuscript to Pakistan Journal of
Medical Sciences.
Please also note that minimum publication charges for articles,
manuscripts is Rs.3,500/- up to 4 printed pages in the journal and Rs.
600/- for each additional page (in case of overseas US$ 120/-) . US$
30/- extra will be payable for each additional page. Charges for photograph, films and illustrations are
additional. Publication charges are payable in advance once the
manuscript has been accepted for publication by the Editorial Board
after peer review. Please ensure to include Ethics Committee
Approval of the study.
(This letter must be signed by all authors).
Note: Note: All manuscript from Pakistan must be accompanied with a
Cash or Bank Draft for Rs. 1000/- as processing charges (Non
Refundable) in the name of ‘Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences’.)
Add Rs. 250/- in case of cheque.)
Full Name of Authors: (Use Capital Letters)
Note: The manuscript must contain a paragraph
describing the contribution of each author otherwise the first three
authors will be retained and all others listed as authors will be
shifted to the Acknowledgement section.
NOTE: Please sign and return this Letter of Undertaking immediately.
Letter of Undertaking in PDF
format
14. Letter of Undertaking: All manuscripts
must be accompanied by a letter of undertaking as given below and signed
by all the authors:-
15. Authorship
• Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial
contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or
analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising
it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) final approval
of the version to be published. Authors should meet conditions 1, 2 and
3.
• Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or
general supervision of the research group, alone does not justify
authorship.
• All persons designated as authors should qualify
for authorship and all those who qualify should be listed.
• Each author should have participated sufficiently
in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of
the content.
• In case of more than three authors in a manuscript,
the contributions of each person listed as author in the study should be
mentioned.
• When a large, multi-center group has conducted the
work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct
responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet
the criteria for authorship defined above and editors will ask these
individuals to complete journal-specific author and conflict of interest
disclosure forms. When submitting a group author manuscript, the
corresponding author should clearly indicate the preferred citation and
should clearly identify all individual authors as well as the group
name. Other members of the group should be listed in the
acknowledgements.
16. Acknowledgement: All contributors who do
not meet the criteria for authorship should be covered in the
acknowledgement section. It should include persons who provided
technical help, writing assistance and departmental head who only
provided general support. Financial and material support should also be
acknowledged. Persons who have contributed materially but do not justify
authorship can be listed as "clinical investigators" or "participating
investigators" or "Scientific advisors" or "critically reviewed the
study proposal or collected data."
17. Length of the Text: Maximum length of the
original manuscript should not exceed 2500 words. For review article
3500 words. Any term which is mentioned in the text quite frequently
must be abbreviated but only if this does not detract from readers
comprehension. Such as Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) and Coronary
Artery Disease (CAD). Maximum number of tables should not exceed four.
Case Report: Short report of cases, clinical experience, drug
trials and adverse effects can be submitted. Maximum length should not
exceed 1000 words, maximum number of ten references, one table or two
illustrations. It must contain genuinely new information. Its format
should be Title, Abstract, Introduction, Case Report, Discussion and
References,
18. Never start any new sentence or paragraph with
figures. For example, "9 patients were admitted" should be written as
"Nine patients were admitted".
19. The manuscript should be accompanied by a
covering letter signed by all authors stating that the manuscript has
been read and approved by all the authors, the requirements as stated
earlier have been fully met and each author believes that manuscript
contains honest work. Mention the name, address, phone, e-mail and Fax
Number of the corresponding author who will be responsible for
communicating and final approval of the proofs.
20. Procedure: Pakistan Journal of Medical
Sciences is a peer reviewed journal. All articles on receipt for
publication are immediately acknowledged but this does not mean that it
has been accepted for publication. The manuscript is sent to two or more
than two Reviewers. We practice open peer review system. The whole
review process may take from three to four months time, although the
ultimate authority to accept or reject the manuscript rests with the
Editor. Authors have the right to communicate to the editor if they do
not wish their manuscript to be reviewed by a particular reviewer
because of potential conflicts of interests usually professional, but
they may be asked to explain or justify their concerns which is
important for the editor in deciding whether to honour such request. The
author can also suggest the name of possible reviewers but it is up to
the editor to accept it. Some manuscripts may be processed earlier at a
fast pace keeping in view their importance. On receipt of the comments
from reviewers, and if approved, letter of acceptance is issued to the
author stating the likely date of its publication. If required,
clarifications are sought from the authors. No article is rejected
unless similar comments are received from at least two reviewers.
21. Proof Reading: Final version of the
manuscript is sent to the corresponding author for proof reading before
publication in order to avoid any mistakes. Corrections should be marked
clearly.
22. Publication charges: Once the manuscript
is accepted for publication, the authors are required to pay publication
charges of Rs.3,500/- per manuscript (Rs.3,800/- in case of cheque) up to
4 printed pages in the journal. Rs.600/- extra will be payable for each
additional page. US$ 120/- in case of overseas authors and US$ 30/- for
each additional page. Those who cannot
afford to pay the publication charges can request for financial
assistance and the management will manage it from the special fund
created for this purpose. The charges for film making of photographs,
illustrations if any will be additional. No reprints will be made
available to the authors. Those interested can download the manuscript
from PDF file in the online edition of the journal.
23. Processing Charges: All manuscripts
from Pakistan should be accompanied with a Bank Draft for Rs.1,000/-
(Non-refundable) in the name of Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences. (For processing on fast track Rs.4,000/-. Decision to accept, reject or
need for revision will be communicated in eight weeks. Publication is
not guaranteed.)
24. Plagiarism: Manuscripts are
screened for plagiarism using special software and those found guilty or
involved in publication misconduct are liable to be black listed.
25. Drug Trials: Drug trials of preparations
by pharmaceutical firms who are regular advertisers of Quarterly
Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences will be published without any
additional charges after their approval by the Review Committee. Others
will be required to pay a fee of Rs.30,000/= only payable in advance
after the manuscript has been approved by the Review Committee and is
accepted for publication.
26. Submission of Manuscripts: The authors
must send three printed copies of the manuscript and one copy on the CD
in MS word format and figures should be in JPEG. If figures, tables have
been made in Excel file, it should also be submitted. While submitting
CD, the authors should ensure that the CD contains final version of the
manuscript. Name the file clearly, label the CD with the format of the
file and the file name.
26 A. Web based submissions: While submitting
manuscript on website please ensure that the main file contain a proper
title page, structured abstract as well in addition to the manuscript.
Letter of Undertaking available on our website must be signed by all
authors and submitted as supplementary files. Similarly all figures,
Illustrations in Jpeg or Tiff format should also be submitted as
supplementary files.
27. Electronic Submission: The authors can
avail the facility of electronic submission of manuscript. In case of
Electronic submission of the manuscript the authors must declare that it
is being exclusively contributed to Pakistan Journal of Medical
Sciences. The text should be submitted in Microsoft Word format as an
attachment. The figures should be sent in a format of JPEG or GIF.
Authors may be asked to submit the photographs, illustrations on glossy
paper whenever necessary.
28. Ethics Committee Approval: Effective May
1st, 2010 all manuscripts submitted to Pakistan Journal of Medical
Sciences must be accompanied with certificate of Institutional Review
Board / Ethics Committee Approval.
Type all sections of the manuscript i.e. Introduction,
Material and
Methods, Results, Discussion and References on a new page.
Correspondence should also include e-mail address.
All manuscripts should be sent by registered post or
through Courier service at the following address:-
MANAGING EDITOR
Quarterly "Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences"
c/o. Professional Medical Publications
Room No. 522, Panorama Centre, Building No. 2,
Raja Ghazanfar Ali Road, Saddar, Karachi-Pakistan.
Phones: 5688791 & 5689285. Fax: 5689860
E-mail: pjms@pjms.com.pk
Important Check List for contributors
The authors must ensure that before
submitting the manuscript for publication, they have taken care of the
following: -
1. Manuscripts should be prepared following Uniform requirements for
manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals as approved by the
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org)
2. All original manuscripts should have Abstract in structured format
up to 150 words. It should mention Objective, Methodology, Results,
Conclusions and appropriate Key Words.
3. Maximum length of the manuscripts should be:
Original articles: 2500 words, maximum of four tables, illustrations.
Case Reports/Brief Communications: 1000 words, maximum of two
illustrations, photographs and up to ten references.
Review Articles: 3500 words including brief summary describing the
methods used for locating, selecting, extracting and synthesizing
data. Maximum number of references up to Forty (40).
4. Processing Charges: Note: All manuscript from Pakistan must be
accompanied with a Cash or Bank Draft for Rs. 1000/- as processing
charges (Non Refundable) in the name of ‘Pakistan Journal of Medical
Sciences’.) Add Rs. 250/- in case of cheque.). (For processing on fast track Rs.4,000/-. Decision to accept, reject
or need for revision will be communicated in eight weeks. Publication
is not guaranteed.)
5. The manuscript should be accompanied by Letter of Undertaking
signed by all the authors confirming exclusive submissions to Pakistan
Journal of Medical Sciences, transfer of all copyrights to Pakistan
Journal of Medical Sciences and willingness to pay Publication Charges
of Rs.3,500/- up to four printed pages and Rs. 600/- for each
additional page. (in case of overseas authors US$ 120/- up to four
printed pages and US$ 30/- for each additional page) once the
write-up is accepted after peer review.
6. The manuscripts can also be submitted through e mail at any of the
following addresses
E-Mail: pjms@pjms.com.pk
pulse@pulsepakistan.com
7. The pictures, illustrations should be submitted in JPEG or GIF
format and the manuscript in Microsoft word format.
8. Web based submissions: While submitting
manuscript on website please ensure that the main file contain a
proper title page, structured abstract as well in addition to the
manuscript. Letter of Undertaking available on our website must be
signed by all authors and submitted as supplementary files. Similarly
all figures, Illustrations in Jpeg or Tiff format should also be
submitted as supplementary files.
9. Title page should contain title of the write-up, Name of the
author/co-authors, their qualifications, designation & institutions
they are affiliated with and mailing address for future
correspondence, E-mail address, Phone & Fax number besides a short
running title of the manuscript. Don’t type the name of the author/s
on other pages in the manuscript except the title page.
10. References mentioned as 1,2,3 and so on as they appear in the text
and not by full names of authors. At the end of the manuscript the
references should also be numbered accordingly.
11. Tables should be typed on separate pages. Specify the place where
you wish the tables and illustration to be placed.
12. Check the total / percentage in the tables carefully.
13. Make sure for Headings of Tables, their numbers and Captions of
illustrations. Don’t repeat the information in tables if it is covered
in the text. Table gives quicker idea but it must be able to convey
the message correctly.
14. Photographs / illustrations along with their captions (in
duplicate).
15. Manuscript in triplicate.
16. Covering Letter & CD with final version of manuscript in Microsoft
Word format and figures in JPEG.
17. Manuscript must be accompanied with certificate of IRB/Ethics
Committee Approval.
18. CD with final version of the manuscript in Microsoft Word format
and figures in JPEG.
19. All randomized control trials should be prepared according to
CONSORT Guidelines.
For detailed instructions to authors visit our website at
www.pjms.com.pk
