Instructions For Authors

RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS

When reporting the results of a randomized trial, JIIMC requires a completed CONSORT 2010 checklist and flow diagram as a condition of submission.

Templates for these can be readily accessible here or on the CONSORT website, which also describes several CONSORT checklist extensions for different designs and types of data beyond two group parallel trials
Authors should ensure that your article, at minimum, reports content addressed by each item of the checklist. Meeting these basic reporting requirements will greatly improve the value of your trial report and may enhance its chances for eventual publication.
As per recommendation of ICMJE, Journal of Islamic International Medical College requires registration of clinical trials in a public trials registry as a prerequisite for publication of all clinical trials.

Clinical Trials: Clinical Trials submitted for publication must be registered in public registry, e.g., http://clinicaltrial.gov/ , must provide registration proof & all RCTs must be based on CONSORT statement. Unregistered trials will not be published.
A clinical trial is any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups to one or more health-related interventions to assess their effects on health outcomes.These interventions can include drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, dietary changes, and modifications in care processes. Health outcomes encompass any biomedical or health-related measures collected from patients or participants, including pharmacokinetic data and adverse events. Purely observational studies (those in which the assignment of the medical intervention is not at the discretion of the investigator) do not require registration.

GUIDELINES

Authors should take help from the following guidelines in writing manuscripts. For further details of various reporting guidelines for main study types consult: https://www.equator-network.org/

DISSERTATION/THESIS BASED ARTICLE

An article based on dissertation/thesis submitted as part of the requirement for a postgraduate degree (M. Phil, FCPS, MS) can be sent for publication after it has been approved by the institution’s ethical review board/committee and the college/university evaluation committee/board. The data should not be more than five years old. Thesis/dissertation-based article will be assessed by proper review process. Once accepted for publication, disclosure will be made that ‘it is a Dissertation based article.’

OBITUARIES should be of about 250 words.

EDITORIALS are written by invitation.

CHECKLIST FOR THE AUTHOR

Covering letter (should include section for which manuscript is submitted)
Section of Journal to be published in (or note if a review article)
Title Page including
- Title of article
- Authors, academic degrees, and affiliations
- Author to whom correspondence and reprint requests are to be sent, including address, business phone and fax numbers, and e-mail address
Structured abstract, 250-words (maximum) and Keywords
Text (including Introduction, Methodology, Results and Discussion)
References
Illustrations, properly labelled
Tables (provide brief title for each), typed on separate sheets
Permission to reproduce published material in all forms and media
Informed consent to publish patient photographs
a completed CONSORT 2010 checklist and flow diagram when reporting the results of a randomized trial.

AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA

All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship as stated in ICMJE recommendations (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf). According to ICMJE recommendations authorship is based on the following four criteria:

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; and
Have been involved in drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
Have given final approval of the version to be published; and
Agree 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 should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. We strongly discourage gift or ghost authorship. Mere supervision, collection of data, statistical analysis and language correction do not grant authorship rights. To avoid any dispute regarding authorship authors are advised to consult COPE guidelines to avoid authorship problems.

OPEN ACCESS,COPYRIGHT & PERMISSIONS

JIIMC is an OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL and offers free full text downloading of its onlinecontents to the readers or their institution without charging, immediately upon publication.
The work published by JIIMC is licensed and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 2.0 Generic License CC BY-NC Attribution-Non-Commercial .
USERS are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or access the link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher.
The work published in JIIMC may be “Shared -copied and redistributed in any medium or format” and “Adapt- remix, transform, and build upon the material.”
AUTHORS retain the rightsaccording to CC BY-NC Attribution-Non-Commercial of free downloading/unlimited e-print of full text and sharing/ disseminating the article or the link to the article on journal website without any restriction, by any means including twitter, scholarly collaboration networks like Google Scholar, LinkedIn, Academia.edu, ResearchGate, Twitter, Facebook and any other professional or academic networking sites.

PRINTED COPIES

Each Autor of the published paper is entitled to receive Two copies of printed issue in which his/her article is published.

MANUSCRIPT WITHDRAWAL BY AUTHOR
Submission of a manuscript to the JIIMC grants full publishing rights to the editorial board of the journal. Therefore, request of withdrawal of a manuscript at any stage of processing, peer review and publication is not acceptable. However, in case of genuine reason/justification of withdrawal, the request will be considered as a special case by the editorial board. It will be the prerogative of editorial board to make final decision about the withdrawal of manuscript. Decision of the editorial board will be absolute final.

MANUSCRIPT EVALUATION/PEER REVIEW

Each manuscript submitted to JIIMC is assessed by an editor for an initial assessment (internal peer review). The article is checked for similarity Index with plagiarism detecting Software, “TURNITIN”. Manuscript suitable for publication is forwarded to two external peer reviewers to evaluate the suitability of the article for publication based on its quality, novelty, and relevance. A time frame of minimum 2 weeks are given to the reviewer to send their suggestions to the editor. If a reviewer is unable to meet the time frame agreed upon or he declines to review the manuscript, the manuscript will be sent to another reviewer. The editor may ask reviewers to make recommendations regarding acceptance or rejection of manuscripts, but the editor must be the one who makes the decisions. The editor may reject manuscripts without outside review, for example if the subject matter is outside the purview of the journal, a manuscript on the same topic is just about to be published, the quality of the manuscript is poor, or criteria for the submission of manuscripts are not met.

MANUSCRIPT EVALUATION/PEER REVIEW PROCESS

SUBMISSION, SCREENING, AND TRIAGE

Each manuscript submitted to JIIMC is checked by the editorial office for mandatory documents, including author’s copyright and undertaking agreement, ethical approval letter and article evidence. Manuscripts with incomplete or deficient mandatory documents or not prepared according to the JIIMC instructions for authors are returned to authors for correction prior to further processing.
After initial scrutiny the manuscript is assessed by an editor for its originality, significance, and suitability as per scope and format of the journal.
At this stage the editor may reject the manuscript if deemed unsuitable for the journal, the quality of the manuscript is poor, the subject matter is outside the scope of the journal or criteria for the submission of manuscripts are not met.
The article is checked for similarity Index with plagiarism detecting Software, “TURNITIN”. Articles exceeding the limit of similarity as per HEC policy are returned for clarification and/or correction.
Revised manuscripts are assessed on the appropriateness of response to recommendations during initial review. Once the editor is satisfied with the suitability of manuscript, it is forwarded to subject experts for external peer review.

Peer Review

Manuscript suitable for publication is forwarded to two external peer reviewers to evaluate the suitability of the article for publication based on its quality, novelty, and relevance.
A time frame of minimum 4 weeks is given to the reviewer to send their suggestions to the editor. In case of delay by the reviewer, a reminder is sent to the external reviewer.
If a reviewer is unable to meet the time frame agreed upon or he declines to review the manuscript, the manuscript will be sent to another reviewer.

Final Decision

The editor may ask reviewers to make recommendations regarding acceptance or rejection of manuscripts, and gives weightage to the recommendations given by them but the editor must be the one who makes the decisions.

Suggested revision by the reviewer are sent back to authors for corrections/revision and resubmission within 04 week. Authors are required to send a covering letter mentioning the detail of corrections/amendments and revisions.
If reviewers and editors are satisfied with the changes, the manuscript is accepted and assigned to the future issue for publication.
The editor/copy editor reserves the right to edit the accepted article as per format of the journal.

The editor may reject manuscripts without outside review, for example if the subject matter is outside the purview of the journal, a manuscript on the same topic is just about to be published, the quality of the manuscript is poor, or criteria for the submission of manuscripts are not met.

MANUSCRIPT PROCESSING

POLICY ON RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION ETHICS

JIIMC promotes research integrity and adherence to the basic values of research including honesty, objectivity, openness, and accountability. The researchers interested to submit their manuscripts to JIIMC are expected to follow the culture of responsible research. JIIMC follows the core practices of COPE and deals with the research and ethical misconduct as per COPE guidelines. We also follow the guidelines of International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) and higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) to meet the standards of publication ethics.

RESEARCH ON ANIMALS

Research Conducted on animals is not published in JIIMC.

RESEARCH APPROVAL FROM ETHICAL COMMITTEES/BOARDS

It is mandatory for the authors of original research to submit the permission/exemption by institutional ethical review board/committee at the time of the submission of manuscript.
Authors will submit the permission of the head of institution where research was conducted, if required.
When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures were followed in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the latest version of Helsinki Declaration. Anonymity of the patient’s will be ensured by avoiding the use of patient name, initials, or hospital record numbers, especially in illustrative material.

PROTECTION OF RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS: HUMAN RIGHTS POLICY

JIIMC expects from the research authors to ensure the safety and protection of the research participants by adhering to national and international guidelines.
The authors of research articles will submit a testimony related to any issue with human rights that may be inherent in their submissions.
Articles under consideration that experiment on human subjects in research are required to have institutional review committee/board approval in accordance with ethical standards set forth in the ICMJE- Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.

HUMAN RIGHTS POLICY

JIIMC follows ICMJE Recommendations on Protection of Research Participantsand World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki – ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects.
When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures were followed in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the latest version of Helsinki Declaration.
In case of doubts, authors will explain the justification for their approach and exhibit that the institutional review committee approved the doubtful aspects of research.

INFORMED CONSENT AND CONFIDENTIALITY OF RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS

In case of research on human subjects, in addition to ethical approval certificate an undertaking that “informed consent to participate” was taken from adult participants and/or from parents/guardians of participants under 16 years of age will be submitted by the authors. This should also be mentioned in material and methods section.
Consent must be obtained for all Case Reports, Clinical Pictures, and Adverse Drug Reactions.
Authors should avoid identifying patient information, including patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent/ guardian) gives written, informed consent for publication.
Consents might be required by the editor on images from participants in the study. Consent form must be made available to Editors on request and will be treated confidentially.
Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained, e.g., masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity.”
Masked Study Participants- If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic malformations, authors should provide written assurance to the editors that alterations do not distort scientific meaning.
Authors are suggested to follow the CARE guidelinesfor case reports.

PLAGIARISM POLICY

JIIMC follows the standard definition/description of plagiarism and the recommendations/ guidelines of Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) https://publicationethics.org/corepractices , ICMJE www.icmje.org, WAME, https://www.wame.org/policies, Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan policies about plagiarism https://www.hec.gov.pk/english/services/faculty/Plagiarism/Pages/default.aspx. Authors are advised to go through these guidelines carefully before submitting their manuscript with JIIMC. The cases of plagiarism will be dealt according to the rules/ regulations and recommendation of the ICMJE, COPE and WAME and HEC. The disciplinary committee of JIIMC comprises of the Editor in Chief and Managing editor of the journal to deal with cases of plagiarism. All articles submitted to JIIMC are checked by antiplagiarism software “TURNITIN” to determine Overall Similarity Index (OSI) and Single Matched Similarity Indexed (SMSI).

Logical contribution and originality of every manuscript is to be defined by the authors and it is the responsibility of authors to be mindful about various types of plagiarism like plagiarism of ideas, text, paraphrasing, self-plagiarism including redundant/duplicate publication, salami slicing (data fragmentation) and text recycling etc. Unawareness about plagiarism and its various types will not be accepted as an explanation.
Any manuscript submitted for publication or a manuscript accepted for publication or even an article that has already been published in the journal, if found to be plagiarized, the matter will be dealt with in accordance to COPE guidelines https://publicationethics.org/corepractices
Editorial board will immediately stop the processing/publication of this article and ask for an explanation from the corresponding author. He will be liable to respond with an explanation in 04 weeks.
In case of satisfactory explanation editorial board may recommend appropriate changes after which the review process for the submitted manuscript may commence.
In case of no response in the required time or unsatisfactory explanation, the editorial board will decide about the fate of the article and authors, including REJECTION of the manuscript, withdrawal or RETRACTIONof already published article (as the case may be).
Barring the authors from further publication in the JIIMC for one year or permanent, depending upon the nature of offence.
The author will be on the watch. HEC, PMC and author’s institute will also be notified for the information and possible action.
In case of multiple submissions, editors of other journals will also be informed. The authors will have to provide documentary proof of retraction from publication, if such a defense is pleaded.
Those claiming intellectual/idea or data theft of an article must provide documentary proof in their claim

COMPLAINT POLICY

Every effort is made to avoid mistakes/errors in the publication of JIIMC. However, at time mistakes may take place. Readers are welcome to submit their comments, questions, or criticisms about any manuscript published in JIIMC, issues related to inappropriate authorship, undeclared conflicts of interests, plagiarism, unethical research; manipulation/falsification of results, research standards violations, reviewer bias or any contribution to JIIMC that infringes copyright or other intellectual property rights. They can submit their complaints to the managing editor through following email: [email protected]. The matter will be investigated thoroughly and cautiously, and the explanation/decision will be communicated to the complainant as soon as possible. The management of journal will publish all corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

ERRATA, RETRACTIONS, AND EXPRESSIONS OF CONCERN

The Journal of Islamic International Medical College (JIIMC) is committed to achieve and uphold ethical values at every step of publication process. Every effort is made to avoid mistakes/errors in the publication of JIIMC. However, at time mistakes may take place. Readers are welcome to submit their comments, questions, or criticisms about any manuscript published in JIIMC, issues related to inappropriate authorship, undeclared conflicts of interests, plagiarism, unethical research; manipulation/falsification of results, research standards violations, reviewer bias or any contribution to JIIMC that infringes copyright or other intellectual property rights. They can submit their complaints to the managing editor through following email: [email protected]. The matter will be investigated thoroughly and cautiously, and the explanation/decision will be communicated to the complainant as soon as possible. The management of journal will publish all corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

ERRATUM

An erratum is referred to as a correction of errors in the article by the journal during editing, including errors of omission such as failure to make factual proof corrections requested by authors within the deadline provided by the journal and within journal policy. During proof reading stage, final copy of the manuscript is sent to the corresponding author for the approval before its publication.

Errors identified after publication by authors or readers are corrected in PDF copy of the online version. Errata are generally not published for simple obvious typing errors, but are published when an apparently simple error is significant (for example, a Greek m for an 'm' in a unit, or a typing error in the corresponding author's email address). In case of a significant error in the figure or table, a corrected figure or table is published as an erratum.

CORRIGENDUM

A corrigendum refers to a change the authors wish/want to make to their article at any time after its acceptance by the journal. Corrigenda submitted by the authors are published if scientific accuracy or reproducibility of the original paper is compromised. In case of an error in the published author list, JIIMC will publish a Corrigendum but not usually for overlooked acknowledgements. Authors should contact the editor JIIMC, who will determine the impact of the change and decide on an appropriate course of action.

Readers wishing to draw the journal's attention to a significant published error should submit their comments as a "Letter to the Editor". Such "Letters to the Editor" will be reviewed by unrelated and neutral referees. On editorial acceptance, the paper will be sent to the authors of the original paper for their early response.

ADDENDUM

An addendum is decided on the significance of the addition to the interpretation of the original publication. Addenda do not contradict the original publication, but if the authors inadvertently omitted significant information available to them at the time of submission. This material will be published as an addendum after peer review.

EXPRESSIONS OF CONCERN

JIIMC can consider issuing an Expression of Concern (EOC) if editors have well-founded concerns and feel that readers should be made aware of potentially misleading information contained in an article. JIIMC will consider an expression of concern if they receive inconclusive evidence of research or publication misconduct by the authors, there is evidence of unreliable findings, or an investigation is underway, but a judgement will not be available for a considerable time.

RETRACTIONS

Research papers having serious errors to invalidate a paper's results and conclusions, or publication misconduct may require retraction. Retractions may be requested by an article’s author(s), by an institution, by readers, or by the editor.

As per COPE retraction guidelines, JIIMC can consider for the retraction of a publication if:

There is a clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of major error (e.g., miscalculation or experimental error), or as a result of fabrication (e.g., of data) or falsification (e.g., image manipulation)
It constitutes plagiarism.
The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper attribution to previous sources or disclosure to the editor, permission to republish, or justification (i.e., cases of redundant publication).
It contains material or data without authorization to use.
Copyright has been infringed or there is some other serious legal issue.
It reports an unethical research
It has been published solely on the basis of a compromised or manipulated peer review process.
The author(s) failed to disclose a major competing interest that, in the view of the editor, would have unduly affected interpretations of the work or recommendations by editors and peer reviewers.

At times the article may occasionally be retracted for correction of errors in submission or publication and will be replaced with the corrected one.

Retraction Process

JIIMC adopts the following retraction process to ensure best practice of retraction:

An article requiring potential retraction will be brought to the attention of JIIMC editor.
Managing Editor will follow the step-by-step guidelines according to the COPE flowcharts and will seek the response from the author of the article as well.
JIIMC Publication & Research Integrity Committee will evaluate the evidence of misconduct and response of the authors. Based on the findings, committee will recommend a final decision whether to retract the publication or otherwise.
The final decision is then communicated to the author and, if necessary, any other relevant bodies(PMC, HEC), or the author's institution as deemed appropriate.
The retraction-note titled “Retraction: [article title]” will be published in the paginated part of a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the contents list.
The text of the retraction should explain why the article is being retracted.
The statement of retraction and the original article must be clearly linked in the electronic database so that the retraction will always be apparent to anyone who comes across the original article.
The relevant changes in the online version will be reflected through Crossmark icon.

Instructions For Authors

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