Information for Authors

CONSORT 2010—Checklist of information to include when reporting a randomised trial
STROBE Statement—Checklist of items that should be included in reports of observational studies

ICMJE Recommendations - for the conduct, reporting, editing and publication of scholarly work in Medical Journals

Important Note:

• Articles and all editorial correspondence should be sent to Editor, PAFMJ C/O AM College, Abid Majeed Road, Rawalpindi.
• All such articles should aim for development of medical concepts rather than mere recording of facts. Incomplete, descriptive observational studies will be discouraged.
• The study done on the small number of population with restricted outcome and setting can only be submitted as short communication
• 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.
  Randomized Control trials(Trial Registration Number mandatory): It contains the studies in which groups are randomly allocated to carry out a clinical intervention.
  Non- Randomized Trial: A study where participants have been assigned to the treatment, procedure or intervention alternatives by a method that is not random. The investigator defines and manages the alternatives. They are QUASI EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES. There is NO Control Group and NO Random assignment of participants
• A study more than 5 years old at the time of submission will not be accepted for submission.
• Commercial/Brand-names of medicines are not permitted. Author should use generic names of the medicines in manuscript.
• Study should not have any comparison among the civil and army personal/setup or rule regulations
• KAP studies, that is research articles conducted on knowledge and awarenes surveys, will not be considered for processing or publication in the PAFMJ effective since 2020.
• Attach all the references manually at the end of the manuscript if the Citation /Reference Manager were used. Cross-check all the references and correct their sequence before submission.
• POST ORIGINAL COPY OF THE DRAFT OF THE PROCESSING AND PUBLICATION FEES WITH MANUSCRIPT NUMBER AS REFERENCE TO THE PAFMJ OFFICE,ARMY MEDICAL COLLEGE ,ABID MAJEED ROAD,RAWALPINDI

Copy Right Statement for PAFMJ

Any article submitted to PAFMJ must not be previously submitted to any other journal and must not be published in part or total. The authors will be requested to sign an agreement to give copyright to the publishers. The authors will also be requested to assist the editors in final proof reading of their articles before publication

• On Submitting article to PAFMJ we agree that all copyright ownership is transferred to the PAFMJ.
• All the content available on PAFMJ website is the property of PAFMJ if created by PAFMJ, or of the person or entity who or which owned it prior to submission to PAFMJ.
• The copyright in the text of individual articles (including research articles, review articles, book reviews, conference proceedings and abstracts) is not the property of PAFMJ, and its ownership is not affected by its submission or publication by PAFMJ.

EDITORIAL

Each editorial is written by one member of the editorial board or any subject specialist as solicited by the editor. The editorial is scientific review on one or two of the current topics pertaining to medical sciences (preference is given to subjects pertaining to upcoming medical health research).

SUBMISSION OF ARTICLE

Note: Upload SPSS Dataset/MS Excel worksheet along with the revised manuscript, for the verification of your results.The editorial team has the right to ask for the raw data, operation notes, patient’s files, all evidence etc

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. Main manuscript should be submitted as word document and should not 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 3–5 figures or tables. For qualitative study article word count should be in range of 3000 - 4000 words (excluding references and abstract) with at least 30-40 references and 3–5 figures or tables.

Do not state the authors’ names, affiliations or contact details anywhere on the main manuscript. The peer review process at the PAFMJ is a double-blind process and the author details are not shared with the peer reviewers with the manuscript.

Each manuscript should include submission copyright certificate available at the website including all the under mentioned documents

1. Title page

Please give complete title as well as a short title of the article

• Name of author(s)
• Department(s)
• Institution(s) at which work was performed
• Author Affiliation
• Subject Specialty
• Official phone/fax no, cell no, personal e-mail address (to whom correspondence is to be addressed) in case of posting please provide new address
• Short running title for header
• Authors are advised to suggest 1x National & 1x International Reviewers in given format

2. Structured Abstract

• Objective
• Study Design
• Place and duration of study
• Patients and Methods
• Results
• Conclusion
• Keywords 3–10 (Medical Subject Headings – MeSH) in alphabetical order
• Abstract should be of 250 words

Note: Kindly don’t use abbreviations in the TITLE .No references to be cited in the abstract.

Keywords: Key words not more than ten. 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. Key words should be arranged alphabetically.

3. Text

Introduction: This should summarize the purpose and the rationale for the study. It should neither review the subject extensively nor should it have data or conclusions of the study. Do not cite more than 10 references in the introduction.

Patients and Methods: This should include exact method 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. Methodology section should contain (without headings) study design, place and duration of study, sample size, sampling technique, inclusion and exclusion criteria, data collection and analysis procedure. Statistical method must be mentioned and specify any general computer programme used. The info system used should be clearly mentioned.

• ERC should bear the signature of the President of the ERC (not less than the rank of Lieutenant Colonel for Army personnel)on an official letter head with stamp and date of approval along with the reference number. If the president or the member of the ethical review committee is author of study, then any senior member of the committee will sign the certificate.
• Reference number of the Institution Review Committee (IRC)/ Ethical Review Board (ERB) certificate to be mentioned in the methodology section.
  
• Title of the research article should match the title on the ERC.

Results: Must be presented in the form of text, tables and illustrations. The contents of the tables should not be 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 is accessible. It may be omitted from the printed version but may be published in the electronic version of the journal.

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. The discussion should also include as to what new information it has added to the medical literature and its clinical significance.

Note: Discussion must include comparison with previous results of local/ national/regional/international studies

Limitation of Study: Limitations of the study should be stated at the end of the discussion in a separate paragraph.

Conclusion: Should be in line with the objectives and results and should be same as given in abstract. It should also be crisp and brief and given in small typeface

Conflict 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 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.

Acknowledgements: Acknowledgment and conflict of interest must be given. Make the conflict of interest short by just writing “none. 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 that 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. Disclosure (Presentation of the article in any conference, seminar, symposium before submission to PAFMJ).

Authors Contributions:

Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, 3 and 4.

• Authors are bound to declare that the Manuscript includes the name / s of supervisor / s in authorship (Abstract of studies, thesis, dissertation or any research) (For details of authorship criteria kindly consult ICMJE recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing and publication of scholarly work in Medical Journals.
• Completely fill contributions of each author mentioned in the authors certifcate

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.

• 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 author in a manuscript, the contributions of each person listed as author in the study should be mentioned.
• Those who provide technical support, writing assistance, or department chair who provided justsupport should also be mentioned in acknowledgment
• If there is any conflict of interest, please mention in the manuscript.

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 authorship proforma duly signed.

References: For quantitative study 18-25 references are allowed and for qualitative study 30-40 references are allowed. Do not cite more than 10 references in the introduction. 50% of the references should be from the Clarivate Impact Factor Journals. Crosscheck your references from the following list and change the references & modify discussion section, if found less than 50%. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342623066_Journal_Citation_Reports_2020_Impact_factor_Ranking_of_2019 and all references listed consecutively as superscript. Mention place /first author/ year of previous studies, mention their statistics while giving reference in the introduction and discussion. The reference should not be split and make sure uniform style (Vancouver) is followed throughout. 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. References appearing in a table or figure should be numbered sequentially with those in text. DOI number of those references where it is available. PAFMJ follows Index Medicus style for references and abbreviated journal names according to the list of Journals indexed in Index Medicus.

Journals: Standard journal article. (List all authors when six or less; when seven or more, list only first six and add et al)

You CH. Lee KY, Chey WY, Manguy R. Electrogastrographic study of patients with unexplained nausea, bloating and vomiting. Gastroenterol 1980; 79: 311-314
Chapter in a book: Weinstein L, Swartz MN. Pathogenic properties of invading micro organisms. In: Sodeman WA Jr, Sodeman WA, eds. Pathologic physiology: mechanisms of disease. WB Saunders, Philadelphia 1974; 457-472.

• et al. is written after 6 authors names, list first 6 authors’ names then write et al. in references.
• Write complete surname and convert first name and middle name to the initials, following each surname. e.g. Rimondini LR, Zolfanelli B, Bernardi F, Bez C.

4. Tables and Figures

3–5 figures and or tables are allowed (each table, complete with legends and footnotes, should be merged in the manuscript). Tables and figures should be embedded and not supplied separately. Table/figure should be written with a capital T and capital F with a hyphen between the word and number e.g., Table-1

Tables: All tables should be numbered with roman numerals. Headings should be placed above tables, left justified.

Table-I: Comparison of alveolar bone erosion among group A, B & C

Figure-1: Different mesh repair positions for ventral hernia.

Note: Kindly design table/graph on MS Word/MS Excel. Do not attach table/graph in the form of pictures

5. 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.

Field Medicine: It has been decided by the Editorial Board to include articles relating to various aspects of military medicine in the journal. These articles reflect various medical problems faced by the troops deployed in the field or hard areas and the preventive measures to overcome them.

Short communication: Short communication or brief report of research works, containing new findings. The short communication consists: Title, Abstract (structured - no more than 150 words), Keywords (max. 5), Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Ethical Consideration, Acknowledgment and References. Short communications should not exceeding 2500 words from introduction through references. Short communications should contain no more than 3000 words totally. The number of tables/figures should be in maximum 3.

Review Article: Types of review articles include: Critical review, Literature review/Narrative review, Mapping review, Meta analysis, Mixed study review, Overview, Systematic review, Rapid review, Scoping review, Systemized review, Umbrella review. They should be written by authors considered expert on the subject. Therefore, the corresponding author of the review article must be one of the authors of at least three articles presented in reference section. Summary must have the time period and the databases searched, number of articles selected for review as per ICMJE guidelines. For review article word count should be in range of 3000-4000 words (excluding references and abstract) with minimum 30 and maximum 40 references and 3–5 figures or tables.

Case Report: Short report of cases, clinical experience, drug trails or adverse effects may be submitted.
They should not exceed 1000 words, 10 bibliographic references and either two concise tables or one figure. The report must contain genuinely new information.

Headings

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Discussion

Qualitative Study Format

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Literature Review
4. Methodology
5. Qualitative Approach
6. Participant selection strategy
7. Data collection strategy
8. Themes
9. Discussion
10. Conclusion
11. References

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:

1. Commenting either on recently published articles in the journal
2. The scientific letter include: reporting cases, outbreaks, or original research.

Note: All articles submitted to PAFMJ must only be submitted to this journal and may not have been published elsewhere in part or total. The authors will be requested to sign an agreement to give the copyright to the publishers. The authors will be required to assist the editors for reviewing proof before publication.

LETTER FROM INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD / BIOMEDICAL ETHICAL COMMITTEE/ ETHICAL REVIEW COMMITTEE
Authors are required to send letter from Institutional Review Board / Biomedical Ethical Committee/Ethical Review Committee along with Original articles, Rapid communications and Case reports.

PROCESSING / PUBLICATION FEE
The processing fee of Rs. 1500/- (non-refundable) is to be paid at the time of submission of the article through demand/bank draft payable in the favor of PAFMJ-AMC account. It is further intimated that AMC/ADC officers have to pay Rs. 3500/- and the Civil authors` will have to pay Rs. 7,000/- as publication charges/fee, if the article is accepted for publication. The publication charges for case report and short communication will be half of the above charges. Research Protocol will be published with the same publication charges as that of case report. (Payable before issuance of acceptance letter).

• POST ORIGINAL COPY OF THE DRAFT OF THE PROCESSING AND PUBLICATION FEES WITH MANUSCRIPT NUMBER AS REFERENCE TO THE PAFMJ OFFICE,ARMY MEDICAL COLLEGE ,ABID MAJEED ROAD,RAWALPINDI
• A processing fee of Rs______/ (through DD, bankers Cheque) is mandatory to be submitted with each article separately. Please write the Name of the corresponding author, Article name. Without a processing fee, the submission will be declined.

Fast Track Charges for Manuscript

• Submission Charges: Rs. 2000/- (non-refundable)
• Publication Charges (at the time of issuance of acceptance letter): Rs 15000/- (for all categories)
• However, it generally takes 4 to 6 months for the acceptance of an article on fast track. The article may be declined at peer review stage in accordance with the reviewers comments.

The publication fee will not be refunded if the author withdraws the article after the acceptance letter has been 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. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

ETHICAL GUIDELINES
Ethical guidelines for journal publication
When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors must indicate that the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. Experiments on animals, authors will be asked to indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed or not.
In case of a study involving a clinical trial, taking of an informed consent of the patients is mandatory. Whenever editorial committee of PAFMJ feels necessary, the research paper will be referred to the ethical committee of AM College, for its evaluation and approval.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Conflict of interest exists when the author (or the author’s institution), reviewer, or editor has financial or personal relationships that inappropriately influence (bias) his or her actions (such relationship are also known as dual commitments, competing interests, or competing loyalties).
However, conflicts can occur for other reasons, such as personal relationships, academic competition, and intellectual passion. Increasingly, individual studies receive funding from commercial firms, private foundations, and government. The conditions of this funding have the potential to bias and otherwise discredit the research.
When authors submit a manuscript, whether an article or a letter, they are responsible for disclosing all financial and personal relationships that might bias their work. To prevent ambiguity, authors must state explicitly whether potential conflicts do or do not exist.
It is the discretion of editorial committee of PAFMJ to resolve any conflict of interest between the author(s) and reviewers. Editors may choose not to consider an article for publication if they feel that the research is biased by the sponsors funding the research project.
Hazards and human or animal subjects
If the work involves the use of animal or human subjects, the author should ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) has approved them. Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and representing them as one’s own original work. Within the academia, a researcher is considered an academic fraud and the offenders are subjected to academic censure. Plagiarism can be unintentional or intentional reproducing academic material without appropriate citation. Similarly self-plagiarism is the re-use of significant, identical or near identical portions of one’s own work without citing the original work. This is also known as ―Recycling fraud‖. Worst form of plagiarism is to steal the whole article from some journal and publish it under one's own name in another journal.
Lately the use of internet has made it easier to plagiarize, by copying the electronic tests and using them as the original work. All articles are checked for plagiarism and any article found to have a similarity index of more than 33% is not processed further.
It is the policy of editorial committee of PAFMJ to blacklist any author found to be guilty of plagiarism. The name of author(s) committing plagiarism will also be disseminated to editors of other medical journals, PM&DC /PMC and HEC.

All authors are informed that if the plagiarism of any submitted article is found to be between 30% to 49% then the authors will be issued a warning by PAFMJ, if it is between 50% and 69% then a bar of 1 year will be applied on them and if it is 70% or above then a lifetime bar shall be applied and higher authorities shall be notified. These regulations shall be active with effect from 1^st May 2022.