Policy document

POLICY DOCUMENT

JOURNAL OF SHALAMAR MEDICAL & DENTAL COLLEGE (JSHMDC)

FREQUENCY OF JOURNAL:
JSHMDC is published biannually.
1st issue – in June
2nd issue – in December

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION OF RESEARCH ARTICLES:

The word count for the text only (excluding abstarct, acknowledgments, legends of tables and figures, and references) should be less than 3000 words. The original research article should be prepared under the following sections:

Abstract: The abstract must not contain more than 250 words. The use of abbreviations should be minimized, and references should not to be quoted in the abstract. The abstract must be structured under the following headings:

Background: It should explain the background of the study a summary of the existing literature, give the importance or contribution of the study to existing knowledge, its aims, and objectives.
Methods: How the study was performed and statistical tests used.
Results: The main findings.
Conclusions: It must be clearly stated in the end.
Keywords: Three to ten MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) keywords reflecting the main content of the article should be given at the end of the abstract.

Introduction:

It should address the background of the study and relevant existing literature with references, justify the importance of the study, how this study will contribute to the field, and in the end clearly mention its aims and objectives.

Methods:

The methods should include:

Study design, duration, date, setting and sample size of the study.
Reference of the article that was used for sample size calculation.
Total number and characteristics of study population or description of materials used.
Consent to participate in the study
Approval from Ethical / Institutional Review Board
Inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Detail of data collection, all procedures and intervention. Generic names of the drug used in research should be used and mention the brand name in parentheses.
Provide details of statistical analysis carried out for the study. Specify the level of significance used in statistical analysis.

Results:

Clearly state the findings of the study based on statistical analysis; subheadings may be used to describe the results. avoid duplication of results in text, and Table, and Figures.

Tables and Illustrations / Figures:

There should be no more than four tables or illustrations
Tables and figures must have a title, should be on a separate page.
Tables submitted as photographs will not be accepted.
Photographs of patients if used, must be with written permission.
All photographs should be very clear, sharp, glossy and 5 x 7 inches in size.
Figures must in JPEG, GIF format
Results given in tables must not be duplicated in figures and vice versa.
Figures and tables should be numbered according to the order in which they have been mentioned in the result section.
Titles for figures/images/tables should be single-spaced.

Discussion:

There must be discussion of the important findings in the perspective of existing knowledge with references. Discussion of results with national & international literature, the discussion must be two-third of the "Introduction" section and must have two third of the total references. Limitations of the study if any must be mentioned at the end of the discussion.

Conclusions:

Clearly state the main conclusions and mention the importance of the study reported.

Acknowledgments:

All contributors must be mentioned in acknowledgments, such as a person who provided general support and material for the research. Financial support should also be acknowledged. Refer to the acknowledgment criteria policy at https://journal.smdc.edu.pk/index.php/journal/AcknowledgementCriteria_Policy

Source of funding:

Authors must declare the source of funding.

Authors contributions:

Contributions by all the authors should be mentioned, and it should be according to ICMJE guidelines

References:

o References should be on a separate page.

o The number of references in an Original Article must not be more than 25

o The references must be written in Vancouver style

o References must be single-spaced. more than 60% of references should be within last five years.

o If the authors are six or fewer list all authors, if more than six, list the first six followed by ‘et al’.

Following are examples of reference citations:

o Journal Article: Shahid A, Lone KP, Saeed S, Arslan M. Male offspring of both diabetic parents have higher insulin resistance and serum leptin levels compared to those with one diabetic parent. Hormones(Athens) 2008; 7: 313–19.

o Article within a journal by DOI
Slifka MK, Whitton JL. Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. Dig J Mol Med. 2000; doi:10.1007/s801090000086.

o Article within a journal supplement
Frumin AM, Nussbaum J, Esposito M. Functional asplenia: demonstration of splenic activity by bone marrow scan. Blood 1979;59 Suppl 1:26-32.

o Books: Polit DF, Hungler BP. Nursing research principles and methods. 6th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 1999.

o Chapter in Book: Buse JB, Polonsky KS, Burant CF. Type 2 diabetes mellitus. In: Larsen PR, Kronenberg HM, Melmed S, Polonsky KS (eds). Williams Text Book of Endocrinology 2003; pp 1427-1467. Saunders, Philadelphia, PA.

o Online database
Healthwise Knowledgebase. US Pharmacopeia, Rockville. 1998. http://www.healthwise.org. Accessed 21 Sept 1998.

PEER REVIEW POLICY:

An acknowledgment is sent on receipt of the manuscript. The manuscript is checked by the editors and then sent for review. Double Blind Peer Review Policy is followed. The reviewers are given three weeks to review the paper. A reminder is sent to the reviewer if the review report is not received after three weeks. On receipt of comments, the reviewer's comments are communicated to the author. The author will be given two weeks to incorporate the reviewers’ comments in the revised manuscript. The article will be declined if no response is received (after two reminders) from the corresponding author. The revised version of the article is checked for incorporation of suggested changes. A period of 2-4 months is set to finalize the process and if approved, a letter of acceptance is issued to the author.

Refer to Peer Review Policy in detail at https://journal.smdc.edu.pk/index.php/journal/Peer_Review.

RESEARCH & PUBLICATION ETHICS POLICY: Please refer to the research and publications ethics policy before submission of research work.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors must state any ‘Conflict of Interest’ in the manuscript or on a Conflict of Interest form, which can be downloaded from the author’s dashboard.

Title Page: The title should not be too short or too long. It should communicate the real idea of the research to the reader. The title length should be less than 250 characters.

Authors names & Affiliation (Each manuscript should have no more than two institutional affiliations)
Corresponding author detail

All Randomized Trials must be according to CONSORT guidelines.

All Clinical Trials must be registered at clincaltrials.gov

Observational studies should be according to STROBE guidelines.

Qualitative research should be according to SRQR guidelines

ORIGINALITY AND PLAGIARISM POLICY:

Plagiarism is the "stealing or misusing scholarly property and the significant copying of someone else’s work." Plagiarism is when large portions of the text have been copied and pasted without proper and unequivocal acknowledgment/attribution.

JSHMDC follows COPE guidelines. Any SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT will be dealt with as per COPE guidelines.

All the submitted manuscripts are checked for plagiarism through TURNITIN'S SOFTWARE, following the criteria/guidelines defined by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan, ICMJE, and COPE.

The similarity index should be less than 19%. If the similarity index is more than 50% it is rejected. If the similarity index is 19% or more than 19%, but less than 50% the manuscript is not processed further until revised by the author. If a plagiarized manuscript is submitted multiple times, it is rejected from further processing.

Publication misconduct is dealt by asking the corresponding author for an explanation within two weeks. If an acceptable explanation is provided by the author(s), the editorial board recommends appropriate changes, after which the review process for the submitted manuscript may commence. In no response in two weeks or if there is an unsatisfactory explanation, the editorial board will decide regarding the fate of the article and authors, including:
o REJECTION of the manuscript,
o RETRACTION of already published article
A RETRACTION notice will also be on the journal’s website. The authors will be blacklisted from further publication in the JSHMDC for two years or permanently, depending upon the nature of the misconduct. The institutional head, HEC, PMC, and other editorial associations may also be informed of this misconduct.

SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS:

The full text of all content is available for free and with open access without delay.

There is no embargo period
There is no requirement for users to register to read content
There are charges for the print version of a journal

The annual subscription fee of the printed journal for institutions and individuals in Pakistan is PKR 10,000 and US $ 100 for overseas.

For a subscription to the Printed form of the Journal, contact the editor-in-chief at:

jsmdc@smdc.edu.pk

ETHICAL GUIDELINES:

JSHMDC promotes research integrity and adherence to the core values of research and follows the core practices of COPE

JSHMDC publishes responsible and ethical research. The journal expects its contributors to adhere to international and national guidelines for the safety and protection of the research participants. All research involving human subjects, human material, or human data must be in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.who.int/bulletin/archives/79(4)373.pdf) and ICMJE Recommendations on Protection of Research Participants, and Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) guidelines (https://cioms.ch/).
All research work involving human subjects, human material, human data, or animals submitted for publication must be approved by an appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB).
It is mandatory to submit an IRB approval letter with all articles as per ethical standards set by ICMJE.
A statement detailing the name of the IRB and the reference number, where appropriate, must appear in all manuscripts reporting such research.
All experimental and interventional studies must be accompanied by an approval letter from IRB.
All Randomized Trials must be according to CONSORT guidelines.
All Clinical Trials must be registered at clincaltrials.gov
Review articles must contain information regarding databases for literature search and the period for selection of articles.
Systematic reviews should be according to PRISMA guidelines.
Observational studies should be according to STROBE guidelines.
Qualitative research should be according to SRQR guidelines
If a study has been granted an exemption from ethics review, this should also be detailed in the manuscript, and an exemption letter signed by the IRB Chair must be submitted with the manuscript. The Editor may contact the IRB for further information on exceptional cases.
The Editor reserves the right to reject a manuscript if the editor considers that the research has not been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework.
Retrospective ethics approval from IRB, in cases when a study has not been granted IRB approval before commencing, is usually not obtainable, and it may not be possible to consider the manuscript for peer review. The decision to proceed to peer review in such cases is at the Editor's discretion.
If the author wishes to publish a paper from his/her FCPS dissertation, besides synopsis approval from RTMC/CPSP, IRB approval is also mandatory.
If tables, illustrations or photographs that have already been published are included, a letter of permission for re-publication should be obtained from the author(s) of that research article and the editor of the journal where it was previously published.
Patient information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication.
Written consent to reproduce photographs and investigation reports (images of reports or other radiological images like X-Ray, MRI scans etc.) of patients should be sent with the manuscript.
Authors must declare the time and place of the study.
In the case of Retrospective Studies, Informed consent is not required. However, they must submit an IRB approval letter with the manuscript.
JSHMDC also publishes research conducted on animals. Authors should follow the national and international guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals in research. Authors can take guidance on animal research ethics from WMA statement on animal use in biomedical research , and the International Association of Veterinary Editors’ Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare.
An "author" is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a study. All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship criteria as recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
All articles submitted to KMUJ are screened through Turnitin software for similarity index.
JSHMDC follows the standard definition and description of plagiarism. It follows the COPE, ICMJE, & Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan policies regarding plagiarism.
JSHMDC follows COPE guidelines. Any SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT before or after publication will be dealt with as per COPE guidelines. Publication misconduct is handled by asking the corresponding author for an explanation within two weeks. If the corresponding author provides an acceptable explanation, the editorial board recommends starting the review process for the submitted manuscript. In case the manuscript has been published and a journal editor receives a critique to an article previously published in the journal. If the corresponding author provides an acceptable explanation, the article will be revised, and a corrected copy will be uploaded on the website. If there is no response in two weeks' time or if there is an unsatisfactory explanation, the editorial board will decide the fate of the article and authors, including:
o REJECTION of the manuscript
o RETRACTION of already published article
A RETRACTION notice will also be on the journal’s website. The authors will be blacklisted from further publication in the JSHMDC for two years or permanently, depending upon the nature of the misconduct. The institutional head, HEC, PMC, and other editorial associations may also be informed of this misconduct.
The authors will retain the copyrights of their submitted manuscripts for all purposes. The readers may “Share and reorganize the material in any medium or format” and “transform and build upon the material”. The readers must give appropriate credit to the source of the material and indicate if changes were made to the material. Readers may not use the material for commercial purposes. The readers may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
If the author wishes to withdraw the manuscript during its processing, an official email needs to be sent to the editor for withdrawal. No manuscript is considered “withdrawn” without an official email sent to the editor. A manuscript cannot be withdrawn after its acceptance by the journal.
Authors must sign a declaration of conflict of interest before publication.
Other Resources:

PRIVACY STATEMENT:

Shalamar Medical and Dental College, Lahore, Pakistan, owns and operates the journal's website. JSHMDC is committed to ensuring trust and privacy with respect to the personal information collected from the authors and reviewers and follows ICMJE guidelines. The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal. They will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

AUTHOR AGREEMENT FORM:

JOURNAL OF SHALAMAR MEDICAL & DENTAL COLLEGE

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST DECLARATION

& AUTHOR AGREEMENT FORM

Title of Paper:

Please tick applicable box:

We have no conflicts of interest to declare.

We have a competing interest to declare (please fill in box below):

This is to certify that all the authors have agreed and approved the manuscript being submitted. We undertake that the submitted article is the original work of the authors. It is further stated that this article has not been submitted or published elsewhere. On behalf of all other co-authors, the full responsibility will be borne by the corresponding author.

All authors have read and agreed on the validity of the submitted article and have agreed to submit their research in JSHMDC. It is agreed upon by all authors that author listing and the content is correct and can’t be changed without formal approval of the Chief Editor.

All authors agree that the Chief Editor can accept or reject the articles in case of any digress from the publishing ethics of JSHMDC. Any additional authors will only be accepted if agreed and signed by all the listed authors.

Authorship Form

Name	Designation	Affiliation (department and institute)	Contributions	Signature

Contact Number (Corresponding Author):______________________________

DEADLINES OF ALL PROCESSES

Upon receiving a manuscript, initial screening comments will be shared with the author within two weeks.
Following that, the author will be given an additional two weeks to address the suggested changes.

If no response is received by the end of the third week, a reminderwill be sent.
If there is still no response by the end of the fourth week, the article will be declineddue to non-compliance with the revision timeline.
JSHMDC is a Peer-reviewed A DOUBLE ANONYMUS PEER REVIEWpolicy is followed. After an initial assessment, the manuscript is sent to two reviewers after blinding for authors' names and affiliations, and three weeks is given for review. A reminder is sent if the reviewer doesn’t submit the review in 3 weeks. If the reviewer doesn’t respond within one week after the reminder, the manuscript is sent to 3rd reviewer for review.
On receipt of comments, the reviewer's comments are communicated to the author. The author will be given two weeks to incorporate the reviewers’ comments in the manuscript. The first reminder will be given to the author at three weeks if the author does not comply with the timelines. The second reminder will be given in 4th week. The article will be declined if no response is received after two reminders. If the revised article is received, it is checked for incorporating suggested changes. If the changes are not incorporated, and there are major revisions, the manuscript is sent for 2^ndround of the review process following the same timelines. A period of 3-5 months is set to finalize the process, and if approved, a letter of acceptance is issued to the author.

TIMELINES OF PUBLICATION OF ISSUES

JSHMDC is published biannually.

1st issue – in June

2nd issue – in December

STEPS INVOLVED FROM DATE OF RECEIPT OF RESEARCH ARTICLE TILL THE PUBLICATION OF ARTICLE

ARTICLE PROCESSING/PUBLICATION FEE

Journal of Shalamar Medical & Dental College (JSHMDC) is an OPEN ACCESS journal published in print and online form. There are no article submission, processing, and publication charges.

DISCLOSURE AND CONFLICT OF INTEREST

All the authors have to disclose any conflict of interest and financial and personal relationships with other people, companies or organizations that may inappropriately influence (bias) their work.
Financial conflicts include, but are not limited to employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patents or patent applications, and travel grants; all within three years of beginning the submitted work.
If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should declare in the Conflict of Interest Declaration form available on the website during manuscript submission.
Authors of study having some grant from some organization 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 collected and the accuracy of the data analysis. This statement should be submitted along with the manuscript.
The reviewers are also bound to declare any type of conflicts with the work they are requested to review.
The journal publishes conflicts of interest/ grant support and financial disclosure along with published manuscripts.
Authors should fill out the conflict-of-interest declaration and author agreementform available on the website.

CORRECTION AND RETRACTION OF RESEARCH ARTICLES

CONTRIBUTION AND CONSENTS OF EACH AUTHOR AND ANY OTHER INFORMATION

Authors must provide a final list of authors with their current affiliations, contact numbers and E-mail addresses on the manuscript at the time of submission, ensuring the correct sequence of the names of authors, which will not be considered for any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of authors after final submission of the manuscript.
Authors should meet all the four criteria for authorship as recommended by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

An "author" is generally someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to the study. Authorship credit should be based on:

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
Final approval of the version to be published; AND
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.

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