Instruction to Authors in PDF format

Important Check List

Specimen of Title Page(Note: To download Specimen of Title Page, right click on the link and in menu clink on Save link as)

Effective: January 12, 2023

Bi-Monthly PAKISTAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SCIENCES follow the “Recommendations for the Conduct,Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly work in medical journals. Updated Dec. 2015. Available at:http://icmje.org/recommendations/” modified and is recognized by Higher Education Commission, College ofPhysicians & Surgeons Pakistan and PM&DC. This Journal is covered by ISI/Thompson known for IF, Web ofSciences, Indexed by WHO Index Medicus IMEMR Current Contents is covered by EXCERPTA MEDICA,Netherlands, CAB Abstract and Global Health of UK, is registered with International Serials Data System ofFrance bearing ISSN No. 1682-024X (online edition ISSN 1681-715X). It is included in the Directory of OpenAccess Journals (www.doaj.org) on Internet. Hence, all those whose manuscripts are accepted and publishedwill get the necessary credit. (Abbreviated form: PaK J Med Sci.)

While submitting manuscripts, please carefully follow the instructions given below:-

1. Submit the manuscript with our online editorial system at www.pjms.org.pk In World in one file starting from title of the manuscript to references including tables. E-mail of each author is required during the submission process. All submitted manuscripts must be exclusively contributed to Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences. Covering letter should also state what information this study adds to medical literature and how it will influence clinical practice.
2. Plagiarism: Manuscripts are screened for plagiarism using iThenticate software and those found guilty or involved in publication misconduct are liable  to be black listed.
3. 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 figure, table is cited in the text.
4. The figures should be sent in JPEG format with atleast 300 dpi of resolution as separate file (upload as supplementary file).
5. 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.
6. In case the  manuscript was earlier submitted to some other Journal and was rejected, the authors must provide full information as to why it was rejected, for proper analysis.
7. All manuscripts by multiple authors must be signed by all the authors and contain details of individual authors contribution. All authors must fulfill ICMJE criteria for authorship. In case of suspicion of gift authorship the journal may refuse further processing of the manuscript. Maximum of four authors are allowed in single center studies. Please also note in case of KAP Studies, routine surveys and similar manuscripts the maximum number of authors allowed will be four. Manuscripts with more than four authors will not be accepted for further processing and will be rejected.
8. Informed consent of the patients participating in the study should be undertaken.
9. All studies must be approved by the relevant Ethics Committee/Institution Review Boards of the respective institutions and approval letter should be submitted alongwith the manuscript. Please note with effect from January 2020, all FCPS Dissertations  based manuscripts,  also need an Ethics Committee/IRB approval if there is some intervention. The same is true for those synopsis approved by Board of Advanced studies of Universities, manuscripts based on Thesis of PhD and M. Phil.
10. The authors as well as reviewers are expected to declare the conflict of interest if any.
11. Source of funding for the study should be clearly mentioned. Authors involved in scientific misconduct may be  black listed and barred from further submissions.
12. 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 (g) Book Reviews (h) Case Studies (i) Clinical Notes (j) CME (k) Obituaries (l) Letters to the Editor. We do not accept Knowledge, Attitude, Practice (KAP) studies, routine surveys and cross sectional studies. Only selected animal studies are entertained. The authors can suggest two reviewers at the time of making submission who may be contacted by the editor if required.
13. The desired position of any figure or table should be marked in the manuscript.
14. Manuscripts except short communications & Guest Editorials should contain the following sections:-
    1. 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,  cell phones, 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.
    2. Conflicts of interest: 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 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 access 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.
    3. Abstract: All original articles must accompany a structured abstract upto 250 words. It should state  Objective  of  the study, Methodology, Results  & Conclusions. (Selection of study subjects or experimental  animals; observational and analytical methods, give specific data and their statistical significance, if possible). Emphasise 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. Single digit figures should be written in words i.e. 2 should be written as two.
    4. 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.
    5. Case Report/Review Article: All review articles and case reports should be preceded by a summary. Authors submitting review manuscript should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting and synthesizing data, data bases searched and the time period. These methods should also be summarized in the abstract.
    6. 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.
    7. 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. Ethics Committee / Institutional Review Board (EC/IRB) approval number with date should be included in this section.
    8. 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 may be published in the electronic version of the journal.
    9. Discussion: This should emphasize present findings & the variations or similarities with other work done in the field by other workers. 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. This section should also include as to what new information it has added to the medical literature and its clinical significance.
    10. References: These should be type in superscript. Maximum References: Original Article 25, Case Report 10, Reviews 40. These references should also be marked in the text. 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 "Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly work in medical journals. Updated Dec. 2015. Available at: http://icmje.org/recommendations/". 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 & the last page numbers. Write Page No. like this 120-126. Add DOI number of those references where it is available. Example:--
        Hakyemez IN, Kucukbayrak A, Tas T, Yikilgan AB, Akkaya A, Yasayacak A, et al. Nosocomial Acinetobacter baumannii infections and changing Antibiotic Resistance. Pak J Med Sci. 2013;29(5):1245-1248.   doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12669/pjms.295.3885
    11. 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. 1993;pp 1-13.
    12. 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. 1989;320:618-627.
    13. Newspaper articles: Malik Mahmood A, autonomous hospitals, “Pulse” International, Karachi, Pakistan, 2000. January 15-31, Page 1 & 2.
    14. 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.
15. Letter  of  Undertaking: Manuscripts must be accompanied by letter of undertaking signed by all the authors. Scanned copy of Letter of Undertaking should also be uploaded at our online editorial system. Note: Peer Review may take four to five months. Authors who are in a hurry must first enquire before making submission. Authors should also provide a Certificate of statistical Analysis from the Statistician with submission. 
    
    
    Letter of Undertaking in PDF format
16. 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.  4) Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, 3 and 4. (For details of ICMJE Authorship Criteria see Letter of Undertaking).
    • 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 & all those who qualify should be listed. A maximum number of four tables or illustrations are allowed. If their numberis more, the manuscript may not be accepted for further processing.
    • 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 one 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. Addition and deletion of authors may not be permitted after submission with LOU signed by authors.
17. 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."
18. Length of  the Text: Maximum length of the original manuscript should not exceed 3000 words includingtitle page, table and references. In exceptional cases upto 3500 words may be accommodated. Forreview article 4000 words. Any term which is mentioned in the text quite frequently must be abbreviatedbut only if this does not detract from readers comprehension. Such as Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI). Maximum number of tables & illustrations should not exceed four. Case Report: Short report of cases,clinical experience, drug trials and adverse effects can be submitted. Maximum length should not exceed1500 words, maximum number of ten references, one table or two illustrations. It must contain genuinelynew information. Its format should be Title, Abstract, Introduction, Case Report, Discussion and References.Do mention contribution of each author as per authorship criteria. Case reports should not includereview of literature. Letters: Maximum words 350 with 2 to 3 references. Extra charges will be applicable for lengthy manuscripts.
19. Never start new sentence or paragraph with figures. For example, “9 patients were admitted” should be written as “Nine patients were admitted”. Single digit figures should be written in words i.e. 2 should be written as two.
20. 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, cell phone, e-mail  and Fax Number of  the corresponding author who will be responsible for communicating and final approval of the proofs. Only correspondence author should communicate with the editor.
21. Clinical Trials: Clinical Trials submitted for publication must be registered in public registry, provide registration proof & all RCTs must be based on CONSORT statement. Unregistered trials will not be published.
22. 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. After initial screening the manuscripts with major deficiencies, or of not interest to our readers will not be accepted for further processing and external peer-reviewed and the submitter will get an e mail within two weeks of submission. The manuscript is sent to two or more than two Reviewers. We practice open peer review system. The whole review process may take about four to five months time, although efforts are being made to reduce this period. 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 two 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 correspondence author. Date of publication is confirmed after receipt of publication charges. If required, clarifications are sought from the authors. No article is rejected unless similar comments are received from at least two reviewers.
23. Proof Reading: Final version of manuscript is sent to corresponding author for proof reading before publication to avoid any mistakes. Corrections should be conveyed clearly & Editor informed by e-mail.
24. Article Processing Charges (APC): 
    

    Payment Mode:

    1. Bank Transfer:
    Title of Account: Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences
    Account Number: 00040101801240-5
    Name of Bank: MCB Bank Limited, Saddar Branch (0004),
    Main Zaib-un-Nisa Street, Karachi - Pakistan.
    Code: Swift/Bic MUCBPKKAXXX
    IBAN No: PK03-MUCB0000401018012405

    2. Credit Card/Debit Card
    pay.pjms.org.pk

    3. Pay-Order / Bank Draft
    Pay-Order / Bank Draft should be drawn in the name of Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences and sent at the Editorial Office.

    4. Cash
    Cash can be deposited at our Editorial Office

    Please note that processing of the manuscript (processing / publication) will be undertaken only after receipt of the charges.

    “All articles published in Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences are open access and freely available online, immediately upon publication. This is made possible by an article-processing charge (APC) that covers the range of publishing services we provide. It includes provision of online tools for editors and authors, article production and hosting, liaison with abstracting and indexing services, and customer services. The APC is payable when the manuscript is editorially accepted but before publication.”
    

25. Waiver request: Those who cannot afford processing, publication charges can apply for waiver at the time of submission of paper (decision on case to case basis maximum discount available up to 50%).
26. Drug Trials: Drug trials of preparations by pharmaceutical firms who are regular advertisers of Bi-Monthly  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. Seventy Thousand only payable in advance after the manuscript has been approved by the Review Committee and is accepted for publication.
27. Ethics Committee Approval: All manuscripts submitted to Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences involving human subject must be accompanied with certificate of Institutional Review Board / Ethics Committee Approval.
28. Ethical consent: All manuscripts reporting the results of experimental investigations involving human subjects should include a statement confirming the informed consent was obtained from each subject or subject’s guardian, after approval of the experimental protocol by a local human ethics committee.
29. Scientific Misconduct: Authors from China must provide singed statement related to scientific misconduct (Download PDF File from Journal Website)
    
30. Ombudsman: Dr. Behrooz Astaneh, Head of Medical Journalism Dept. at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences and Council Member of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) UK can be contacted by authors, others for redress of their grievances if any on e-mail: astanehb@yahoo.com

 

 

Note: Brevity is the beauty of writing. Make sure your manuscript is within the prescribed word limits. Lengthy manuscripts are not encouraged, if accepted it will also increase publication charges. Tables and Figures could also result in extra charges if the manuscript consume more than four pages of the journal. Each additional page will cost Rs.6,000/-  (US$ 75/- in case of overseas manuscripts).

 

For further queries and further correspondence

CHIEF EDITOR
Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences
c/o. Professional Medical Publications
Office # 701, Seventh Floor, Business Center,
PECHS, Shahrah-e-Faisal, Karachi-Pakistan.
Phones: +92-021-34324732  & +92-021-34324733
Email: pjms@pjms.org.pk