Publication Policy
Objectives:
- To establish a clear and sound framework for the encouragement of publications;
- To protect the rights of authors, reviewers, and editors with respect to the publication of any research.
- To formulate and implement Research ethics policies so that uniform criteria for ethical reviews can be practiced.
- To protect the rights of research participants and ensure their safety, privacy, confidentiality, and consent during research.
- To formulate and implement blind Peer Review quality criteria and external blind peer review process for publication;
- To establish a policy regarding Conflict of interests and disclosure of funding sources for research and publication;
- To establish a policy of selection of editorial team members, their editorial freedom, continuous monitoring and terms of accountability for a defined period.
1.0 Definitions:
1.1 Research:: includes Works leading to systematic investigation and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions.
1.2 College: means Multan Medical & Dental College, Multan.
1.3 College Personnel: includes all full-time and part-time employees of the College, fellows and residents, interns, volunteers and any non-employees who receive College Support, including visiting faculty, reviewers, editorial board members, advisory board members, researchers, in respect of their work at the College.
1.4 Students: includes all registered students of any College/ University/ Allied Health Sciences, including visiting students.
1.5 College Support: means financial or any other support including but not limited to salaries, personnel facilities, equipment, data, materials or technological information, regardless of origin, which is used in the discovery or development of Intellectual Property and is provided through College channels.
1.6 Work(s): shall include any copyrightable material intended for publication and submitted to Journal of MMDC.
1.7 Invention(s): include any discovery, process, composition of matter, article of manufacture, know-how, design, model, technological development, biological material, strain, variety, culture of any organism, or portion, modification, translation or extension of these items, and any mark used in connection with these items.
1.8 Author: means a member of College Personnel or Student who creates a Work or Invention or Innovation and submitted it to the office of Journal of MMDC with the intention of publication.
1.9 Patent: is an exclusive right granted by the Government allowing the applicant to exclude all others from making, using, or selling his/her invention within a particular territorial limit for a limited number of years. The patent should be mentioned if intended for publication.
1.10 Trademark: or a service mark is a distinctive word or a graphic symbol identifying the source, producer or distributor of goods or services.
1.11 Copyright: a legal right of the author(s)/creator(s)/owner(s) of copyright to exclusive publication, production, sale and distribution of their work both domestically and internationally regardless of how it is published. Copyright protects the "expression" of an idea, not the idea itself.
1.12 Computer programme/software: any computer programme regardless of form of expression or object in which it is embodied, together with any users’ manuals and other accompanying explanatory materials and any computer database.
1.13 Contract: is a legally binding agreement between two or more parties in which an exchange of value occurs, and which ties each party to certain liabilities covering that exchange. Those signing such an agreement must be authorized to bind the entity that they represent.
1.14 Tangible Research Property (TRP): means any tangible items produced in the course of research projects either through University Support or by external sponsors and includes but is not limited to biological materials, cell lines, data sets, computer software, computer databases, prototype devices and equipment.
1.15 Net Income: income remaining after deducting all costs incurred for obtaining, protecting, marketing and licensing the Intellectual Property by the College.
1.16 Scholarly Work: means a copyrightable work created by any College Personnel as evidence of academic advancement or academic accomplishment including, but not limited to, scholarly publications, journal articles, research-based bulletins, monographs, books, (excluding case-studies and textbooks and other works).
1.17Scholarly Publications: means Academic publications which distributes academic research and scholarships based on peer review and editorial refereeing to qualify texts for publication.
1.18 Original Research Articles: means Original research involving independent data collection based on any combination of fieldwork, participant observation, interviews, surveys, and formal data collection and analysis. An article is considered as original research article when The hypothesis and the purpose is described. Research methods are described fully and the results of the research are reported. The researcher interprets the results and discuss possible implications.
1.19 Case reports: means a detailed report of the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of an individual patient. Case reports may contain a demographic profile of the patient and describe an unusual or novel occurrence.
1.20 Case series: means a detailed report on series of cases with similarities and addresses the research objective and research question.
1.21 Short Communications: means short research papers addressing new ideas, controversial opinions, innovations, negative results or interesting findings during a research study.
1.22 Systematic Reviews: means review that collects and critically analyzes multiple research studies or published papers according to the research objectives, research questions, methods, standard criteria for interpretation of results and discussion.
1.23 Clinical Practice Articles: means articles reflecting experiences in healthcare science that determines the safety and effectiveness of medications, devices, diagnostic products and treatment regimens intended for practice in clinical settings. They include prevention, treatment, diagnosis or for relieving symptoms of a disease or health related issues.
1.24 Evidence based Clinical Reviews: means systematically developed reviews to assist practitioners and patient decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances.
1.25 Medical Humanities: means interdisciplinary field of medicine which includes the humanities, social science and the arts and their application to medical education and practice.
1.26 Letter to editor: means letter intended for publication and shall present opinions, critical review on published work, innovative ideas, new results, and idea likely to stimulate further research.
1.27 Editorial: means short article expressing the opinion on current health related issue or innovative idea in research in certain specialty or producing facts by experts of the field.
2.0 Applicability
2.1 This Policy is applicable to all publications in the course of work or study at the College with College Support or submitted from outside the College to the research journal of the College. This Policy extends to all College Personnel and Students and applies to Journal of MMDC owned, controlled, managed and/or operated by the College.
3.0 Ethics and consent
3.1 This Policy is applicable to all ethical permissions and approvals for publications in the course of research work or study at the College or with College Support or work outside the College intended for publication. The research work must be submitted to the research journal for publication.
3.2 Ethics approval for research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee.
3.3 A statement detailing this, including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate, must appear in all manuscripts reporting such research.
3.4 If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption).
3.5 Further information and documentation to support this should be made available to the Editor on request. Manuscripts may be rejected if the Editor considers that the research has not been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework.
3.6 The Editor may contact the ethics committee for further information on special cases.
3.7 Retrospective ethics approval in cases when a study has not been granted ethics committee approval prior to commencing, retrospective ethics approval usually cannot be obtained and it may not be possible to consider the manuscript for peer review. The decision on whether to proceed to peer review in such cases is at the Editor's discretion.
3.8 Ethical approval for new clinical tools and procedures in cases when authors are reporting the use of a new procedure or tool in a clinical settings, for example as a technical advance or case report, must give a clear justification and ethical approval statements in the manuscript for why the new procedure or tool was deemed more appropriate than usual clinical practice to meet the patient’s clinical need.
3.9 Ethical approval for new clinical tools and procedures and justification is not required if the new procedure is already approved for clinical use at the authors’ institution. Authors will be expected to have obtained ethics committee approval and informed patient consent for any experimental use of a novel procedure or tool where a clear clinical advantage based on clinical need was not apparent before treatment.
3.10 If tables, illustrations or photographs, which have already been published, are included, a letter of permission for re-publication should be obtained from author (s) as well as the editor of the journal where it was previously published.
3.11 Written permission to reproduce photographs of patients, whose identity is not disguised, should be sent with the manuscript; otherwise the eyes will be blackened out. If a medicine is used, generic name should be used.
3.12 In case of medicine or device or any material indicated in text, a declaration by author/s should be submitted that no financial benefit has been taken from manufacturer/importer of that product by any author. In case of experimental interventions, permission from ethical committee of the hospital should be taken beforehand. All interventional studies submitted for publication should carry Institutional Ethical & Research Committee approval letter.
3.13 Ethical consideration regarding the intervention, added cost of test, and particularly the management of control in case-control comparisons of trials should be addressed: multi-centric authors' affiliation may be asked to be authenticated by provision of permission letters from ethical boards or the heads of involved institutes.
4.0 Research involving animals
4.1 This Policy is applicable to all publications in the course of work involving animals as subjects for research and submitted to the research journal of the College.
4.2 Experimental research on vertebrates or any regulated invertebrates must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines, and should have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. The Basel Declaration outlines fundamental principles to adhere to when conducting research in animals and the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) has also published ethical guidelines.
4.3 The ethical approval (including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate) must be included in the manuscript.
4.4 If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption and the reasons for the exemption).
4.5 The Editor will take account of animal welfare issues and reserves the right to reject a manuscript, especially if the research involves protocols that are inconsistent with commonly accepted norms of animal research.
4.6 In special cases, the Editor may contact the ethics committee for further information.
4.7 For experimental studies involving client-owned animals, authors must also document informed consent from the client or owner and adherence to a high standard (best practice) of veterinary care.
4.8 Field studies and other non-experimental research on endangered species of animals must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines, and where available should have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. A statement detailing compliance with relevant guidelines and/or appropriate permissions or licences must be included in the manuscript. We recommend that authors comply with the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction.
5.0 Consent for publication
5.1 This Policy is applicable to all publications in the course of work or study at the College with College Support or submitted to the research journal of the College.
5.2 For all manuscripts that include details, images, or videos relating to individual participants, written informed consent for the publication of these must be obtained from the participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 18) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript.
5.3 If the participant has died, then consent for publication must be sought from the next of kin of the participant.
5.4 Authors can use a consent form from their own institution or region or local language.
5.5 This documentation must be made available to the Editor if requested, and will be treated confidentially.
5.6 In cases where images are entirely unidentifiable and there are no details on individuals reported within the manuscript, consent for publication of images may not be required.
5.7 The final decision on whether consent to publish is required lies with the Chief Editor.
6.0 Publication of Clinical Trial
The JMMDC follows International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE) criteria. ICMJE defines a clinical trial as any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. The ICMJE does not advocate one particular registry, but JMMDC will require authors to register their trials in an international trial registry system.
7.0 Availability of data and materials
7.1 This Policy is applicable to all research materials and data in the course of work or study at the College with College Support or submitted to the research journal of the College.
7.2 Submission of a manuscript to Journal of MMDC implies that materials described in the manuscript, including all relevant raw data, will be freely available to any scientist wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without breaching participant’s confidentiality.
7.3 The authors are encouraged to ensure that their datasets are either deposited in publicly available repositories (where available and appropriate) or presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files, in machine-readable format (such as spreadsheets rather than PDFs) whenever possible.
7.4 The availability and deposition of the data on which the conclusions of the manuscript rely may be required by editor and it is the main responsibility of corresponding author to present it without delays.
7.5 Availability of data and materials section should be included at the end of manuscript detailing where the data supporting their findings can be found. Authors who do not wish to share their data must state that data will not be shared, and give the reason.
7.6 Journal of MMDC requires that all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI).
7.7 Authors must state in their manuscript on submission whether informed consent was obtained for publication of patient data. If informed consent was not obtained, authors must state the reason for this, and which body was consulted in the preparation of the dataset.
7.8 The manuscript should include a description in the Availability of Data and Materials section of how the reviewers can access the unreported software application or custom code. This section should include a link to the most recent version of software or code as well as a link to the archived version referenced in the manuscript. The software or code should be archived in an appropriate repository with a DOI or other unique identifier.
8.0 Standards of reporting
This Policy is applicable to the checklists submitted to the research journal of the MMDC. Journal of MMDC advocates complete and transparent reporting of biomedical and biological research according to the standards and that is checklist should be submitted for a number of study designs, including:
- Randomized controlled trials (CONSORT) and protocols (SPIRIT)
- Systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) and protocols (PRISMA-P)
- Observational studies (STROBE)
- Case reports (CARE)
- Qualitative research (COREQ)Diagnostic/prognostic studies (STARDand TRIPOD)
- Economic evaluations (CHEERS)
- Pre-clinical animal studies (ARRIVE)
9.0 Disclosure / Conflict of interests
9.1 This Policy states that Journal of MMDC requires authors to declare conflict of interests in relation to their work. All submitted manuscripts must include a ‘conflict of interests’ section at the end of the manuscript and also in letter of Authorship listing all competing interests (financial and non-financial) duly signed by all authors. Where authors have no competing interests, the statement should read “The author(s) declare(s) that they have no competing interests”. The Editor may ask for further information or documents relating to conflict of interests.
9.2 Editors and reviewers are also required to declare any competing interests and may be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists.
9.3 Authors from pharmaceutical companies, or other commercial organizations that sponsor clinical trials, should declare these as conflict of interests on submission and publications should be produced in a responsible and ethical manner. The policies also apply to any company or individuals that work on industry-sponsored publications, such as freelance writers, contract research organizations and communications companies.
9.4 Journal of MMDC also requires disclosure of non-financial conflict of interests that include (but are not limited to) political, personal, religious, ideological, academic, and intellectual competing interests.
10.0 Authorship
10.1 This Policy states that Journal of MMDC requires letter of Authorship duly signed by corresponding author, authors and co-authors as compulsory requirement for publication.
10.2 Authorship also implies responsibility and accountability for published work.
10.3 Journal of MMDC requires information about the contributions of each person named as having participated in a submitted research study as authorship does not communicate what contributions qualified an individual to be an author.
10.4 Journal of MMDC has adopted ICMJE criteria for authorship and contributor policy. Authors are strongly encouraged to follow contributor ship policy.
11.0 Editorial board
11.1 This policy deals with the constitution of editorial board, assigning their roles and responsibilities, functions and criteria for continuous monitoring. The editorial board is responsible for the process of publication and implementation of policies.
11.2 The Editorial board shall consist of Chief Editor, Managing Editors, Editors, Members of Editorial Board, Members National Advisory Board, Members International Advisory Board and statisticians. They should be appointed by the Patron-in-Chief of the College for certain term.
11.3 The Chief Editor must have an academic rank of Professor or equivalent along with publications in peer reviewed journals with high impact factor. The editor in chief is directly responsible for the management and publication of Journal of MMDC.
11.4 The Managing Editors must have an academic rank above Associate Professor or equivalent. Managing Editor must assist the Editor-in-Chief in judging a manuscript to be accepted or rejected, provide support in taking decisions and communicating with other Board members. The editor, fill the role of both serving as an editorial board member in review process as well as ensuring the publication of high quality papers in the Journal.
11.5 The Editors must have an academic rank above Assistant professor or equivalent. The Editors have to assist both the Chief Editor and the managing editor in guaranteeing the quality of content found in Journal and communicating its vision for the journal to authors, Editorial Board members, readers, and publisher.
11.6 Editorial board shall consist of national and international members. The national members shall be more than Six senior professors serving in different medical institutions of Pakistan. International members shall be from technologically advanced countries and constitute 50% of the editorial board.
11.7 Journal of MMDC must have statistician(s) with acceptable qualifications and experience in health related biostatistics. The statistician(s) shall be responsible for evaluation of all the statistical analysis submitted to Journal of MMDC and may request the provision of datasets from authors through editor for confirmation of results.
11.8 Journal of MMDC must have bibliographer(s) with acceptable qualifications and experience in bibliography of various styles. The bibliographer(s) shall be responsible for evaluation of all the references submitted to Journal of MMDC and may request the provision of hard copies or grey literature or unpublished materials from authors through editor for confirmation of references for possible publication.
11.9 Functions of chief editor include (but not limited to):
11.9.1. Identifying new topics and themes for special editions and advising on direction for the journal by giving feedback on past issues and making suggestions for both subject matter and potential authors.
11.9.2. Provide content by writing editorials and other articles. Every member of Editorial board has the responsibility to contribute editorials in issues of Journal of MMDC.
11.9.3. Approaching potential contributors for improving quality of publications
11.9.4. Help to identify peer reviewers and provide second opinions on papers (i.e. where there is a conflict between reviewers)
11.9.5. Identify appropriate conferences for editors to attend and present Journal of MMDC at various forums.
11.9.6. Endorse the journal to authors, readers and subscribers and encourage colleagues to submit their best work.
11.9.7 The Chief editor should put consistent efforts to enhance quality and elevate the significance of published articles to the corresponding community.
11.9.8 The Chief editor should take the whole responsibility of the Journal and should be familiar with the subject literature, research design, statistics, publication ethics and standards. Should also possess extensive Editorial and interpersonal skills and responsible for the Budget and Financial records.
11.9.9 The final decision to accept or reject of an article will be held with Chief editor and should cross check the content quality, writing style and construction, grammar, spellings, data presentation and organization prior to take the final decision.
11.9.10 Should ensure that the manuscript is neither plagiarized nor published elsewhere. If the paper found plagiarized or infringed, the Chief editor has the right to reject the article straight away.
11.10 Functions of editor include (but not limited to):
11.10.1 Editor should assist the Editor-in-Chief and also involve in the peer review process.
11.10.2 Should be responsible for the quality of Journal content and the published articles.
11.10.3 Encourage submission of high quality papers.
11.10.4 Provide fair and constructive feedback to the contributors, editors and reviewers.
11.10.5 Provide editorials on latest health issues, cutting edge technologies and promoting new policies when introduced.
11.10.6 Should ensure that the manuscript is neither plagiarized nor published elsewhere and similarity report from plagiarism software is acceptable.
11.10.7 Contribute to Journal development and management through generous relationship with other board members and arrange training workshops for plagiarism, medical writing and publications.
11.10. 8 Ensure steady communication with the editorial office
11.10.9 Editors should ensure the protection of individual data and maintain confidentiality
11.10.10 Ensure constructive, fair and timely feedback to the authors for their contribution
11.10.11 Elevate Journal's reputation among their affiliated academic community
12.0 Advisory Board
This Policy describes the establishment of Advisory board that consists of professors and eminent scholars from broad array of medical specialties. They should be nominated by Editorial board and approved by the Principal of Multan Medical & Dental College. They are independent advisors and should be working outside the College. They should help the editorial board to establish and maintain editorial policy and should be nominated for three years term. Editorial board seeks input from advisory board especially on controversial issues raised during publications and invites them in meetings.
13.0 Editorial Freedom
13.1 The Journal of MMDC adopts the World Association of Medical Editors’ definition of editorial freedom, which holds that Chief editor have full authority over the entire editorial content of their journal and the timing of publication of that content. Journal owners or college should not interfere in the evaluation, selection, scheduling, or editing of individual articles either directly or by creating an environment that strongly influences decisions.
13.2 Editors should base editorial decisions on the validity of the work and its importance to the journal’s readers, not on the commercial implications for the journal, and editors should be free to express critical but responsible views about all aspects of medicine without fear of retribution, even if these views conflict with the goals of the publisher or administration.
13.3 Editors are encouraged to establish an independent editorial advisory board to help the chief editor establish and maintain editorial policy. Editors should seek input as needed from a broad array of advisers, such as reviewers, editorial staff, an editorial board, and readers, to support editorial decisions and potentially controversial expressions of opinion, and administration should ensure that appropriate insurance is obtained in the event of legal action against the editors, and should ensure that legal advice is available when necessary.
13.4 Editors should defend the confidentiality of authors and peer-reviewers (names and reviewer comments). Editors should take all reasonable steps to check the facts in journal commentary, including that in various sections and social media postings, and should ensure that staff working for the journal adhere to best journalistic practices including contemporaneous note-taking and seeking a response from all parties when possible before publication. Such practices in support of truth and public interest may be particularly relevant in defense against legal allegations of libel.
13.5 Editors and editorial board must support the concept of editorial freedom and draw major transgressions of such freedom to the attention of the international medical, and academic communities.
14.0 Types of Manuscripts and subsections
14.1 This Policy is uniformly applicable to all manuscripts including Editorial, Original Research Article, case reports, case series, short communications, clinical practice articles, systematic reviews, critical reviews, Medical Humanities and letters to Editor. Between 3 to 10 key words should be given for all the category of manuscripts under the abstracts as per mesh [medical subject heading].
14.2 This policy includes all subsections including Editorial, Medicine and Allied, Surgery and Allied, Basic and Biomedical Sciences, and Medical Humanities. Journal of MMDC has adopted ICMJE criteria for types of manuscripts in subsections.
14.3 The material submitted for publication may be in the form of an Original research (Randomized controlled trial - RCT, Meta-analysis of RCT, Quasi experimental study, Case Control study, Cohort study, Observational Study with statistical support etc), a Review Article, Commentary, a Case Report, Recent Advances, New techniques, Debates, Adverse Drug Reports, Current Practices, Clinical Practice Article, Short Article, KAP (Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices) study, An Audit Report, Evidence Based Report, Short Communication or a Letter to the Editor.
14.4 Any study ending three years prior to date of submission is judged by Editorial Board for its suitability as many changes take place over the period of time, subject to area of the study.
14.5 Journal of MMDC also does not accept multiple studies/multiple end publications gathered/derived from a single research project or data (wholly or in part) known as 'salami slices'.
14.6 Original articles should normally report original research of relevance to clinical medicine. The original paper should be of about 2000-2500 words excluding abstract and references. It should contain a structured abstract of about 250 words. Three to 10 keywords should be given for an original article as per MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). There should be no more than three tables or illustrations. The data should be supported with 20 to 25 references, which should include local up to 10 years as well as international references up to 5 years. Most of the references should be from last five years from the date of submission.
14.7 Clinical Practice Article is a category under which all simple observational case series are entertained. The length of such article should be around 1500 - 1600 words with 15 - 20 references. The rest of the format should be that of an original article. KAP studies, Audit reports, Current Practices, Survey reports and Short Articles are also written on the format of Clinical Practice Article.
14.8 Short communications should be of about 1000 - 1200 words, having a non-structured abstract of about 150 words with two tables or illustrations and not more than 10 references.
14.9 Clinical case reports must be of academic and educational value and provide relevance of the disease being reported as unusual. Brief or negative research findings may appear in this section. The word count of case report should be 800 words with a minimum of 3 key words. It should have a non-structured abstract of about 100 - 150 words (case specific) with maximum of 5 - 6 references. Not more than 2 figures shall be accepted.
14.10 Systematic Review article should consist of critical overview/analysis of some relatively narrow topic providing background and the recent development with the reference of original literature. It should incorporate author's original work on the same subject. The length of the review article should be of 2500 to 3000 words with minimum of 40 and maximum of 60 references. It should have non-structured abstract of 150 words with minimum 3 key words.
14.11 Letters should normally not exceed 400 words, with not more than 5 references and be signed by all the authors-maximum 3 are allowed. Preference is given to those that take up points made in contributions published recently in the journal. Letters may be published with a response from the author of the article being discussed. Discussions beyond the initial letter and response will not be entertained for publication. Letters to the editor may be sent for peer review if they report a scientific data.
14.12 Guest Editorials will be written upon invitations.
15.0 Publication policy and special issues
15.1 Journal of MMDC requires specific publication standards and scientific merit for publications. Scientific merit of a journal's content is based on validity, importance, originality of research submitted to Annals of Multan Medical and Dental College, and contribution to the coverage of the field.
15.2 Journal of MMDC requires following steps for publication;
Manuscript received by the editor, then checking plagiarism through “Turnitin”, after acceptability limit of plagiarism according to similarity report, manuscript forwarded to in-house editors, statistician, bibliographers and section reviewers, then final review by the blind peer reviewers including internal reviewers and external reviewers, explicit process of external peer reviews, based on the review reports by the peer reviewers, the manuscripts are either approved or rejected or returned to authors for improvement/ revision. All approved are accepted for publication in Journal of MMDC.
15.3 Authors should include full information on the statistical methods and measures used in their research, including justification of the appropriateness of the statistical test used.
15.4 Reviewers will be asked to check the statistical methods, and the manuscript may be sent for specialist statistical review if considered necessary.
15.5 To enable effective tracking of the key resources used to produce the scientific findings reported in the biomedical literature, authors are expected to include a full description of all resources with enough information to allow them to be uniquely identified. Journal of MMDC encourages authors to use unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI) within their manuscript to identify their model organisms, antibodies, or tools.
15.6 The database URL and the unique identifier should be reported in the manuscript.
15.7 Journal of MMDC expects authors to drive the maximum re-use and utility of published research and comply with available field-specific standards for the preparation and recording of data. The Bio-Sharing website for information on field-specific data standards must be visited. Authors must comply with best practice in their field for sharing of data, with particular attention to maintaining patient confidentiality.
15.8 Journal of MMDC will only publish those manuscripts that strongly adhere with the format as prescribed from time to time in guidelines. Few important points are as below:
15.9.1 The title page should carry the following information:
15.9.2 Authors should include all information in the title that will make electronic retrieval of the article both sensitive and specific.
15.9.3 Authors’ names and Title of the Program. The names and other relevant information should be on title page only to ensure blind peer review of research article.
15.9.4 The name of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed.
15.9.5 Disclaimers, if any.
15.9.6 Name, designation, place and contact of Corresponding authors. The name, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the author responsible for correspondence about the manuscript.
15.9.7 Source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, finances or non-financial technical support.
15.9.8 Word counts. A word count for the text only (excluding abstract, acknowledgments, figure legends, and references). A separate word count for the Abstract is also required.
15.9.9 The number of figures and tables.
15.9.10 Conflict of Interest Notification is compulsory
15.9.11 An abstract (requirements for length and structured format vary by type of manuscript) should follow the title page. The abstract should provide the objective, methods, results, conclusions, and key words. These will assist indexers in cross-indexing the article and may be published with the abstract. Terms from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus should be used.
15.9.12 An introduction provides a context or background for the study (i.e., the nature of the problem and its significance). State the specific purpose or research objective of, or hypothesis tested by, the study or observation; the research objective is often more sharply focused when stated as a question. Both the main and secondary objectives should be made clear, and any pre-specified subgroup analyses should be described. Give only strictly pertinent references and do not include data or conclusions from the work being reported.
15.9.13 Patients and Methods section should include only information that was available at the time of the study. Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer’s name and address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Give references to established methods, including statistical methods; provide references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration.
15.9.14 Patients and Methods section should include only information that was available at the time of the study. Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer’s name and address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Give references to established methods, including statistical methods; provide references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration.
15.9.15 When data are summarized in the Results section, the numeric results should be provided as the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated, and should specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. The tables and figures should be used to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support.
15.9.16 The discussion emphasizes the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. Link the conclusions with the goals of the study but avoid unqualified statements and conclusions not adequately supported by the data. Avoid claiming priority and alluding to work that has not been completed. State new hypotheses when warranted.
15.9.17 References should be in Vancouver’s style and numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in parentheses. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. Consult the list of Journals Indexed for MEDLINE, published annually as a separate publication by the National Library of Medicine. The international references should be cited within five years and local within 10 years in manuscript.
15.9.18 Illustrations (Figures) should be either professionally drawn or photo-graphed, or submitted as photographic quality digital prints. In addition to requiring a version of the figures suitable for printing, Annals of JMMD requires electronic files of figures in a format (e.g., JPEG or GIF) that will produce high quality images (30 dpi) in the online version of the journal; authors should review the images before submission for quality.
15.9.19 Letters, numbers, and symbols on Figures should therefore be clear and even throughout, and of sufficient size that when reduced for publication each item will still be legible. Figures should be made as self-explanatory as possible, since many will be used directly in slide presentations. Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends, however, not on the illustrations themselves.
15.9.20 If photographs of people are used, either the subjects must not be identifiable or their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph. When-ever possible permission for publication should be obtained. Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text. Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background.
15.9.21 Legends for Illustrations (Figures) should be type or print out legends for illustrations using double spacing, starting on a separate page, with Arabic numerals cor-responding to the illustrations. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one clearly in the legend.
15.9.22 Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units (meter, kilogram, or liter) or their decimal multiples. Temperatures should be in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be in millimeters of mercury, unless other units are specifically required.
15.9.23 Use only standard abbreviations; the use of non-standard abbreviations can be extremely confusing to readers. Avoid abbreviations in the title. The full term for which
15.9.24 Generic names should be used. When proprietary brands are used in research, include the brand name and the name of the manufacturer in parentheses after first mentioning of the generic name in the Methods section. All randomized trials should also provide a proof of being registered at the International RCT Registry.
15.9.25 Thesis based article approved by Advanced Study and Research Board of Multan Medical and Dental College, which was submitted as part of the requirement for any examination of the JMMDC, can be sent for publication provided the data is not more than three years old. A copy of approval letters of synopsis and thesis obtained from JMMDC must be submitted with the research paper. Thesis based article should be re-written in accordance with the journal's instructions to the author guidelines.
15.9.26 Thesis based article shall undergo routine editorial processing including external review based upon which final decision shall be made for publication.
16.0 Subscription and publication charges
16.1 This Policy is applicable to all publication charges and subscriptions of Journal of MMDC. For annual subscription of journal, the institute desire to subscribe JMMDC is required to submit a request for subscription along with bank draft of amounting Rs 2000/ - (Two Thousand Only) in favor of “Multan Medical & Dental College, Multan”.
16.2 The payment mode from authors and organizations is demand draft in favor of MMDC or online submission in account of MMDC and it will be according to the fees prescribed by the College from time to time.
16.3 The waiver of publication fees should be given to eminent foreign scholars, distinguished researchers, reviewers of Journal of MMDC and for promotion of cutting edge or novel research. It will be decided by the chief Editor on case to case basis.
This fee is charged from the Author on the time of submission. There are no further charges if the article is accepted. Bank draft in favor of the Multan Medical & Dental College, Multan or receipt of online transfer must reach the Accounts Department Multan Medical & Dental College, Southern Bypass, Jahangirabad Multan P.O. 60000 address within one week of the submission of manuscript.
Online APC transfer is available:
Account # :
IBAN :
Account Title:
For further information please contact on official email publications@mmdc.edu.pk
17.0 Citations
17.1 This Policy is applicable to all publications in the course of work or study using citations submitted to the research journal.
17.2 Research articles and non-research articles (e.g. Editorial, Opinion, Review, and Commentary articles) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in Vancouver’s style. Excessive self-citation is discouraged and should not exceed 20%.
17.3 Any statement in the manuscript that relies on external sources of information (i.e. not the authors' own new ideas or findings or general knowledge) should use a citation.
17.4 Authors should avoid citing derivations of original work. For example, they should cite the original work rather than a review article that cites an original work.
17.5 Authors should ensure that their citations are accurate (i.e. they should ensure the citation supports the statement made in their manuscript and should not misrepresent another work by citing it if it does not support the point the authors wish to make).
18.0 Duplicate publication
18.1 This Policy is applicable to all material submitted for publication and should be sent exclusively to the Journal of Multan Medical and Dental College.
18.2 Journal of MMDC reserves the right to judge potentially overlapping or redundant publications on a case-by-case basis. Work that has already been reported in a published paper or is described in a paper sent or accepted elsewhere for publication, should not be submitted.
18.3 Multiple or duplicate submission of the same work to other journal should be avoided as this fall into the category of publication fraud and are liable for disciplinary consequences, including reporting to Pakistan Medical & Dental Council and Higher Education Commission.
18.4 A complete report following publication of a preliminary report, usually in the form of an abstract, or a paper that has been presented at a scientific meeting, if not published in full in a proceedings or similar publication, may be submitted. Press reports of meetings will not be considered as breach of this rule, but additional data or copies of tables and illustrations should not amplify such reports. In case of doubt, a copy of the published material should be included with a manuscript for editors' consideration.
18.5 Any manuscript submitted to Journal of MMDC must be original and the manuscript, or substantial parts of it, must not be under consideration by any other journal. In any case where there is the potential for overlap or duplication we require that authors are transparent. Authors should declare any potentially overlapping publications on submission.
18.6 Journal of MMDC endorses the policies of the ICMJE in relation to overlapping publications, duplicate publications and Salami Slices.
19.0 Accountability
19.1 This Policy is applicable to authors, editors and reviewers. Manuscripts submitted to journals are privileged communications that are authors’ private, confidential property, and authors may be harmed by premature disclosure of any or all of a manuscript’s details. Thus editorial team, reviewers, and authors are accountable to the office of Patron-in-cheif Multan Medical & Dental College as below:
19.2 The authors are accountable for research findings, conclusions, collection and storage of data used for publication. When authors submit a manuscript of any type or format they are responsible for disclosing all financial and personal relationships that might bias or be seen to bias their work. The ICMJE has developed a Form to facilitate and standardize authors’ disclosures and it is compulsory for submission in Journal of MMDC. Manuscripts submitted to journals are privileged communications that are authors’ private, confidential property, and authors may be harmed by premature disclosure of any or all of a manuscript’s details.
19.3 Reviewers should treat the received research manuscript and material as confidential and disclose when they are asked to critique a manuscript if they have relationships or conflicts that could complicate their review. Reviewers must disclose to editors and should recuse themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if the potential for bias exists even in blind peer review.
19.3.1 Reviewers must not use knowledge of the work they’re reviewing before its publication to further their own interests.
19.3.2 Reviewers should keep manuscripts and the information they contain strictly confidential. Reviewers must not publicly discuss authors’ work and must not appropriate authors’ ideas before the manuscript is published.
19.3.3 Reviewers are expected to respond promptly to requests to review and to submit reviews within the time agreed. Reviewers must not retain the manuscript for their personal use and should destroy copies of manuscripts after submitting their reviews.
19.3.4 Reviewers should not try to contact or inform the authors or organizations about the manuscript for possible approval or rejection in any case. If secrecy and confidentiality is breeched then they are accountable for the act.
19.3.5 Editors should treat the received research manuscript and data as confidential. The editor should recuse themselves from editorial decisions if they have relationships that pose potential conflicts related to articles under consideration.
19.3.6 Other editorial team members who participate in editorial decisions must provide editors with a current description of their financial interests or other conflicts.
19.3.7 Editorial members must not use information gained through working with manuscripts for private gain. Editors should publish regular disclosure statements about potential conflicts of interests related to the commitments of editorial members.
20.0 Blind Peer Review Policy
20.1 This Policy is applicable to all publications submitted to the research journal of the College and they must undergo blind peer review involving internal and external reviewers. This involves review by two independent peer reviewers.
20.2 All submissions to Journal of MMDC are assessed by the Editor, who will decide whether they are suitable for in house editing and further process.
20.3 Where an Editor is on the author list or has any other conflict of interest regarding a specific manuscript, another member of the Editorial Board will be assigned to assume responsibility for overseeing peer review.
20.4 Manuscripts after satisfactory reports from plagiarism check, bibliography report and statistical check will be sent for two or more peer reviews to appropriate independent experts preferably from technologically advanced countries. The manuscript will be returned to author if reports are unsatisfactory and will be informed.
20.5 Editors will make a decision based on the reviewers’ reports. The approval for publication is based on approval from two independent blind peer reviews. Rejection is also based on two independent blind peer reviews.
20.6 Authors should remove the concerns raised by reviewers within given time. Failure to respond in time or corrections not accepted by reviewers may result in the manuscript being rejected. The modifications from authors need final approval from the reviewers prior to publication.
20.7 Journal of MMDC operates a closed peer review process. Reviewers will be treated anonymously and the pre-publication history of each article will not be made available online. However, names of all reviewers for Journal of MMDC are published in every issue.
20.8 Intentionally falsifying information, for example, authors or reviewers with a false name or email address, will result in rejection of the manuscript and may lead to penalty according to misconduct policy.
21.0 Publication Frequency
21.1 Journal of MMDC is a scholarly peer reviewed journal and published Bianually.
21.2 It is electronically published via journal website (https://JMMDC.org) as well as also available in print version.
22.0 Plagiarism Policy
22.1 Journal of MMDC adopted Plagiarism Policy formulated by Higher Education Commission (HEC).
22.2 All research submitted to Journal of MMDC will be evaluated for plagiarism report and similarity index through software ‘Turnitin’. Acceptability limit for similarity in submitted manuscript should be less than 19% and not more than 5% from single source.
22.3. Reporting of alleged plagiarism will be considered only when a complaint duly signed made by email, post, fax or other means to office of Journal of MMDC or respective department.
22.4. Upon receipt of an allegation of Plagiarism, the office of Journal of MMDC will request the Principal to carry out investigation.
22.5 Penalties for Plagiarism are adopted from HEC as plagiarism is an intellectual crime.
22.6 "Plagiarism Standing Committee" in its recommendations, DEPENDING UPON THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE PROVEN OFFENCE, will advise the Competent Authority of the Organization, to take any one or a combination of the disciplinary action(s) against the teacher, researcher and / or staff found guilty of the offence.
22.7 The journal requires ALL authors to sign a declaration that the material presented in the creative work is not plagiarized (Sample Attached)
23.0 Corrections and retractions
23.1 This Policy is applicable to all publications in Journal of MMDC. Honest errors are a part of science and publishing and require publication of a correction when they are detected. Corrections are needed for errors of fact. Matters of debate are best handled as letters to the editor, as print or electronic correspondence, or as posts in a journal-sponsored online forum.
23.2 If a correction is needed, Journal of MMDC will follow these standards:
23.3 The journal should publish a correction notice as soon as possible detailing changes from and citing the original publication; the correction should be on an electronic or numbered print page that is included in an electronic or a print Table of Contents to ensure proper indexing.
23.4 The Journal of MMDC shall post a new article version with details of the changes from the original version and the date(s) on which the changes were made. The journal shall archive all prior versions of the article. This archive can be either directly accessible to readers or can be made available to the reader on request. Previous electronic versions shall prominently display a note that there are more recent versions of the article after correction and citation should be to the most recent version.
23.5 Errors serious enough to invalidate a paper’s results and conclusions may require retraction.
23.6 In cases of proven research misconduct or publication misconduct involving published articles, or where the scientific integrity of the article is significantly undermined, articles may be retracted.
24.0 Timelines of Manuscript Publication
Each manuscript submitted to Journal of MMDC has proceed for plagiarism check, section review, peer review (internal / external review), statistical and references check. Minimum three months are required for final outcome regarding acceptance / rejection after official submission.
25.0 Appeals and complaints
All appeals and complaints regarding (but not limited to) misconduct, authorship conflicts or plagiarism in publications in Journal of MMDC will be directed to the Competent Authority i.e, the Princiapl MMDC.
26.0 References
Higher Education Commission
Pakistan Medical and Dental Council
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors
Committee of Publication Ethics
Editorial Policy of New England Journal of Medicine
Editorial Policy of British Journal of Medicine
Editorial Policy of BioMed Central
World Association of Medical Editors
27.0 Appendices
These are forms required or submitted to the Research Journal of the Multan Medical & Dental College for standard reviews, modifications, approvals or rejections of manuscripts during publication.
Appendix 01: Letter of Authorship
Appendix 02: Form for Corrections Required in Format of Submitted Manuscript
Appendix 03: Form for Corrected manuscript
Appendix 04: Guidelines for review of original research article
Appendix 05: Guidelines for review of short communication
Appendix 06: Guidelines for review of case report/ Case series
Appendix 07: Guidelines for review of systematic review
Appendix 08: Form for reporting plagiarism
Appendix 09: Form for plagiarism standing committee
Appendix 10: Form for Reviewer’s Consent
Appendix 11: Form for Guest Editor’s Consent
Appendix 12: ICMJE Form for Conflict of Interest
