The Journal of Sharif Medical & Dental College (JSMDC) agrees to accept manuscripts prepared in accordance with the ‘Uniform Requirements for a manuscript submitted to the Biomedical Journals’ as approved by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines, published in the British Medical Journal 1991; 302:334-41. All manuscripts must be submitted online at www.ojs.jsmdc.pk

AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA:

• Authors should meet all four criteria for authorship as recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). The ICMJE recommends that authorship is based on:
 – Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
 – Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
 – Final approval of the version to be published; AND
 – Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
• Each author must sign a statement attesting that he or she fulfills the authorship criteria of the uniform requirements. Up to six authors are allowed in a single-institution study. In a multi-institution and international collaborative research, the Editorial Board shall guide on an individual case basis.
• JSMDC strongly discourages gift authorship.
• The author’s certification proforma should be filled and submitted along with the manuscript (https://www.jsmdc.pk/authors-certification-performa).
Corresponding Author: The authors must assign a corresponding author. The corresponding author is responsible for manuscript corrections, revisions, proofreading & resubmission of revised manuscripts till the acceptance of the manuscript.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

• Individuals who participated in the development of a manuscript but do not qualify as an author should be acknowledged.
• Organizations/departments that provided support in terms of funding and/or other resources should also be acknowledged.

ETHICAL/LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS:

The research should be prepared under strict observation of research and publication ethics guidelines recommended by the Council of Science Editors, International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, and World Association of Medical Editors.
• A submitted manuscript must be an original contribution not previously published (except as an abstract or preliminary report), must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere, and if accepted, it must not be published elsewhere in a similar form.
• Each person listed as an author is expected to have participated in the study according to ICMJE criteria. Although the editors and referees make every effort to ensure the validity of published manuscripts, the final responsibility rests with the authors, not with the Journal, its editors, or the publisher.
• Any study including human subjects or human data must be reviewed and approved by the responsible Institutional Review Board (IRB).
• If the author wishes to publish a paper from his/her dissertation, besides synopsis approval from the CPSP/University, IRB approval is also mandatory.
• Animal experiments should also be reviewed by an appropriate committee (IACUC: Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) for the care and use of animals. JSMDC follows guidelines for research conducted on animals available at: WMA statement on animal use in biomedical research, and the International Association of Veterinary Editors’ Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare.
• Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) should be registered and the trial registration number is mandatory.
• Authors must submit written permission from the copyright owner to use direct quotations, tables, or illustrations that have appeared in copyright form elsewhere, along with complete details about the source.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST:

• JSMDC follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors guidelines available at www.icmje.org.
• The authors must provide a formal statement including any potential conflict of interest at the time of submitting the article.
• In case of any conflict of interest, the author must submit an ICMJE form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest available at: http://www.jsmdc.pk.

FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE:

• Each author warrants that he or she has no commercial associations (e.g., consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc.) that might post a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article, except as disclosed in a separate attachment.
• All funding sources supporting the work and all institutional or corporate affiliations of the authors are acknowledged in a footnote in the work.

PATIENT ANONYMITY AND INFORMED CONSENT:

It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that a patient’s anonymity is carefully protected and to verify that any experimental investigation with human subjects reported in the manuscript was performed with informed consent and following all the guidelines for experimental investigation with human subjects required by the institution(s) with which all the authors are affiliated.

PUBLICATION MISCONDUCT:

• Plagiarism and other publication misconduct, fabrication (picture as well), falsification, duplicate submission, redundant publication, multiple submissions, selective and misleading reporting, selective and misleading referencing are liable to strict action.
• All publication misconducts are dealt with first asking for an explanation from the corresponding author and then from all other authors.
• In case of non-response or unsatisfactory response from the authors, the manuscript is rejected if unpublished and retracted if published.
• Due notice of retraction will be given in print and on the website.
• The authors will be blacklisted for further submissions and considerations at the journal.
• The authors’ Institutional Head will also be informed of the misconduct and relevant action in such a case.

MANUSCRIPT PROCESSING POLICY

• The time required for Article Publication is 6 to 8 weeks
• The steps of manuscript processing are:

STEP 1: Initial Screening
• Initially assessed by the members of the editorial board for the worth of its publication
• All the submitted manuscripts are checked for potential plagiarism by “TURNITIN” software
• The bibliographer reviews and authenticates the references
• The manuscript is also assessed for statistical analysis by the Journal’s statistician
• Initial screening of the manuscript is shared with the author

STEP 2: Reassessment
• The corrected article is reassessed by the editorial board

STEP 3: Peer Review Process
• The corrected manuscript is sent to two external reviewers for peer review
• The reviewer is given two weeks to submit their review. If the reviewer doesn’t submit the review within the initial two weeks, a reminder is sent. After sending the reminder, the reviewer is given an additional week to respond. If there’s still no response after the additional grace period, the manuscript is forwarded to a third reviewer for evaluation
• Comments/Suggestions of the reviewers are communicated to the author for corrections
• The revised manuscript is re-assessed by the editor/reviewer

STEP 4: Acceptance of Manuscript
• The final decision regarding article acceptance/rejection is made by the editor

STEP 5: Final Processing
• The final proofs are given to the corresponding authors for verification/approval
• The Editorial Board checks final proofs at the dummy stage before sending them for printing