Authors Guidelines

Submission guidelines for authors

        Instructions for Authors

  • Manuscript Submission Overview
  • Manuscript Preparation
  • Preparing Figures, Schemes and Tables
  • Supplementary Materials, Data Deposit and Software Source Code
  • Research and Publication Ethics
  • Reviewer Suggestions
  • English Corrections
  • Preprints and Conference Papers
  • Authorship
  • Editorial Procedures and Peer-Review
  • Clinical Trials Registration

          Submission Checklist

  • Please.
  • Read the Aims & Scope to gain an overview and assess if your manuscript is suitable for this journal;
  • Use the Microsoft Word template  to prepare your manuscript;
  • Make sure that issues about publication ethics, research ethics, copyright, authorship, figure formats, data and references format have been appropriately considered;
  • Ensure that all authors have approved the content of the submitted manuscript.
  • All necessary files have been uploaded:

  • Manuscript:
    • Include keywords
    • All figures (include relevant captions)
    • All tables (including titles, description, footnotes)
    • Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided
    • Indicate clearly if color should be used for any figures in print
    Graphical Abstracts / Highlights files (where applicable)
    Supplemental files (where applicable)
  • Further considerations
    • Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'
    • All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa
    • Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)
    • A competing interests statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare
    • Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed.
  • Manuscript Submission Overview
  • Types of Publications
  • AJMS has no restrictions on the length of manuscripts, provided that the text is concise and comprehensive. Full experimental details must be provided so that the results can be reproduced. AJMS requires that authors publish all experimental controls and make full datasets available where possible (see the guidelines on Supplementary Materials and references to unpublished data).
  • Manuscripts submitted to AJMS should neither been published before nor be under consideration for publication in another journal. The main article types are as follows:
  • Types of paper

    Research paper: Research papers should report the results of original research. The material should not have been previously published elsewhere, except in a preliminary form
  • Short Communication: description of a technical aspect of a field or issue, report on a procedure or method, or work on validation of techniques or methods. Case Reports; Case reports are acceptable only if the contribution to the better understanding in forensic pathology, forensic toxicology, or medical law is clearly described.
  • Review Article: full-length paper reviewing the state of the art or the published literature in a particular area of general interest to the readership.

 

  • Articles: Original research manuscripts. The journal considers all original research manuscripts provided that the work reports scientifically sound experiments and provides a substantial amount of new information. Authors should not unnecessarily divide their work into several related manuscripts, although Short Communications of preliminary, but significant, results will be considered. Quality and impact of the study will be considered during peer review.
  • Reviews: These provide concise and precise updates on the latest progress made in a given area of research. Systematic reviews should follow the PRISMA guide lines
  • Case reports: Case reports present detailed information on the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment (including all types of interventions), and outcomes of an individual patient. Case reports usually describe new or uncommon conditions that serve to enhance medical care or highlight diagnostic approaches.

Submission Process

Manuscripts for AJMS should be submitted online at the journal’s website ajms.pk. The submitting author, who is generally the corresponding author, is responsible for the manuscript during the submission and peer-review process. The submitting author must ensure that all eligible co-authors have been included in the author list (read the criteria for authorship and that they have all read and approved the submitted version of the manuscript. To submit your manuscript, register and log in to the ajms.pk. All co-authors can see the manuscript details in the submission system, if they register and log in using the e-mail address provided during manuscript submission.

Accepted File Formats

Authors must use the Microsoft Word template format to prepare their manuscript. Using the template file will substantially shorten the time to complete copy-editing and publication of accepted manuscripts. If this is a problem, please contact the editorial office @ email the editor@avicennajms.com. Accepted file formats are:

  • Microsoft Word: Manuscripts prepared in Microsoft Word must be converted into a single file before submission. When preparing manuscripts in Microsoft Word, the AJMS Microsoft Word template format must be used. Please insert your graphics (schemes, figures, etc.) in the main text after the paragraph of its first citation.
  • Supplementary files: May be any format, but it is recommended that you use common, non-proprietary formats where possible.

 

Cover Letter

A cover letter must be included with each manuscript submission. It should be concise and explain why the content of the paper is significant, placing the findings in the context of existing work and why it fits the scope of the journal. Confirm that neither the manuscript nor any parts of its content are currently under consideration or published in another journal. Any prior submissions of the manuscript to AJMS must be acknowledged.

Manuscript Preparation

General Considerations

  • Research manuscripts should comprise:
  1. Title page file: Title, Author list, Affiliations, funding source, Acknowledgments, Author Contributions, Conflicts of Interest statement.
  2. Main manuscript file:
  • Abstract: abstract should be unstructured and maximum word limit is 250 words.
  • Keywords: Minimum 3 keywords must be provided.
  • Research manuscript sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Supplementary Materials (optional), References.
  • Review manuscripts should comprise the title page and main manuscript files. The template file can also be used to prepare the title page and main manuscript files for the review manuscript. It is not necessary to follow the remaining structure. Structured reviews and meta-analyses should use the same structure as research articles and ensure they conform to the PRISMA guidelines.
  • Case reports should include a concise introduction about the general medical/dental condition or relevant symptoms that will be discussed in the case report; the case presentation including all of the relevant de-identified demographic and descriptive information about the patient(s), and a description of the symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and outcome; a discussion providing context and any necessary explanation of specific treatment decisions; a conclusion briefly outlining the take-home message and the lessons learned.
  • Graphical abstract: Authors are encouraged to provide a graphical abstract as a self-explanatory image to appear alongside with the text abstract in the Table of Contents. Figures should be a high quality image in any common image format. Note that images displayed online will be up to 11 by 9 cm on screen and the figure should be clear at this size.
  • Abbreviations should be defined in parentheses the first time they appear in the abstract, main text, and in figure or table captions and used consistently thereafter.
  • SI Units (International System of Units) should be used. Imperial, US customary and other units should be converted to SI units whenever possible
  • Accession numbers of RNA, DNA and protein sequences used in the manuscript should be provided in the Materials and Methods section.
  • Equations: If you are using Word, please use either the Microsoft Equation Editor or the MathType add-on. Equations should be editable by the editorial office and not appear in a picture format.
  • Research Data and supplementary materials: Note that publication of your manuscript implies that all materials, data, and protocols associated with the publication available to readers should be provided on request. Disclose at the submission stage any restrictions on the availability of materials or information.

The following sections should appear in all manuscript types

  • Title: The title of your manuscript should be concise, specific and relevant. It should identify if the study reports (human or animal) trial data, or is a systematic review, meta-analysis or replication study. When gene or protein names are included, the abbreviated name rather than full name should be used.
  • Author List and Affiliations: Authors' full first and last names must be provided. The initials of any middle names can be added. Complete address information including city, zip code, state/province, and country. At least one author should be designated as corresponding author, and his or her email address and other details should be included at the end of the affiliation section.
  • Abstract: The abstract should be a total of about 250 words maximum. The abstract should be a single paragraph and should follow the style of structured abstracts, but without headings: 1) Background: Place the question addressed in a broad context and highlight the purpose of the study; 2) Methods: Describe briefly the main methods or treatments applied. Include any relevant preregistration numbers, and species and strains of any animals used. 3) Results: Summarize the article's main findings; and 4) Conclusion: Indicate the main conclusions or interpretations. The abstract should be an objective representation of the article: it must not contain results which are not presented and substantiated in the main text and should not exaggerate the main conclusions.
  • Keywords: Three to ten pertinent keywords need to be added after the abstract. We recommend that the keywords are specific to the article, yet reasonably common within the subject discipline.

Research Manuscript Sections

  • Introduction: The introduction should briefly place the study in a broad context and highlight why it is important. It should define the purpose of the work and its significance, including specific hypotheses being tested. The current state of the research field should be reviewed carefully and key publications cited. Please highlight controversial and diverging hypotheses when necessary. Finally, briefly mention the main aim of the research and highlight the main conclusions. Keep the introduction comprehensible to scientists working outside the topic of the paper.
  • Results: Provide a concise and precise description of the experimental results, their interpretation as well as the experimental conclusions that can be drawn.
  • Discussion: Authors should discuss the results and how they can be interpreted in perspective of previous studies and of the working hypotheses. The findings and their implications should be discussed in the broadest context possible and limitations of the work highlighted. Future research directions may also be mentioned. This section may be combined with Results.
  • Materials and Methods: They should be described with sufficient detail to allow others to replicate and build on published results. New methods and protocols should be described in detail while well-established methods can be briefly described and appropriately cited. Give the name and version of any software used and make clear whether computer code used is available. Include any pre-registration codes.
  • Conclusions: This section should be brief and substantiated by the findings of the study.
  • Patents: This section is not mandatory, but may be added if there are patents resulting from the work reported in this manuscript.
  • Supplementary Materials: Describe any supplementary material if any to be published online alongside the manuscript (figure, tables, video, spreadsheets, etc.). Please indicate the name and title of each element as follows Figure S1: title, Table S1: title, etc.
  • Acknowledgments: All sources of funding of the study should be disclosed in at the end of the article. Clearly indicate grants that you have received in support of your research work and if you received funds to cover publication costs.
  • Author Contributions: Each author is expected to have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work; or have drafted the work or substantively revised it; AND has approved the submitted version (and version substantially edited by journal staff that involves the author’s contribution to the study); AND agrees to be personally accountable for the author’s own contributions and for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even ones in which the author was not personally involved, are appropriately investigated, resolved, and documented in the literature.
  • Conflicts of Interest: Authors must identify and declare any personal circumstances or interest that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of reported research results. If there is no conflict of interest, please state "The authors declare no conflict of interest." Any role of the funding sponsors in the choice of research project; design of the study; in the collection, analyses or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results must be declared in this section. AJMS does not publish studies funded by the tobacco industry. Any projects funded by pharmaceutical or food industries must pay special attention to the full declaration of funder involvement. If there is no role, please state “The sponsors had no role in the design, execution, interpretation, or writing of the study”.
  • References: References must be numbered in order of appearance in the text (including table captions and figure legends) and listed individually at the end of the manuscript. We recommend preparing the references with a bibliography software package, such as EndNote, Reference Manager or Zotero to avoid typing mistakes and duplicated references. We encourage citations to data, computer code and other citable research material. If available online, you may use reference style 9 below.
  • Citations and References in Supplementary files are permitted provided that they also appear in the main text and in the reference list.

In the text, reference numbers should be placed in square brackets [ ], and placed before the punctuation; for example [1], [1–3] or [1,3]. For embedded citations in the text with pagination, use both parentheses and brackets to indicate the reference number and page numbers; for example [5] (p. 10). or [6] (pp. 101–105).

The reference list should include the full title, as recommended by the Vancour style guide. Style files for Endnote and Zotero are available.

References should be described as follows, depending on the type of work:

 Journal Articles:
Author(s) – Family name and initials. Title of article. Abbreviated journal title. Publication year, month, day (month & day only if available);volume (issue):pages.

Note: list all 6 authors or alternatively list the first 3 and add "et al"

 

Parmar H, Jhankaria B, Maheshwari M, Singrakhia M, Shanbag S, Chawla A, et al. Magnetic resonance arthrography in recurrent anterior shoulder instability as compared to arthroscopy: a prospective comparative study. J Postgrad Med 2002; 48: 270-3.

 

Journal Article- in press:

Authors separated by commas – Family name and initials. Title of article. Abbreviated journal title. Publication year, month, day (month & day only if available); volume(issue). Forthcoming - year of expected publication.

 

Rourke E, Hussain R, Buscombe JR, Hilson AJ. Overlying urostomy bag simulating urinary leak in a postrenal transplant MAG3 study. Clin Nucl Med. Forthcoming 2006

Can include date, volume and issue number if provided

 

Books and Book Chapters:
Author(s) – Family name and initials (no more than 2 initials with no spaces between initials). Title of book. Edition of book if later than 1st ed. Place of publication: Publisher name; Year of publication.

 

Cheers B, Darracott R, Lonne B. Social care practice in rural communities. Sydney: The Federation Press; 2007.

 

Conference Proceedings:
Author(s) of paper – family name and initials. Title of paper. In: Editor(s) Family name and initials, editor(s). Title of conference; Date of conference; Place of conference. Place of publication: Publisher’s name; Publication year. p. Page numbers.

 

Bengtsson S, Solheim BG. Enforcement of data protection, privacy and security in medical informatics. In: Lun KC, Degoulet P, Piemme TE, Reinhoff O, editors. MEDINFO 92. Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Medical Informatics. 1992 Sep 6‐10; Geneva, Switzerland. Amsterdam: North Holland; 1992. p. 1561‐5.

 

Thesis:

Author - family name followed by initials. Thesis title [type of thesis]. Place of publication: Publisher; Year.

 

Note:  - insert "dissertation" for a PhD and

            - insert "master's thesis" for a master's degree



Kay JG. Intracellular cytokine trafficking and phagocytosis in macrophages [dissertation]. St Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland; 2007

 

  Websites:
Author/organization's name. Title of the page [Internet]. Place of publication: Publisher's name; Publication date or year [updated date - year month day; cited date - year month day]. Available from: URL
 

  • If the place, publisher or date is unknown use [place unknown], [publisher unknown] or [date unknown]
  • If neither the date of publication nor a date of copyright can be found - use the date of update/revision or date cited.

 

Diabetes Australia. Gestational diabetes [Internet]. Canberra (ACT): Diabetes Australia; 2015 [updated 2015; cited 2017 Nov 23]. Available from: https://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/gestational-diabetes


Preparing Figures, Schemes and Tables

  • File for Figures and Schemes must be provided during submission in a single zip archive and at a sufficiently high resolution (minimum 1000 pixels width/height, or a resolution of 300 dpi or higher). The accepted image formats include TIFF, JPEG, EPS and PDF.
  • AJMS can publish multimedia files in articles or as supplementary materials. Please contact the editorial office for further information.
  • All Figures, Schemes and Tables should be inserted into the main text close to their first citation and must be numbered following their number of appearance (Figure 1, Scheme I, Figure 2, Scheme II, Table 1, etc.).
  • All Figures, Schemes and Tables should have a short explanatory title and caption.
  • All table columns should have an explanatory heading. The allowed font size ranges from 08 to 12 pt.
  • Authors are encouraged to prepare figures and schemes in color (RGB at 8-bit per channel).

Supplementary Materials, Data Deposit and Software Source Code

Data Availability

Authors must keep the research data readily available which should be provided if/when requested by the editors.  

Computer Code and Software

For work where novel computer code was developed, authors should release the code either by depositing in a recognized, public repository or uploading as supplementary information to the publication. The name and version of all software used should be clearly indicated.

Supplementary Material

Additional data and files can be uploaded as "Supplementary Files" during the manuscript submission process. The supplementary files will also be available to the referees as part of the peer-review process. Any file format is acceptable, however we recommend that common, non-proprietary formats are used where possible.

Unpublished Data

Restrictions on data availability should be noted during submission and in the manuscript. "Data not shown" should be avoided: authors are encouraged to publish all observations related to the submitted manuscript as Supplementary Material. "Unpublished data" intended for publication in a manuscript that is either planned, "in preparation" or "submitted" but not yet accepted, should be cited in the text and a reference should be added in the References section. "Personal Communication" should also be cited in the text and reference added in the References section.

Deposition of Sequences and of Expression Data

New sequence information must be deposited to the appropriate database prior to submission of the manuscript. Accession numbers provided by the database should be included in the submitted manuscript. Manuscripts will not be published until the accession number is provided.

  • New nucleic acid sequences must be deposited in one of the following databases: GenBank, EMBL, or DDBJ. Sequences should be submitted to only one database.
  • New high throughput sequencing (HTS) datasets (RNA-seq, ChIP-Seq, degradome analysis, …) must be deposited either in the GEO database or in the NCBI’s Sequence Read Archive.
  • New microarray data must be deposited either in the GEO or the Array Express databases. The "Minimal Information About a Microarray Experiment" (MIAME) guidelines published by the Microarray Gene Expression Data Society must be followed.
  • New protein sequences obtained by protein sequencing must be submitted to UniProt (submission tool SPIN).

All sequence names and the accession numbers provided by the databases should be provided in the Materials and Methods section of the article.

References in Supplementary Files

Citations and References in Supplementary files are permitted provided that they also appear in the reference list of the main text.

Research and Publication Ethics

Research Ethics

Research Involving Human Subjects

When reporting on research that involves human subjects, human material, human tissues, or human data, authors must declare that the investigations were carried out following the rules of the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975 (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/), revised in 2013. According to point 23 of this declaration, an approval from an ethics committee should have been obtained before undertaking the research. At a minimum, a statement including the project identification code, date of approval, and name of the ethics committee or institutional review board should be cited in the Methods Section of the article. Data relating to individual participants must be described in detail, but private information identifying participants need not be included unless the identifiable materials are of relevance to the research (for example, photographs of participants’ faces that show a particular symptom). Editors reserve the right to reject any submission that does not meet these requirements.

Example of an ethical statement: "All subjects gave their informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of XXX (Project identification code)."

A written informed consent for publication must be obtained from participating patients who can be identified (including by the patients themselves). Patients’ initials or other personal identifiers must not appear in any images. For manuscripts that include any case details, personal information, and/or images of patients, authors must obtain signed informed consent from patients (or their relatives/guardians) before submitting to AJMS. Patient details must be anonymized as far as possible, e.g., do not mention specific age, ethnicity, or occupation where they are not relevant to the conclusions.

Alternatively, you may provide a detailed justification of why informed consent is not necessary.

Ethical Guidelines for the Use of Animals in Research

The editors will require that the benefits potentially derived from any research causing harm to animals are significant in relation to any cost endured by animals, and that procedures followed are unlikely to cause offense to the majority of readers. Authors should particularly ensure that their research complies with the commonly-accepted '3Rs':

  • Replacement of animals by alternatives wherever possible,
  • Reduction in number of animals used, and
  • Refinement of experimental conditions and procedures to minimize the harm to animals.

Any experimental work must also have been conducted in accordance with relevant national legislation on the use of animals for research. For further guidance authors should refer to the Code of Practice for the Housing and Care of Animals Used in Scientific Procedures [1].

Manuscripts containing original descriptions of research conducted in experimental animals must contain details of approval by a properly constituted research ethics committee. As a minimum, the project identification code, date of approval and name of the ethics committee or institutional review board should be cited in the Methods section.

AJMS endorses the ARRIVE guidelines (www.nc3rs.org.uk/ARRIVE) for reporting experiments using live animals. Authors and reviewers can use the ARRIVE guidelines as a checklist, which can be found at www.nc3rs.org.uk/ARRIVEchecklist.

  1. Home Office. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. Code of Practice for the Housing and Care of Animals Used in Scientific Procedures. Available online: http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc8889/hc01/0107/0107.pdf.

Research Involving Cell Lines

Methods sections for submissions reporting on research with cell lines should state the origin of any cell lines. For established cell lines the origin should be stated and references must also be given to either a published paper or to a commercial source. If previously unpublished de novo cell lines were used, including those gifted from another laboratory, details of institutional review board or ethics committee approval must be given, and confirmation of written informed consent must be provided if the line is of human origin.

Publication Ethics Statement

AJMS fully adhere to Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

The editors of this journal enforce a rigorous peer-review process together with strict ethical policies and standards to ensure to add high quality scientific works to the field of scholarly publication. Unfortunately, cases of plagiarism, data falsification, image manipulation, inappropriate authorship credit, and the like, do arise. The editors of AJMS take such publishing ethics issues very seriously and are trained to proceed in such cases with a zero tolerance policy.

Authors wishing to publish their papers in AJMS must abide to the following:

  • Any facts that might be perceived as a possible conflict of interest of the author(s) must be disclosed in the paper prior to submission.
  • Authors should accurately present their research findings and include an objective discussion of the significance of their findings.
  • Data and methods used in the research need to be presented in sufficient detail in the paper, so that other researchers can replicate the work.
  • Raw data should preferably be publicly deposited by the authors before submission of their manuscript. Authors need to at least have the raw data readily available for presentation to the referees and the editors of the journal, if requested. Authors need to ensure appropriate measures are taken so that raw data is retained in full for a reasonable time after publication.
  • Simultaneous submission of manuscripts to more than one journal is not tolerated.
  • Republishing content that is not novel is not tolerated (for example, an English translation of a paper that is already published in another language will not be accepted).
  • If errors and inaccuracies are found by the authors after publication of their paper, they need to be promptly communicated to the editors of this journal so that appropriate actions can be taken.
  • Your manuscript should not contain any information that has already been published. If you include already published figures or images, please obtain the necessary permission from the copyright holder to publish under the CC-BY license.

Plagiarism, data fabrication and image manipulation are not tolerated.

    • Plagiarism is not acceptable in AJMS submissions.

Plagiarism includes copying text, ideas, images, or data from another source, even from your own publications, without giving any credit to the original source.

Reuse of text that is copied from another source must be between quotes and the original source must be cited. If a study's design or the manuscript's structure or language has been inspired by previous works, these works must be explicitly cited.

If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, we may publish a correction or retract the paper. The allowed maximum limit of Turnitn similarity index is 19%.

    • Image files must not be manipulated or adjusted in any way that could lead to misinterpretation of the information provided by the original image. 

Irregular manipulation includes: 1) introduction, enhancement, moving, or removing features from the original image; 2) grouping of images that should obviously be presented separately (e.g., from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels); or 3) modifying the contrast, brightness or color balance to obscure, eliminate or enhance some information.

If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed during the peer review process, we may reject the manuscript. If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed after publication, we may correct or retract the paper.

Our in-house editors will investigate any allegations of publication misconduct and may contact the authors' institutions or funders if necessary. If evidence of misconduct is found, appropriate action will be taken to correct or retract the publication. Authors are expected to comply with the best ethical publication practices when publishing with AJMS.

Reviewer Suggestions

During the submission process, please suggest three potential reviewers with the appropriate expertise to review the manuscript. The editors will not necessarily approach these referees. Please provide detailed contact information (address, homepage, phone, e-mail address). The proposed referees should neither be current collaborators of the co-authors nor have published with any of the co-authors of the manuscript within the last five years. Proposed reviewers should be from different institutions to the authors.

English Corrections

To facilitate proper peer-reviewing of your manuscript, it is essential that it is submitted in grammatically correct English. Please take professional help for English editing and corrections if needed.

Preprints and Conference Papers

AJMS accepts articles that have previously been made available as preprints provided that they have not undergone peer review. A preprint is a draft version of a paper made available online before submission to a journal.

Expanded and high quality conference papers can be considered as articles if they fulfil the following requirements: (1) the paper should be expanded to the size of a research article; (2) the conference paper should be cited and noted on the first page of the paper; (3) if the authors do not hold the copyright of the published conference paper, authors should seek the appropriate permission from the copyright holder; (4) authors are asked to disclose that it is conference paper in their cover letter and include a statement on what has been changed compared to the original conference paper. 

Authorship

AJMS follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines which state that, in order to qualify for authorship of a manuscript, the following criteria should be observed:

  • 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.

Those who contributed to the work but do not qualify for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgements.

Any change to the author list should be approved by all authors including any who have been removed from the list. The corresponding author should act as a point of contact between the editor and the other authors and should keep co-authors informed and involve them in major decisions about the publication. We reserve the right to request confirmation that all authors meet the authorship conditions.

Reviewers Recommendation

Authors can recommend potential reviewers. Journal editors will check to make sure there are no conflict of interests before contacting those reviewers, and will not consider those with competing interests. Reviewers are asked to declare any conflicts of interest. Authors can also enter the names of potential peer reviewers they wish to exclude from consideration in the peer review of their manuscript, during the initial submission progress. The editorial team will respect these requests so long as this does not interfere with the objective and thorough assessment of the submission.

Editors and Journal Staff as Authors

Editorial independence is extremely important and AJMS does not interfere with editorial decisions.

Editorial staff or editors shall not be involved in the processing their own academic work. Submissions authored by editorial staff/editors will be assigned to at least two independent outside reviewers. Decisions will be made by other editorial board members who do not have conflict of interests with the author. Journal staff are not involved in the processing of their own work submitted to AJMS.

Conflict of Interests

According to The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, “Authors should avoid entering into agreements with study sponsors, both for-profit and non-profit, that interfere with authors’ access to all of the study’s data or that interfere with their ability to analyze and interpret the data and to prepare and publish manuscripts independently when and where they choose.”

Authors must identify and declare any personal circumstances or interest that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of reported research results. If there is no conflict of interest, please state "The authors declare no conflict of interest." Any role of the funding sponsors in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results must be declared in this section. If there is no role, please state “The funding sponsors had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to publish the results”.

 

Editorial Procedures and Peer-Review

Initial Checks

All submitted manuscripts received by the Editorial Office will be checked by a professional in-house Managing Editor to determine whether they are properly prepared and whether they follow the ethical policies of the journal, including those for human and animal experimentation. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal's ethics policy or do not meet the standards of the journal will be rejected before peer-review. Manuscripts that are not properly prepared will be returned to the authors for revision and resubmission. After these checks, the Managing Editor will consult the journals’ Editor-in-Chief or Associate Editors to determine whether the manuscript fits the scope of the journal and whether it is scientifically sound. No judgment on the potential impact of the work will be made at this stage. Reject decisions at this stage will be verified by the Editor-in-Chief.

Peer-Review

Once a manuscript passes the initial checks, the paper will undergo a rigorous peer review process where the editors will assign the paper to at least two independent experts for peer-review. A double-blind review is applied, where authors' identities are not known to reviewers. Peer review comments are confidential and will only be disclosed with the express agreement of the reviewer.

In the case of regular submissions, in-house assistant editors will invite experts, including recommendations by an academic editor. These experts may also include Editorial Board members and Guest Editors of the journal. Potential reviewers suggested by the authors may also be considered. Reviewers should not have published with any of the co-authors during the past five years and should not currently work or collaborate with any of the institutions of the co-authors of the submitted manuscript.

Editorial Decision and Revision

All the articles, reviews and communications published in AJMS go through the peer-review process and receive at least two reviews. The in-house editor will communicate the decision of the academic editor, which will be one of the following:

  • Accept after Minor Revisions: 
    The paper is in principle accepted after revision based on the reviewer’s comments. Authors are given 14 days for minor revisions.
  • Reconsider after Major Revisions: 
    The acceptance of the manuscript would depend on the revisions. The author needs to provide a point by point response or provide a rebuttal if some of the reviewer’s comments cannot be revised. Authors will be asked to resubmit the revised paper within a suitable time frame, and the revised version will be returned to the reviewer for further comments.
  • Reject and Encourage Resubmission: 
    If additional experiments are needed to support the conclusions, the manuscript will be rejected and the authors will be encouraged to re-submit the paper once further experiments have been conducted.
  • Reject: 
    The article has serious flaws, and/or makes no original significant contribution. No offer of resubmission to the journal is provided.

All reviewer comments should be responded to in a point-by-point fashion. Where the authors disagree with a reviewer, they must provide a clear response.

Author Appeals

Authors may appeal a rejection by sending an e-mail to the Editorial Office of the journal. The appeal must provide a detailed justification, including point-by-point responses to the reviewers' and/or Editor's comments. The Managing Editor of the journal will forward the manuscript and related information (including the identities of the referees) to the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, or Editorial Board member. The academic Editor being consulted will be asked to give an advisory recommendation on the manuscript and may recommend acceptance, further peer-review, or uphold the original rejection decision. A reject decision at this stage is final and cannot be reversed.

In the case of a special issue, the Managing Editor of the journal will forward the manuscript and related information (including the identities of the referees) to the Editor-in-Chief who will be asked to give an advisory recommendation on the manuscript and may recommend acceptance, further peer-review, or uphold the original rejection decision. A reject decision at this stage will be final and cannot be reversed.

Production and Publication

Once accepted, the manuscript will undergo professional copy-editing, English editing, proofreading by the authors, final corrections and publication on the journal website www.avicennajms.org

Clinical Trials Registration

Registration

Authors are strongly encouraged to pre-register clinical trials with an international clinical trials register or and to cite a reference to the registration in the Methods section. Suitable databases include clinicaltrials.gov, the EU Clinical Trials Register and those listed by the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform.

CONSORT Statement

AJMS requires a completed CONSORT 2010 checklist and flow diagram as a condition of submission when reporting the results of a randomized trial. Templates for these can be found here or on the CONSORT website (http://www.consort-statement.org) which also describes several CONSORT checklist extensions for different designs and types of data beyond two group parallel trials. At minimum, your article should report the 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.