Special Postgraduate Issue
Authors whose articles have been accepted are kindly requested to contact the Editorial Office at colkhadijaqamar [at] gmail [dot] com for further processing.
Authors whose articles have been accepted are kindly requested to contact the Editorial Office at
colkhadijaqamar [at] gmail [dot] com
Last updated 05/09/2025
CONSORT Statement—Checklist of information to include when reporting a randomised trial
STROBE Statement—Checklist of items that should be included in reports of observational studies
Manuscript and all editorial correspondence should be submitted on the PAFMJ portal.
Note:
Any article submitted to PAFMJ must be original and not previously submitted to or published by any other journal, either in part or in full. Authors are required to confirm that their submission is original by signing a submission agreement. Authors retain the copyright to their work but grant PAFMJ the exclusive right to publish, reproduce, and distribute the work under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial License (CC BY-NC). Authors will be required to assist the editors in the final proofreading of their articles before publication.
All such articles should aim for development of medical concepts rather than mere recording of facts.
DO NOT STATE THE AUTHORS’ NAMES, AFFILIATIONS OR CONTACT DETAILS ANYWHERE ON THE MAIN MANUSCRIPT.
Clinical Trials: All Clinical Trials submitted for publication must be registered in a registry, provide registration proof and all RCTs must be based on CONSORT statement.
A study more than 5 years old at the time of submission will not be accepted for submission.
EDITORIAL
Each editorial is either written by one member of the editorial board or published as invited manuscript from guest authors. The editorial is scientific review on one or two of the current topics pertaining to medical sciences .If you are interested in writing one, kindly email at pafmj@pafmj.org.
SUBMISSION OF ARTICLE
Original Paper:
This includes randomized controlled trials, intervention studies, and studies of screening /diagnostic test, outcome studies and cost- effectiveness analysis. Manuscript must be accompanied by a certificate signed by author and all co-authors that they have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and they have not submitted the manuscript to any other journal. Manuscript should include the name/s of supervisor/s, consultant/s of primary place (institute) of study. All manuscript should be typed in double spacing on A-4 paper (8.25” x 11.70” = 21.0 cm x 29.70 cm) with one inch (2.5 cm) margin on both sides. The article words count for quantitative study should be in range 2000 - 2500 words (excluding references and abstract) with at least 18-25 references and upto-5 figures or tables. For qualitative study article word count should be in range of 3000-4000 words (excluding references and abstract) with at least 20-30 references and upto 5 figures or tables.
Each manuscript should include:
1. Title page
Please give complete title as well as a short title of the study
This section should include exact study methods or observation or experiment. If an apparatus is used, its 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.
Reference number of the Institution Review Committee (IRC)/ Ethical Review Board (ERB) certificate to be mentioned in the methodology section along with date of approval.
Patient Consent
Authors must state that the consent of the patient/ guardian was taken prior to writing of the manuscripts if applicable.
This section should emphasize present findings & the variations or similarities with other work done in the field by other authors. 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.
Conclusion: must relate to the outcome of the study and no recommendations must be put in this section.
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 authorship criteria and conflict of interest disclosure forms. When submitting in a group, the corresponding author should clearly indicate the preferred citation and identify all individual authors as well as the group name. Other members of the group should be listed in the acknowledgement. Addition, deletion and change in sequence of authors names is not permitted after submission with authorship proforma duly signed.
It is mandatory that all authors be affiliated with the same institute & department, otherwise evidence should be provided for multi-affiliation or double affiliation with proof in the form of official letter from both institutes.
Short communication: Short communication or short report of research works, containing new findings. The short communication consists: Title, Abstract (structured - no more then 150 words), Keywords (max. 5), Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Ethical Consideration, Acknowledgment and References. Short report should not exceeding 1500 words from introduction through references. Short communications should contain no more than 1500 words in total. The number of tables/figures should not exceed 3.
Review Article: Types of review articles include: Critical review, Literature review/Narrative review, Mapping review, Meta analysis, Mixed study review, Overview, Systematic review, Scoping review, Systemized review, Umbrella review. They should be written by authors considered expert on the subject. Summary must have the time period and the databases searched, number of articles selected for review as per ICMJE guidelines. For review articles word count should be in the range of 3000-4000 words (excluding references and abstract) with minimum 30 and maximum 50 references and 3–5 figures or tables.
Case Report: Short report of cases, clinical experience, drug trails or adverse effects may be submitted. The word count should not exceed 1000 words, 10 bibliographic references and either one concise table or figure. The report must contain genuinely new information.
All case reports require an approval on the institutional letterhead from the head of the department. A statement should be included that participants have given informed consent before being included in the study or for publication of a case report. Prior permission should be sought before adding pictures, evidence of which should be shared. The face should be partially obscured.
Case Series: A group or series of case reports involving patients who were given similar treatment. Reports of case series usually contain detailed information about the individual patients. This includes demographic information (for example, age, gender, ethnic origin) and information on diagnosis, treatment, response to treatment, and follow-up after treatment. The word count should not exceed 1000 words, 10 bibliographic references and either one concise table or figure.
All case series require an approval on the institutional letterhead from the head of the department. A statement should be included that participants have given informed consent before being included in the study or for publication of a case series. Prior permission should be sought before adding pictures, evidence of which should be shared. The face should be partially obscured.
Clinical Audit: A process for monitoring standards of clinical care to see if it is being carried out in the best way possible (known as 'best practice'). Clinical audit can be described as a systematic 'cycle'. It involves measuring care against specific criteria, taking action to improve it if necessary, and monitoring the process to sustain improvement. As the process continues, an even higher level of quality is achieved. The word count should not exceed 1000 words, 10 bibliographic references and either one concise table or figure.
Systematic Review Article/Meta-analysis:
The systematic review paper should have a structured abstract of not more than 250 words using headlines as Objective, Data Sources, Study Selection, Data Extraction, Data Synthesis and Conclusions and with 3-10 key words.
Objective: Give precise statement of the primary objective for the review. Define if the review emphasizes cause and diagnosis, prognosis, therapy and intervention, or prevention. Define if the review would be highly selective as including only randomized controlled trials (RCT) or have wider inclusion criteria.
Data Sources: Present data sources used, including any time restriction.
Study Selection: Describe criteria to select studies for detailed review. Specify methods used, as blinded review, consensus, multiple reviewers.
Data Extraction: Describe how extraction was made, including assessment of quality and validity.
Data Synthesis: Present the main results of the review and state major identified sources of variation between studies.
Conclusion: Give a clear statement of the conclusions made, its generalizability and limitations.
The Introduction of the paper could be similar to an original report, but without any longer literature survey, only reviewing shortly previous structural reviews and stating the reason and aim of the present review.
The Methodology section with subheadings corresponding to the Abstract (Data Sources, Study Selection, Data Extraction) and should include clearly defined and reported inclusion and exclusion criteria, and specification of databases and other formal register, conference proceedings, reference lists and trial authors, which are used as sources. The full search strategy should be given so that it is easy to reproduce. If it is considered too long to be published in the article, an electronic document as an Appendix may be alternative. The stages of selection usually include several steps, each undertaken by at least two independent researchers (identified in the Methods). Initial selection from titles/ abstracts to select the articles to be examined in full. The full articles should be re-screened against the selection criteria. The articles fulfilling the criteria should be subjected to quality assessment. Summarize in a flow chart with the number of articles selected and reasons for rejection at each stage. The quality of the methodology should be assessed having an appropriate tool and also for outcome measures and blinding of outcome assessors. The tool that is most appropriate will depend on the extent and nature of the anticipated research evidence.
The Result section corresponds to Data synthesis in the Abstract and may present tables with long lists of selected articles. Extracted data from trials should, when available, include report of randomization method, study population, intervention methods and delivery, reasons to losses at follow-up, information related to treatment monitoring, post-intervention assessments and follow-up. Report the major outcomes, which were pooled, and include odds ratios or effects sizes. Use when applicable meta-analysis. Numerical values should, when possible, be accompanied with confidence intervals. State the major identified sources of variation between reported studies, as differences in treatment protocols, co-interventions, confounders, outcome measures, length of follow-up, and dropout rates. Tables and figures must be self-explanatory and have appropriate title or caption. The methods for synthesis of evidence should be pre-determined. Sometimes it may not be possible to pool the data, but a synthesis of best evidence ought to be given.
The Discussion section should be structured similar to an original report. The findings should be discussed with respect to the degree of consistency, variation, and generalizability. New contribution to the literature based on the review conducted and where information is insufficient must be stated. Providing the limitations of the review would be helpful. Suggest the need for new studies and future research agenda.
Length of paper: The total length of the text should usually not be more than 5000 words. The reference list should be comprehensive and not more than 100 references will be accepted.
Narrative Review Article:
The narrative review should have a structured abstract which should not exceed 250 words, under the following headlines Objectives, Methods, Review, Conclusion summarizing the current status of the knowledge about the topic reviewed followed by 3-10 key words.
Objective: This should provide a background to a review which focuses on relevant literature published over the last few years that has advanced our understanding of the issue under consideration.
Methods Section: Proper Research strategy should be given. Give in detail the strategy for inclusion of article in the review. Details of the database searched and the time period for which it was searched should be stated.
The Review and Discussion section could be structured along the lines for an original report. At the end of discussion, limitations of the study and key message should be written.
Conclusions: Conclusions of the article also highlighting the problems, or areas for future research to be included.
Word count: Between 2000 and 3500 words.
Tables: up to 5.
Illustrations: up to 3.
References: up to 50.
Mix Methods Study:
The mix methods study should have all the heading and subheading of original article. The word count of the study should be between 2000-3000 words with 18-30 references in Vancouver style.
Qualitative study format
Letter to Editor: Opinions on topics and articles recently published in the journal will be considered for publication if they are constructive in nature and provide academic/clinical interest. These letters will be forwarded to author of the cited article for possible response. The editor reserves the right to shorten these letters, delete objectionable comments, make other changes, or take any other suitable decision to comply with the style of the journal.
Letters could be of two types:
Institutional Review Board / Biomedical Ethical Committee/ Ethical Review Committee:
PROCESSING /PUBLICATION FEE
For Local Authors (Pakistan)
Fast Track Processing Charges for Manuscripts (Optional)
For International Authors
Account Details
Recipient Name: PAFMJ-AMC
Bank Name: HBL Bank
Bank Account Number: 24597000012201
IBAN: PK10HABB 00 24597000012201
Swift Code: HABBPKKA007
Postal Code: 46000
Refund Policy
The publication fee is non-refundable if the author withdraws the article after the acceptance letter is issued.
OPEN ACCESS POLICY
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
PAFMJ follows Budapest Open Access Initiative definition for Open Access which states that, "Readers may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles and use them for any other lawful purpose."
LICENSE TERMS
The Pakistan Armed Forces Medical Journal follows "CC BY NC "creative commons" licensing.
http://creativecommons.org/
All submissions must meet the following requirements.
Original Article
Any article submitted to PAFMJ must be original and not previously submitted to or published by any other journal, either in part or in full. Authors are required to confirm that their submission is original by signing a submission agreement. Authors retain the copyright to their work but grant PAFMJ the exclusive right to publish, reproduce, and distribute the work under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial License (CC BY-NC). Authors will be required to assist the editors in the final proofreading of their articles before publication.
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
Authors whose articles have been accepted are kindly requested to contact the Editorial Office at colkhadijaqamar [at] gmail [dot] com for further processing.
We have updated the processing and publication fees for the Pakistan Armed Forces Medical Journal. For detailed information about the new fee structure, please visit this link.
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Reporting guidlines for different study designs - Equator Network