About the Journal

The Pakistan Medical Students Research Journal (PMSRJ), the official student-based journal published by Khyber Medical College, Peshawar, is peer-reviewed, open access, the multidisciplinary medical journal that publishes scientific research articles related to biomedical sciences. It covers a wide range of medical fields including basic medical sciences, medical & dental subspecialties, rehabilitation medicine, allied health sciences, clinical psychology, public health, and medical education research. The target audience is medical students, graduates, post-graduates, post-doctoral, and health professionals. It publishes original papers, narrative and systematic review articles, case reports, short communication, special communication, viewpoint, research study protocols, editorials, and letters to the editor. All research articles are subject to the peer-review process. PMSRJ is a strong advocate of ethical medical journalism and promotes the integrity of science by practicing the highest standard of research and publication ethics. Any misconduct noticed during or after publication in PMSRJ will be dealt in line with the COPE guidelines.

Overview

This text highlights the mission, objectives, and editorial policy of PMSRJregardingthe publication process by adhering to the guidelines by COPE (Committee in Publication Ethics) and ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journals Editors). Each component of the editorial policy is explained in the next sections.

The mission of the PMSRJ

To provide a platform for medical students (both undergraduate and postgraduate) to publish scientific material to help them in their practice, teaching and learning, and career development

Objectives of JMS

  1. To publish clinical, epidemiological, public health, educational, translational, and allied sciences research to enable the scientists, clinicians, and researchers to learn about developments and innovations in these disciplines.
  2. To publish high-quality descriptive and experimental research, review articles, editorials, and case reports enhancing the understanding of the scientific community regarding clinical practice and education.
  3. To provide a platform for medical students in promoting their career development through publishing quality research.

Editorial policy

Open access

PMSRJ is an Open access scholarly literature source that is free of charge and often carries less restrictive copyright and licensing barriers than traditionally published works, for both the users and the authors. However, it complies with well-established peer review processes and tries to maintain high publishing standards.

Peer review process

The review process of PMRJS is following a triage approach. Upon submission of a manuscript, either online or physical, the document undergoes a preliminary open (un-blinded) review in the office of the chief editor. The document is either accepted for further review, sent for revision back to the authors, or rejected at that time. Further review of JMS is following a blinded approach, where the article is sent to 2 reviewers, local and international. During this process, all the relevant information about the authors and reviewers is kept confidential. However, we encourage to share reviewers’ comments with co-reviewers of the same paper in a blinded manner, so reviewers can learn from each other in the review process. The editorial board has the authority to retract an article if a serious violation of credibility or quality of research is found after the article is published.

The journal is under no obligation to send submitted manuscripts for review, and under no obligation to follow reviewer recommendations, favorable or negative at all times. The editor of a journal is ultimately responsible for the selection of all its content, and editorial decisions may be taken by issues unrelated to the quality of a manuscript, such as suitability for the journal. An editor can reject any article at any time before publication, including after acceptance if concerns arise about the integrity of the work.

Authorship

According to the ICMJE criteria, authorship is based on 4 criteria; (1) conceptualization and designing, (2) AND, data collection, (3) AND, writing and critical review, (4) AND, taking responsibility for the authenticity and integrity of all the research process. All those designated as authors should meet all these 4 criteria. The co-authors should declare their roles and contributions in the research process explicitly. Those who do not meet all 4 criteria should be ACKNOWLEDGED only. If agreement cannot be reached about who qualifies for authorship, the institution(s) where the work was performed, not the journal editor, should be asked to investigate. If authors request removal, addition, or change in the sequence of an author after manuscript submission or publication, journal editors should seek an explanation and signed statement of agreement for the requested change from all listed authors and from the author to be removed or added. The corresponding author is the one individual who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process. The corresponding author typically ensures that all the journal’s administrative requirements, such as providing details of authorship, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation, and disclosures of relationships and activities, are properly completed and reported.

Submission of manuscript

  1. The manuscript should be submitted through the journal website which is using the Online Journal System (OJS) along with the Institution research and ethics board (IREB) certificate. The article should have the following format:
  2. The abstract should be structured with a word count of not more than 250 words.
  3. The fonts should be Calibri, with size 12, and spacing of 1.5, with justified margins in MS office format.
  4. The whole document should not be more than 3000 words (excluding references and appendices).
  5. The number of figures and tables should not exceed 5 in the whole document.
  6. The pictures and tables should be black and white.
  7. Copied pictures and tables from other sources will not be entertained unless written approval from the original researcher and publisher is provided.

Institutional research and Ethics board (IREB) certificate

Under no circumstances, an article will be accepted if approval from the relevant ethical board/committee is not taken before the start of the research. The board/committee should assess the proposal of research in both ethical and technical aspects before giving a certificate of approval.

Conflict of interest

To ensure transparency in the research conduction, writing, and publication, the authors, peer reviewers, and editors have to declare conflicts of interest regarding financial aspects, academic competitions, and relationships during writing, reviewing, and publishing the manuscripts. Details of sponsors along with their roles and access to data should be clearly stated.

Confidentiality

The editorial board in no way should publicize the work of a researcher in any form unless it is published. They should not publicize the comments and critiques given by reviewers. Similarly, the reviewers are bound to keep the confidentiality of the work of researchers during and after the review. 

Correction and retraction of articles

The guidelines for correction and retraction of articles are as follows:

A specific page is allocated in the journal (both electronic and printed) that will be used for news related to corrections in articles published in previous journals.

The editor should also post a new article version in the journal with details of the changes from the original version on which the changes were made.

Previous electronic versions will prominently note that there are more recent versions of the article (that will be placed at the end of the abstract). Similarly, the more recent version should be cited by the authors or others.

If a serious violation of credibility or quality of a research paper is found after the publication, the article has to be retracted after approval of at least 3 members of the editorial board in consultation with the chief editor. The whole process will follow the guidelines presented by Committee on publication ethics (COPE).

The retracted article should be notified on the website and the word “retracted” should be mentioned along with the title of the article.

Correspondence
Correspondence for submitting an article in PMSRJ will be through a corresponding author. The duties of a corresponding author have already been presented in a previous section. Correspondence regarding debating an article is given high value and a separate page for letters to the editors has been allocated. Derogatory and demeaning letters are screened and letters that promote debates and critique are encouraged to be published. However, correspondence about the articles published in the last 1 year will be included only.

Fee of Article Submission

A fee of Rupees Four thousand has been fixed for the local authors and One Hundred Dollars for international authors. The fee, for the time being, must be submitted in the office of the Managing Editor, PMSRJ. The journal follows different international waiver policies.

Plagiarism policy

The journal is following the plagiarism policy of the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, and for this purpose, a plagiarism standing and review committee. The committee has been given the authority to review research papers and plagiarism complaints related to published work in the journal.

Contact information

The office of managing editor or chief editor should be contacted anytime in working hours or can be contacted through their emails for correspondence.