Submissions

Author Guidelines

Instructions to Authors

The Journal of Sharif Medical & Dental College (JSMDC) agrees to accept manuscripts prepared in accordance with the ‘Uniform Requirements for a manuscript submitted to the Biomedical Journals’ as approved by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines, published in the British Medical Journal 1991; 302:334-41. All manuscripts must be submitted online at http://www.ojs.jsmdc.pk.

AIMS & SCOPE: JSMDC is a peer-review biannual scientific journal, aims to publish the latest research to improve healthcare outcomes. It publishes editorials, original research articles, systematic review & meta-analysis, KAP (Knowledge, Attitude, Practices) studies, review articles, systematic review articles, photo essays, case reports, recent advances, adverse drug reports, current practices, short communications, and audit reports. Studies more than three years old at the time of submission are not entertained as per journal policy. Any study ending three years before the date of submission is judged by the Editorial Board for its suitability as many changes take place over the time period, subject to the area of the study.

ETHICAL/LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS: The research should be prepared under strict observation of research and publication ethics guidelines recommended by the Council of Science Editors, International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, and World Association of Medical Editors. A submitted manuscript must be an original contribution not previously published (except as an abstract or preliminary report), must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere, and if accepted, it must not be published elsewhere in a similar form. Each person listed as an author is expected to have participated in the study according to ICMJE criteria. Although the editors and referees make every effort to ensure the validity of published manuscripts, the final responsibility rests with the authors, not with the Journal, its editors, or the publisher. Any study including human subjects or human data must be reviewed and approved by the responsible Institutional Review Board (IRB). Animal experiments should also be reviewed by an appropriate committee (IACUC: Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) for the care and use of animals. Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) should be registered and the trial registration number is mandatory.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors must provide a formal statement including any potential conflict of interest at the time of submitting the article. JSMDC follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors guidelines available at www.icmje.org. In case of any conflict of interest, the author must submit an ICMJE form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest (Available at: http://www.jsmdc.pk).

FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: Each author warrants that he or she has no commercial associations (e.g., consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc.) that might post a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article, except as disclosed on a separate attachment. All funding sources supporting the work and all institutional or corporate affiliations of the authors are acknowledged in a footnote in the work.

PATIENT ANONYMITY AND INFORMED CONSENT: It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that a patient’s anonymity is carefully protected and to verify that any experimental investigation with human subjects reported in the manuscript was performed with informed consent and following all the guidelines for experimental investigation with human subjects required by the institution(s) with which all the authors are affiliated.

OPEN ACCESS & COPYRIGHT POLICY: All research articles published in the Journal of Sharif Medical & Dental College (JSMDC) are fully open access: freely available to read, download, and share. Copyrights of all articles published in JSMDC are retained by the authors. First publication rights are granted to JSMDC. JSMDC allows authors to only retain the rights to: - use the substance of the article in future works, including lectures and books; - reproduce the article for one’s own purposes, provided that copies are not offered for sale; - self-archive the article.

PERMISSIONS: Authors must submit written permission from the copyright owner (usually the publisher) to use direct quotations, tables, or illustrations that have appeared in copyright form elsewhere, along with complete details about the source.

PUBLICATION MISCONDUCT: Plagiarism and other publication misconduct, fabrication (picture as well), falsification, a duplicate submission, redundant publication, multiple submission, selective and misleading reporting, selective and misleading referencing are liable to strict action. All publication misconducts are dealt with first asking for an explanation from the corresponding author and then from all other authors. In case of non-response or unsatisfactory response from the authors, the manuscript is rejected if unpublished and retracted if published. Due notice of retraction will be given in print and on the website. The authors will be blacklisted for further submissions and considerations at the journal. The authors’ Institutional Head will also be informed of the misconduct and relevant action in such a case.

ARTICLE PUBLISHING CHARGES: JSMDC is an open-access journal and levies an article processing fee of PKR. 5000/- for the original research article. The journal will charge an article publishing fee of PKR. 10000/- for original research article and PKR. 2000/- for review article/case report/photo essay upon acceptance of the submitted article. A non-refundable bank draft in favor of Sharif Medical & Dental College A/C No. 15800002100303, HBL SECT branch should be sent via TCS to the editor JSMDC.

AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA: The ICMJE recommends that authorship is based on the following 4 criteria: a) substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work, b) drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content, c) final approval of the version to be published, d) 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. Each author must sign a statement attesting that he or she fulfills authorship criteria of the uniform requirements. Up to six authors are allowed in a single-institution study. In a multi-institution and international collaborative research, the Editorial Board shall guide on an individual case basis. JSMDC strongly discourages gift authorship. The journal discourages the submission of more than one article dealing with related aspects of the same study. The author’s certification proforma (available on the website) should be filled and submitted along with the manuscript.

PLAGIARISM POLICY: Publications are the end-products of the scientific work and their quality reflects the research work. A published paper becomes a source for references, post-publication review, and critique. To contribute to the bulk of knowledge, the paper should be credible.

JSMDC follows the ICMJE and HEC criteria for all types of plagiarism. The criteria can be accessed at www.icmje.org and  www.hec.gov.pk.

All the submitted manuscripts will be checked for potential plagiarism by “TURNITIN” software. Articles with a similarity index of more than 19% and any single source similarity index of ≥5% will not be published. It will be sent back to the author for revision to bring the similarity index down to the permissible limit. After revision, it will again be checked through the “TURNITIN” for plagiarism. If the similarity report is <19%, it will be processed further. The article will be sent back to the author again for corrections if the similarity index is still more than 19%. If the author fails to rectify after the second revision, then the manuscript is rejected.

If the submitted article is found to have been totally or substantially plagiarized then the article is rejected outright and the corresponding author will be informed regarding this misconduct. The author will be asked to give a written explanation.

For published articles, the allegedly plagiarized article will be temporarily retracted from the issue and a notice to the effect will be published in the JSMDC. The author will be asked for an explanation. In case of unsatisfactory explanation or non-response, the article will be permanently retracted and the author will be blacklisted.

PEER-REVIEW POLICY: JSMDC follows a double-blind peer-review process in which both the reviewer and the author remain anonymous throughout the process of review. Reviewers are selected according to their specialty and expertise. The reviewer database is updated constantly. Each manuscript is sent to two external peer reviewers. Once the reviewed manuscript is received from both the reviewers, their comments/suggestions are communicated to the author for correction. The revised manuscript received from the author is re-assessed by the editor and the final decision regarding article acceptance/rejection is also made by the editor.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES: Original articles should report original research of relevance to clinical medicine. The article should not exceed 4500 words in length (excluding title page, abstract, tables, figures, and references). The original article should follow the basic structure of abstract, introduction, methodology, statistical analysis, results, discussion, conclusion, limitations of the study (if any), recommendations of the study (if any), and references.

Abstract: It should contain a structured abstract of about 250 words. The abstract must have four sections: objectives, methodology, results, and conclusion. Three to five keywords should be given for an original article as per Medical Subject Heading (MeSH).

Introduction: The introduction should clearly describe the topic with a brief literature review. All abbreviations used should be first preceded by the word for which it stands. At the end of the introduction, mention the rationale or scientific significance of the study.

Methodology: The methodology should include the study design, place of the study conducted, sample size, sampling technique, ethical consideration, and method & equipment used for research work.

Statistical Analysis: Mention the software used for data analysis and the statistical tests applied.

Results: Text, tables, and figures should be used for illustration of results. Figures and tables should be numbered in order of appearance in the text. Legends for the tables and figures should be typed double-spaced and should include a description of the features shown. All numbers and percentages should be triple-checked. Previously published material and figures should include permission to reproduce from the original publication and original author. Photographs with faces should be accompanied by permission to publish from the subject of the photograph or by a parent in case of a minor. Colored photographs should be submitted in JPEG format. Journal reserves the right to charge authors for publishing colored pictures.

Discussion: The results of the study should be interpreted with reference to other studies.

Conclusion: The conclusion should be clear and concise.

Limitations of the study (if any)

Recommendations of the study (if any)

References: References must be numbered consecutively according to their appearance in the text. References should be cited in the correct “Vancouver style” with a DOI number. List all authors if the total number of authors is six or less and for more than six authors use et al. after six. Journal names should be abbreviated according to the Index Medicus/MEDLINE. The date of access should be provided for online citations. References should not be older than the last five years.

CLINICAL CASE REPORTS: Must be of academic & educational value and provide relevance of the disease being reported as unusual. It should have a non-structured abstract of about 100-150 words (case-specific) with around 5-6 references and 3 keywords.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR (LTE): It is usually a type of short communication that can be written on any topic that attracts the attention of the reader. There are different types of letters to the editor. If the purpose of the LTE is to comment on a published article, the first sentence of the LTE should include the name of the published article’s first author along with the title of the published article and then the comments. If the LTE is a reply to a previously submitted LTE, the first sentence should include the name of the letter’s author and cite the letter as a reference. The previously published article should then be referenced as well either in the body of the text or at the end of the response to the LTE.

PHOTO ESSAYS: The journal accepts manuscripts for consideration as photo essays. These essays include the visual presentation of material where the prima, emphasis is on the images. These images can include colored images, angiograms, optical coherence tomography, histologic sections, x-rays, ultrasounds, and other studies. The images can be an outstanding presentation of classic findings, atypical findings, or new findings. These are not case reports, but rather a visual presentation of material as a teaching tool. The images need to be of the highest quality. The accompanying manuscript should be limited to a total of 300 words. A maximum of 5 separate images and 5 references can be included. Please refer to the rest of the author’s instructions for other requirements for manuscripts submitted to JSMDC.

REVIEW ARTICLE: This should consist of a critical overview/analysis of some relatively narrow topic providing background and the recent development with the reference of original literature. It should incorporate the author’s original work on the same subject. The review article should be 2500 to 3000 words in length. It should have a non-structured abstract of 150 words with a minimum of 3 keywords. An author can write a review article only if he/she has written a minimum of three original research articles.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW ARTICLE: It should consist of a well-defined research question and should provide a detailed review of a specific topic based on the existing literature. It should include the collection and analysis of data from all the relevant research in support of the research question being asked. The text should be 2500-3000 words. It should have a nonstructured abstract with a minimum of three keywords.

META-ANALYSIS: It should comprise a statistical analysis of combined results of numerous scientific studies addressing the same research question. Meta-analysis is a quantitative and epidemiological study design that should critically analyze the results of previous scientific researches, mostly randomized controlled trials.

OTHER SECTIONS: The journal also accepts manuscripts for other sections such as diagnostic & therapeutic challenges, clinicopathological correlations, surgical techniques, and new instruments. Diagnostic & therapeutic challenges require no abstract and have no limit for figures and references. Surgical techniques and clinicopathological correlations are treated as a full manuscript and require an abstract. All correspondence and new instruments should have a standard title page with a full-length title, running title, and author information. Keywords anti summary statement should be on the second page. An abstract is not required by the journal for correspondence and new instruments. A summary statement of 50 words is necessary for publication and indexing and must be included at the time of submission. All pages must be numbered starting with the title page being page one. Each figure must be submitted separately.