EDITORIAL POLICY

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:

The ICMJE recommends that authorship is based on the following 4 criteria: a) substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work, b) drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content, c) final approval of the version to be published, d) 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 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 (available on the website) should be filled and submitted along with the manuscript.
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 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an abstract or preliminary report), must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere, and if accepted, it must not be published elsewhere in a similar form.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). Animal experiments should also be reviewed by an appropriate committee (IACUC: Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) for the care and use of animals. Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) should be registered and the trial registration number is mandatory.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST:

The authors must provide a formal statement including any potential conflict of interest at the time of submitting the article. JSMDC follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors guidelines available at www.icmje.org. 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 on 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.

PERMISSIONS:

Authors must submit written permission from the copyright owner (usually the publisher) to use direct quotations, tables, or illustrations that have appeared in copyright form elsewhere, along with complete details about the source.

PUBLICATION MISCONDUCT:

Plagiarism and other publication misconduct, fabrication (picture as well), falsification, a duplicate submission, redundant publication, multiple submission, 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.