Author Guidelines

Information for Authors

CONSORT Statement—Checklist of information to include when reporting a randomised trial
STROBE Statement—Checklist of items that should be included in reports of observational studies

Articles and all editorial correspondence should be sent to Editor, PAFMJ C/O Army Medical College, Abid Majeed Road, Rawalpindi.

Note:

Any article submitted to PAFMJ must be original and not previously submitted to or published by any other journal, either in part or in full. Authors are required to confirm that their submission is original by signing a submission agreement. Authors retain the copyright to their work but grant PAFMJ the exclusive right to publish, reproduce, and distribute the work under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial License (CC BY-NC). Authors will be required to assist the editors in the final proofreading of their articles before publication.

All such articles should aim for development of medical concepts rather than mere recording of facts. 

Do not state the authors’ names, affiliations or contact details anywhere on the  main manuscript.  The peer review process at the PAFMJ is a double-blind process and the author details are not shared with the peer reviewers with the manuscript.

Clinical Trials: All Clinical Trials submitted for publication must be registered in a registry, provide registration proof and all RCTs must be based on CONSORT statement.

A study more than 5 years old at the time of submission will not be accepted for submission.

EDITORIAL
Each editorial is written by one member of the editorial board as solicited by the editor. The editorial is scientific review on one or two of the current topics pertaining to medical sciences (preference is given to subjects pertaining to Army health problems).

SUBMISSION OF ARTICLE

Original Paper:
This includes randomized controlled trials, intervention studies, and studies of screening /diagnostic test, outcome studies and cost- effectiveness analysis. Manuscript must be accompanied by a certificate signed by author and all co-authors that they have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and they have not submitted the manuscript to any other journal. Manuscript should include the name/s of supervisor/s , consultant/s of primary place (institute ) of study. All manuscript should be typed in double spacing on A-4 paper (8.25” x 11.70” = 21.0 cm x 29.70 cm) with one inch (2.5 cm) margin on both sides. The article words count for quantitative study should be in range 2000 - 2500 words (excluding references and abstract) with at least 18-25 references and 3–5 figures or tables. For qualitative study article word count should be in range of 3000-4000 words (excluding references and abstract) with at least 20-30 references and 3–5 figures or tables.

Each manuscript should include:
1. Title page
Please give complete title as well as a short title of the article

• Name of author(s)
• Department(s)
• Institution(s) at which work was performed
• Author Affiliation
• Subject Specialty
• Official phone/fax no, cell no, personal e-mail address (to whom correspondence is to be addressed) in case of posting please provide new address
• Short running title for header
  

2. Structured Abstract

• Objective
• Study Design
• Place and duration of study
• Patients and Methods
• Results
• Conclusion
• Keywords 3–10 (Medical Subject Headings – MeSH) in alphabetical order
• Abstract should be of 250 words

3. Text

• Introduction: This should summarize the purpose and the rationale for the study. It should neither review the subject extensively nor should it have data or conclusions of the study.
• Patients and Methods: This should include exact method or observation or experiment. If an apparatus is used, its manufacturer’s name and address should be given in parenthesis. If the method is established, give reference but if the method is new, give enough information so that another author is able to perform it. If a drug is used, its generic name, dose and route of administration must be given. Methodology section should contain (without headings) study design, place and duration of study, sample size, sampling technique, inclusion and exclusion criteria, data collection and analysis procedure. Statistical method must be mentioned and specify any general computer programme used. The info system used should be clearly mentioned.
  • Reference number of the Institution Review Committee (IRC)/ Ethical Review Board (ERB) certificate to be mentioned in the methodology section.
  • It is mandatory that ERC should have date of approval along with the reference number.
• Results: Must be presented in the form of text, tables and illustrations. The contents of the tables should not be repeated in the text. Instead, a reference to the table number may be given. Long articles may need sub-headings within some sections (especially the results and discussion parts) to clarify their contents. Extra or supplementary materials and technical details can be placed in an appendix where it is accessible. It may be omitted from the printed version but may be published in the electronic version of the journal.
• Discussion: This should emphasize present findings & the variations or similarities with other work done in the field by other workers. Detailed data should not be repeated in the discussion again. Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. It must be mentioned whether the hypothesis mentioned in the article is true, false or no conclusions can be derived.
• Conclusion: Should be in line with the objectives and results and should be same as given in abstract.
• Conflict of Interest: When authors submit a manuscript they must disclose all financial and personnel relationship that might bias their work. Authors must state explicitly whether potential conflicts do or do not exist. They should do so in the manuscript on the title page. Additional details can be provided if necessary in a covering letter which accompanies the manuscript. Authors of study funded by an agency with proprietary or financial interest in the outcome must sign a statement that they had full excess to all the data in the study and take complete responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. This statement should be submitted along with the manuscript.
• Acknowledgements (if any): All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be covered in the acknowledgement section. It should include persons who provided technical help, writing assistance and departmental head that only provided general support. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged. Persons who have contributed materially but do not justify authorship can be listed as “clinical investigators” or “participating investigators” or “scientific advisors” or “critically reviewed the study proposal or collected data. Disclosure (Presentation of the article in any conference, seminar, symposium before submission to PAFMJ)
• Key Words: Key words not more than ten. Use terms from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of index medicus, if suitable MeSH terms are not yet available for recently introduced terms, present terms may be used.
• Authors Contributions: Authorship credit should be based on:
  1) Substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data.
  2) Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
  3) Final approval of the version to be published.
  4) 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. Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, 3 and 4.
  (For details of authorship criteria kindly consult ICMJE guidelines).
  Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone does
  not justify authorship. All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship & all those
  who qualify should be listed.
  · Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
  · In case of more than one author in a manuscript, the contributions of each person listed as author in the study should be mentioned.
  .Those who provide technical support, writing assistance, or department chair who provided just general support should also be mentioned in acknowledgment
  .If there is any conflict of interest, please mention in the manuscript

  When a large, multi-center group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship defined above and editors will ask these individuals to complete journal-specific author and conflict of interest disclosure forms. When submitting a group author manuscript, the corresponding author should clearly indicate the preferred citation and should clearly identify all individual authors as well as the group name. Other members of the group should be listed in the acknowledgements. Addition and deletion of authors may not be permitted after submission with authorship proforma duly signed.

• References: Maximum 18-25 references are allowed. Fifty Percent References should be last five years and all references listed consecutively as superscript. The final bibliography should be in the order in which they are quoted in the text and written in Vancouver Style). References appearing in a table or figure should be numbered sequentially with those in text. DOI number of those references where it is available. PAFMJ follows Index Medicus style for references and abbreviated journal names according to the list of Journals indexed in Index Medicus. 
• Journals: Standard journal article. (List all authors when six or less; when seven or more, list only first six and add et al)
  You CH. Lee KY, Chey WY, Manguy R. Electrogastrographic study of patients with unexplained nausea, bloating and vomiting. Gastroenterology 1980; 79: 311-4.
  Chapter in a book: Weinstein L, Swartz MN. Pathogenic properties of invading micro organisms.
  In: Sodeman WA Jr, Sodeman WA, eds. Pathologic physiology: mechanisms of disease. WB Saunders, Philadelphia 1974; 457-72.

4. Tables and Figures: Max five figures/ tables are allowed (each table, complete with legends and footnotes, should be merged in the manuscript). Tables and figures should be embedded and not supplied separately.

• Tables: All tables should be numbered with Roman numerals. Headings should be placed above tables, left justified.

• Figures: All figures should be numbered with Arabic numerals. Headings should be placed below figures, left justified.

  5. Proof Reading: Final version of manuscript is sent to corresponding author for proof reading before publication to avoid any mistakes. Corrections should be conveyed clearly & Editor informed by E-mail.

Field Medicine: It has been decided by the Editorial Board to include articles relating to various aspects of military medicine in the journal. These articles reflect various medical problems faced by the troops deployed in the field or hard areas and the preventive measures to overcome them.

Short communication: Short communication or brief report of research works, containing new findings. The short communication consists: Title, Abstract (structured - no more then 150 words), Keywords (max. 5), Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Ethical Consideration, Acknowledgment and References. Short communications should not exceeding 2500 words from introduction through references. Short communications should contain no more than 3000 words totally. The number of tables/figures should be in maximum 3.

Review Article: Types of review articles include: Critical review, Literature review/Narrative review, Mapping review, Meta analysis, Mixed study review, Overview, Systematic review, Rapid review, Scoping review, Systemized review, Umbrella review. They should be written by authors considered expert on the subject. Therefore, the corresponding author of the review article must be one of the authors of at least three articles presented in reference section.

Case Report: Short report of cases, clinical experience, drug trails or adverse effects may be submitted. They should not exceed 700 words, 10 bibliographic references and either two concise table or one figure. The report must contain genuinely new information.

Systematic Review Article:

The systematic review paper should have a structured abstract of no more than 250 words using headlines as Objective, Data Sources, Study Selection, Data Extraction, Data Synthesis and Conclusions and with 3-10 key words.

Objective: Give precise statement of the primary objective for the review. Define if the review emphasizes cause and diagnosis, prognosis, therapy and intervention, or prevention. Define if the review would be highly selective as including only randomized controlled trials (RCT) or have wider inclusion criteria.

Data Sources: Present data sources used, including any time restriction.

Study Selection: Describe criteria to select studies for detailed review. Specify methods used, as blinded review, consensus, multiple reviewers.

Data Extraction: Describe how extraction was made, including assessment of quality and validity.

Data Synthesis: Present the main results of the review and state major identified sources of variation between studies.

Conclusion: Give a clear statement of the conclusions made, its generalizability and limitations.

The Introduction of the paper could be similar to an original report, but without any longer literature survey, only reviewing shortly previous structural reviews and stating the reason and aim of the present review.

The Methodology section with subheadings corresponding to the Abstract (Data Sources, Study Selection, Data Extraction) and should include clearly defined and reported inclusion and exclusion criteria, and specification of databases and other formal register, conference proceedings, reference lists and trial authors, which are used as sources. The full search strategy should be given so that it is easy to reproduce. If it is considered too long to be published in the article, an electronic document as an Appendix may be alternative. The stages of selection usually include several steps, each undertaken by at least two independent researchers (identified in the Methods). Initial selection from titles/ abstracts to select the articles to be examined in full. The full articles should be re-screened against the selection criteria. The articles fulfilling the criteria should be subjected to quality assessment. Summarize in a flow chart with the number of articles selected and reasons for rejection at each stage. The quality of the methodology should be assessed having an appropriate tool and also for outcome measures and blinding of outcome assessors. The tool that is most appropriate will depend on the extent and nature of the anticipated research evidence.

The Result section corresponds to Data synthesis in the Abstract and may present tables with long lists of selected articles. Extracted data from trials should, when available, include report of randomization method, study population, intervention methods and delivery, reasons to losses at follow-up, information related to treatment monitoring, post-intervention assessments and follow-up. Report the major outcomes, which were pooled, and include odds ratios or effects sizes. Use when applicable meta-analysis. Numerical values should, when possible, be accompanied with confidence intervals. State the major identified sources of variation between reported studies, as differences in treatment protocols, co-interventions, confounders, outcome measures, length of follow-up, and dropout rates. Tables and figures must be self-explanatory and have appropriate title or caption. The methods for synthesis of evidence should be pre-determined. Sometimes it may not be possible to pool the data, but a synthesis of best evidence ought to be given.

The Discussion section should be structured similar to an original report. The findings should be discussed with respect to the degree of consistency, variation, and generalizability. New contribution to the literature based on the review conducted and where information is insufficient must be stated. Providing the limitations of the review would be helpful. Suggest the need for new studies and future research agenda.

Length of paper: The total length of the text should usually not be more than 5000 words. The reference list should be comprehensive and not more than 100 references will be accepted.

Narrative Review Article:

The narrative review should have a structured abstract which should not exceed 250 words, under the following headlines Objectives, Methods, Review, Conclusion summarizing the current status of the knowledge about the topic reviewed followed by 3-10 key words.

Objective: This should provide a background to a review which focuses on relevant literature published over the last few years that has advanced our understanding of the issue under consideration.

Methods Section: Proper Research strategy should be given. Give in detail the strategy for inclusion of article in the review. Details of the database searched and the time period for which it was searched should be stated.

The Review and Discussion section could be structured along the lines for an original report. At the end of discussion, limitations of the study and key message should be written.

Conclusions: Conclusions of the article also highlighting the problems, or areas for future research to be included.

Word count: Between 2000 and 3500 words.
Tables: up to 5.
Illustrations: up to 3.
References: up to 50.

Mix Methods Study:

The mix methods study should have all the heading and subheading of original article. The word count of the study should be between 2000-3000 words with 18-30 references in Vancouver style.

Qualitative study format:

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Literature Review
4. Methodology
5. Qualitative Approach
6. Participant selection strategy
7. Data collection strategy
8. Themes
9. Discussion
10. Conclusion
11. References

Letter to Editor: Opinions on topics and articles recently published in the journal will be considered for publication if they are constructive in nature and provide academic/clinical interest. These letters will be forwarded to author of the cited article for possible response. The editor reserves the right to shorten these letters, delete objectionable comments, make other changes, or take any other suitable decision to comply with the style of the journal.

Letters could be of two types:

1. Commenting either on recently published articles in the journal

2. The scientific letter include: reporting cases, outbreaks, or original research.

LETTER FROM INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD / BIOMEDICAL ETHICAL COMMITTEE/
ETHICAL REVIEW COMMITTEE
Authors are required to send letter from Institutional Review Board / Biomedical Ethical Committee / Ethical Review Committee along with Original articles, Rapid communications and Case reports.

PROCESSING /PUBLICATION FEE
The processing fee of Rs. 2000/- (non-refundable) is to be paid at the time of submission of the article through Online Transfer, Bank Deposit in the favor of PAFMJ-AMC account also share payment proof to this email (pafmj@pafmj.org). It is further intimated that AMC/ADC officers have to pay Rs. 5000/- and the Civil authors` will have to pay Rs. 10000/- as publication charges/fee, if the article is accepted for publication. The publication charges for case report and short communication will be half of the above charges. (Payable before issuance of acceptance letter).

Account Details 

Recipient Name: PAFMJ-AMC
Bank Name: HBL Bank
Bank Account Number: PK10HABB 00 24597000012201
Swift Code: HABB 00
Postal Code – 46000

Fast Track Charges for Manuscript

• Submission Charges: Rs. 3000/- (non-refundable)
• Publication Charges (Before the issuance of acceptance letter): Rs 20000/- (for all categories)

For Overseas:

• Submission Charges: USD 10$/-(non-refundable)
  Publication Charges : USD 50$/-(at the time of accept submission)

The publication fee will not be refunded if the author withdraws the article after the acceptance letter is issued.

OPEN ACCESS POLICY
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
PAFMJ follows Budapest Open Access Initiative definition for Open Access which states that, "Readers may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles and use them for any other lawful purpose."

LICENSE TERMS
The Pakistan Armed Forces Medical Journal follows "CC BY NC "creative commons" licensing.
http://creativecommons.org/