KMJ- KUST MEDICAL JOURNAL

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Author Guidelines

Editorial Policy and Guide lines for Authors are provided in the first printed/electronic issue under the title "Editorial Policy".

Registered Users can Submit Articles by clicking "Author" after login.

The "KMJ: KUST MEDICAL JOURNAL" is a biannual,

peer reviewed journal and follows the uniform requirements

for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical journals

as approved by the International Committee of Medical

Journal Editors as revised in 1997 published in N Eng J

Med 1997; 336:309-15. The International Committee of

Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) has produced and updated

the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts (URM)

Submitted to Biomedical Journals". Detailed information

can be downloaded from www.icmje.org.

1: SUBMISSION OF ARTICLE:

KMJ is the first Pakistani medical journal that provides

you easy and user friendly ONLINE SUBMISSION OF

ARTICLES on its web site.

Visit http://kmj.kust.edu.pk and REGISTER yourself as

AUTHOR by filling a form. Log in with your username and

password. Click on AUTHOR on USER HOME page under

the heading of KUST MEDICAL JOURNAL. Click NEW

SUBMISSION and follow the following 5 steps of manuscript

submission as per online instructions.

1. Start

2. Enter Metadata

3. Upload Submission

4. Upload Supplementary Files

5. Confirmation

Log in > User Home > Author > Submissions > New

Submission > step 1 Starting the submission>step 2

Enter metadata> step 3 Upload submission > step 4

Upload supplementary files > step 5 Confirmation

COVERING LETTER

All submitted manuscripts sent via post or email should

be accompanied by a covering letter from the author

responsible for correspondence regarding the manuscript.

The covering letter should contain the following

copyright disclosure statement, duly signed by all contributing

authors.

We, the undersigned co-authors of the article

_________________________

for publication in KMJ: KUST MEDICAL JOURNAL, have

contributed significantly to and share in the responsibility

for above. The undersigned stipulate that the material

submitted to KMJ is new, original and has not been

submitted to another publication for concurrent consideration.

Upon acceptance by KMJ, all copyright ownership

for the article is transferred to KMJ. It is attested that

all human and/or animal studies undertaken as a part of

the research are in compliance with regulation of our

institution(s) and with generally accepted guidelines

governing such work. It is hereby submitted that the

manuscript has been seen and approved by all authors

Any conflict of Interest- Yes / No

If Yes give details-----------------

If there has been any prior publication of any part of the

work, this should be acknowledgement and appropriate

written permission included.

Note: Authors submitting their article online, are assumed

to agree with the above mentioned statements and they

have to check off the submission check list at step no 1

of the 5 steps of online submission of articles.

2: FORMAT REQUIREMENTS

While submitting manuscripts, please carefully follow

the instructions given below:-

Summary of Technical Requirements

• The journal will accept:-

(a) Original research articles (b) Review articles

(c) Case reports (d) Letter to the Editor and (e)

Editorials (f) Special communication (g) Short communications

• It should be typed in double space on one side of

the A-4 size paper with clear margins on both

sides.

• Begin each section or component on a new page.

• Review the sequence: title page, abstract and key

words, text, acknowledgments, references, tables

(each on separate page), legends.

• Illustrations, unmounted prints, should not be

larger than 203 × 254 mm (8 × 10 inches).

• Manuscript should not exceed 20 pages excluding

tables and references.

• There should be no more than 40 references in

original article and no more than 60 references in

a review article.

• Include permission to reproduce previously published

material or to use illustrations that may identify

human subjects.

• Keep copies of everything submitted.

3: MATERIAL FOR PUBLICATION

All manuscripts of original research should contain following

sections:-

a) Title Page

The title page should carry

1) The title of the article, which should be concise,

specific and informative. Authors should include

all information in the title that will make electronic

retrieval of the article both sensitive and specific.

2) Full name of each author, with his or her highest

academic degree(s) and institutional affiliation.

3) The name of the department(s) and institution(s)

to which the work should be attributed.

4) Disclaimers, if any.

5) The name and address of the author responsible

for correspondence about the manuscript.

6) The name and address of the author to whom requests

for reprints should be addressed, source(s)

of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs,

or all of these.

7) A short running head or footline of no more than

40 characters (count letters and spaces) at the

foot of the title page.

b) Abstract and Key Words

The second page should carry structured abstract of not

more than 250 words.

The abstract should state the objective: purposes of the

study or investigation; material and method: study design,

place and duration of study, basic procedures as

selection of study subjects or laboratory animals, observational

and analytical methods; results: main findings

giving specific data and their statistical significance, if

possible and conclusion: the principal conclusions. It

should emphasize new and important aspects of the

study or observations.

Below the abstract authors should provide, and identify

as such, 3 to 10 key words or short phrases that will

assist indexers in cross-indexing the article and may be

published with the abstract. Terms from the Medical Subject

Headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus should be

used. If suitable MeSH-terms are not yet available for

recently introduced terms, present terms may be used.

➢ The main manuscript of original article is divided

into subsections according to "IMRAD" structure, with

the headings Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion.

c) Introduction

State the purpose of the article and summarize the rationale

for the study or observation. Give only strictly pertinent

references and do not include data or conclusions

from the work being reported.

d) Material and Methods

Describe your selection of the observational or experimental

subjects (patients or laboratory animals, including

controls) clearly. Identify the age, sex, and other important

characteristics of the subjects. Because the relevance

of such variables as age, sex, and ethnicity to

the object of research is not always clear, authors should

explicitly justify them when they are included in a study

report. The guiding principle should be clarity about how

and why a study was done in a particular way. For example,

authors should explain why only subjects of certain

ages were included or why women were excluded.

Authors should avoid terms such as "race," which lacks

precise biological meaning, and use alternative descriptors

such as "ethnicity" or "ethnic group" instead. Authors

should specify carefully what the descriptors mean,

and tell exactly how the data were collected (for example,

what terms were used in survey forms, whether

the data were self-reported or assigned by others, etc.).

Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer's

name and address in parentheses), and procedures in

sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the

results. Give references to established methods, including

statistical methods (see below); provide references

and brief descriptions for methods that have been published

but are not well known; describe new or substantially

modified methods, give reasons for using them,

and evaluate their limitations. Identify precisely all drugs

and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s),

and route(s) of administration. Reports of randomized

clinical trials should present information on all major

study elements, including the protocol (study population,

interventions or exposures, outcomes, and the rationale

for statistical analysis), assignment of interventions

(methods of randomization, concealment of allocation

to treatment groups), and the method of masking

(blinding). Authors submitting review manuscripts should

include a section describing the methods used for locating,

selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data. These

methods should also be summarized in the abstract.

e) Ethics

When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate

whether the procedures followed were in accordance

with the ethical standards of the responsible committee

on human experimentation (institutional or regional)

and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as

revised in 1983. Do not use patients' names, initials, or

hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. When

reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the

institution's or a national research council's guide for, or

any national law on, the care and use of laboratory animals

was followed.

f ) Statistics

Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable

a knowledgeable reader with access to the original

data to verify the reported results. When possible, quantify

findings and present them with appropriate indicators

of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence

intervals). Avoid relying solely on statistical hypothesis

testing, such as the use of P values, which fails to convey important quantitative information. Discuss the

eligibility of experimental subjects. Give details about

randomization. Describe the methods for and success

of any blinding of observations. Report complications of

treatment. Give numbers of observations. Report losses

to observation (such as dropouts from a clinical trial).

References for the design of the study and statistical

methods should be to standard works when possible

(with pages stated) rather than to papers in which the

designs or methods were originally reported. Specify

any general-use computer programs used. Put a general

description of methods in the Methods section. When

data are summarized in the Results section, specify the

statistical methods used to analyze them. Restrict tables

and figures to those needed to explain the argument of

the paper and to assess its support. Use graphs as an

alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate

data in graphs and tables. Avoid nontechnical uses of

technical terms in statistics, such as "random" (which

implies a randomizing device), "normal," "significant,"

"correlations," and "sample." Define statistical terms,

abbreviations, and most symbols.

g) Results

Present your results in logical sequence in the text,

tables, and illustrations. Do not repeat in the text all the

data in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize

only important observations.

h ) Discussion

Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study

and the conclusions that follow from them. Do not repeat

in detail data or other material given in the Introduction

or the Results section. Include in the Discussion section

the implications of the findings and their limitations, including

implications for future research. Relate the observations

to other relevant studies. Link the conclusions

with the goals of the study but avoid unqualified

statements and conclusions not completely supported

by the data. In particular, authors should avoid making

statements on economic benefits and costs unless their

manuscript includes economic data and analyses. Avoid

claiming priority and alluding to work that has not been

completed. State new hypotheses when warranted, but

clearly label them as such. Recommendations, when

appropriate, may be included.

i ) Acknowledgments

List all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship,

such as a person who provided purely technical

help, writing assistance, or a department chair who

provided only general support. Financial and material

support should also be acknowledged. Groups of persons

who have contributed materially to the paper but

whose contributions do not justify authorship may be

listed under a heading such as "clinical investigators"

or "participating investigators," and their function or contribution

should be described for example, "served as

scientific advisors," "critically reviewed the study proposal,"

"collected data," or "provided and cared for study

patients." Because readers may infer their endorsement

of the data and conclusions, all persons must have given

written permission to be acknowledged.

j ) References

References should be numbered consecutively in the

order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify

references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals

in parentheses. References cited only in tables

or figure legends should be numbered in accordance

with the sequence established by the first identification

in the text of the particular table or figure. Use the style of

the examples below, which are based on the formats

used by the NLM in Index Medicus. The titles of journals

should be abbreviated according to the style used in

Index Medicus. Consult the List of Journals Indexed in

Index Medicus, published annually as a separate publication

by the library and as a list in the January issue of

Index Medicus. The list can also be obtained through

the library's web site Avoid using abstracts as references.

References to papers accepted but not yet published

should be designated as "in press" or "forthcoming";

authors should obtain written permission to cite such

papers as well as verification that they have been accepted

for publication. Information from manuscripts

submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as

"unpublished observations" with written permission from

the source. Avoid citing a "personal communication"

unless it provides essential information not available

from a public source, in which case the name of the

person and date of communication should be cited in

parentheses in the text. For scientific articles, authors

should obtain written permission and confirmation of

accuracy from the source of a personal communication.

The references must be verified by the author(s) against

the original documents. The Uniform Requirements style

(the Vancouver style) is based largely on an ANSI standard

style adapted by the NLM for its databases. Notes

have been added where Vancouver style differs from

the style now used by NLM.

Articles in Journals

1. Standard journal article

Up to six authors: Alam JM, Baig JA, Mahmood SR, Sultana

I, Shaheen R, Waheed A. Evaluation of urinary protein

to creatinine ratio as a predictor of end-stage renal

disease. KUST Med J 2009; 1(1): 2-5.

More than six authors: List the first six authors followed

by et al. Parkin DM, Clayton D, Black RJ, Masuyer E,

Friedl HP, Ivanov E, et al. Childhood leukaemia in Europe

after Chernobyl: 5 year follow-up. Br J Cancer

1996;73: 1006-12.

2. Organization as author:

The Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. Clinical exercise stress testing. Safety and performance

guidelines. Med J Aust 1996; 164: 282-4.

3. No author given

Cancer in South Africa [editorial]. S Afr Med J

1994;84:15.

4. Article not in English:

(Note: NLM translates the title to English, encloses the

translation in square brackets, and adds an abbreviated

language designator.)

Ryder TE, Haukeland EA, Solhaug JH. Bilateral

infrapatellar seneruptur hostidligere frisk kvinne. Tidsskr

Nor Laegeforen 1996;116:41-2.

5. Volume with supplement:

Shen HM, Zhang QF. Risk assessment of nickel carcinogenicity

and occupational lung cancer. Environ Health

Perspect 1994;102 Suppl 1:275-82.

6. Issue with supplement

Payne DK, Sullivan MD, Massie MJ. Women's psychological

reactions to breast cancer. Semin Oncol

1996;23(1 Suppl 2):89-97.

7. Volume with part

Ozben T, Nacitarhan S, Tuncer N. Plasma and urine sialic

acid in non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. Ann

Clin Biochem 1995;32(Pt 3):303-6.

8. Issue with part

Poole GH, Mills SM. One hundred consecutive cases of

flap lacerations of the leg in ageing patients. N Z Med J

1994;107(986 Pt 1):377-8.

9. Issue with no volume

Turan I, Wredmark T, Fellander-Tsai L. Arthroscopic ankle

arthrodesis in rheumatoid arthritis. Clin Orthop

1995;(320):110-4.

10. No issue or volume

Browell DA, Lennard TW. Immunologic status of the cancer

patient and the effects of blood transfusion on antitumor

responses. Curr Opin Gen Surg 1993:325-33.

11. Pagination in Roman numerals

Fisher GA, Sikic BI. Drug resistance in clinical oncology

and hematology. Introduction. Hematol Oncol Clin North

Am 1995 Apr;9(2):xi-xii.

12. Type of article indicated as needed

Enzensberger W, Fischer PA. Metronome in Parkinson's

disease [letter]. Lancet 1996;347:1337. Clement J, De

Bock R. Hematological complications of hantavirus nephropathy

(HVN) [abstract]. Kidney Int 1992;42:1285.

13. Article containing retraction

Garey CE, Schwarzman AL, Rise ML, Seyfried TN. Ceruloplasmin

gene defect associated with epilepsy in EL

mice [retraction of Garey CE, Schwarzman AL, Rise ML,

Seyfried TN. In: Nat Genet 1994; 6: 426-31]. Nat Genet

1995; 11: 104.

14. Article retracted

Liou GI, Wang M, Matragoon S. Precocious IRBP gene

expression during mouse development [retracted in Invest

Ophthalmol Vis Sci 1994;35:3127]. Invest

Ophthalmol Vis Sci 1994;35:1083-8.

15. Article with published erratum

Hamlin JA, Kahn AM. Herniography in symptomatic patients

following inguinal hernia repair [published erratum

appears in West J Med 1995;162:278]. West J Med

1995;162:28-31.

Books and Other Monographs

(Note: Previous Vancouver style incorrectly had a

comma rather than a semicolon between the publisher

and the date.)

16. Personal author(s)

Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills

for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers;

1996.

17. Editor(s), compiler(s) as author

Norman IJ, Redfern SJ, editors. Mental health care for

elderly people. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1996.

18. Organization as author and publisher

Institute of Medicine (US). Looking at the future of the

Medicaid program. Washington: The Institute; 1992.

19. Chapter in a book

(Note: Previous Vancouver style had a colon rather than

a p before pagination.) Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension

and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors.

Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management.

2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995. p. 465-78.

20. Conference proceedings

Kimura J, Shibasaki H, editors. Recent advances in clinical

neurophysiology. Proceedings of the 10th International

Congress of EMG and Clinical Neurophysiology;

1995 Oct 15-19; Kyoto, Japan. Amsterdam: Elsevier;

1996.

21. Conference paper

Bengtsson S, Solheim BG. Enforcement of data protection,

privacy and security in medical informatics. In: Lun

KC, Degoulet P, Piemme TE, Rienhoff 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.

22. Scientific or technical report

Issued by funding/sponsoring agency: Smith P, Golladay. Payment for durable medical equipment billed during

skilled nursing facility stays. Final report. Dallas (TX):

Dept. of Health and Human Services (US), Office of Evaluation

and Inspections; 1994 Oct. Report No.:

HHSIGOEI69200860. Issued by performing agency:

Field MJ, Tranquada RE, Feasley JC, editors. Health

services research: work force and educational issues.

Washington: National Academy Press; 1995. Contract

No.: AHCPR282942008. Sponsored by the Agency for

Health Care Policy and Research.

23. Dissertation

Kaplan SJ. Post-hospital home health care: the elderly's

access and utilization [dissertation]. St. Louis (MO):

Washington Univ.; 1995.

24. Patent

Larsen CE, Trip R, Johnson CR, inventors; Novoste Corporation,

assignee. Methods for procedures related to

the electrophysiology of the heart. US patent 5,529,067.

1995 Jun 25.

Unpublished Material

25. In press

(Note: NLM prefers "forthcoming" because not all items

will be printed.)

Leshner AI. Molecular mechanisms of cocaine addiction.

N Engl J Med. In press 1996.

Electronic Material

26. Journal article in electronic format

Morse SS. Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases.

Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 1995 Jan-Mar

[cited 1996 Jun 5];1(1):[24 screens]. Available from:

URL: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/eid.htm

27. Monograph in electronic format

CDI, clinical dermatology illustrated [monograph on CDROM].

Reeves JRT, Maibach H. CMEA Multimedia Group,

producers. 2nd ed. Version 2.0. San Diego: CMEA; 1995.

28. Computer file

Hemodynamics III: the ups and downs of hemodynamics

[computer program]. Version 2.2. Orlando (FL): Computerized

Educational Systems; 1993.

k) Illustrations and legends

Submit 2 hard copies on high-quality laser printer paper

or bond paper. For best possible reproduction, avoid

using shading or dotted patterns; if unavoidable, submit

this type of illustration in the form of a glossy photograph

for best results. Use thick, solid lines and bold, solid

type. Place lettering on a white background; avoid reverse

type (white lettering on a dark background). Illustrations

(three complete sets of glossy prints) should be

numbered in the order of their mention in the text and

should be marked lightly on the back with the first

author's last name and an arrow to indicate the top edge.

Special charges will be made by the publisher for publishing

figures in color. Before publication the corresponding

author will be sent a cost estimate; at that time he or

she may decide to pay the costs or print the illustration

in black and white. Only good photographic prints of

original drawings should be supplied. All lettering must

be done professionally. Do not send original artwork, xray

films, or ECG tracings. Glossy photographs are preferred;

good black-and-white contrast is essential. Preferred

size for submitted illustrations is 5 x 7 inches.

Suitable figure legends should be typewritten double

spaced on a separate sheet of paper and included at

the end of the manuscript. If a figure has been taken

from previously copyrighted material, the legend must

give full credit to the original source and letters of permission

must be submitted with the manuscript. Articles

appear in both the print and online versions of the Journal,

and wording of the letter should specify permission

in all forms and media. Failure to get electronic permission

rights may result in the images not appearing in the

online version. Illustrations cannot be returned by the

publisher. Figures may be submitted in electronic format.

All images should be at least 5 inches wide. Images

should be provided on CD or floppy. Graphics software

such as Photoshop and Illustrator, not presentation

software such as PowerPoint, CorelDraw, or Harvard

Graphics, should be used in the creation of the art. Color

images need to be CMYK, at least 300 DPI, and be accompanied

by a digital color proof, not a color laser print

or color photocopy. Please include hardware and software

information, in addition to the file names, with the

disk. Three hard copies of illustrations are still required.

l ) Tables

Tables should be self-explanatory and numbered in

Roman numerals in the order of their mention in the text.

Provide a brief title for each. Type each double-spaced

on a separate page. Abbreviations should be defined in

a double-spaced footnote at the end of the table. If any

material in a table or a table itself has been taken from

previously copyrighted material, a doubles paced footnote

must give full credit to the original source and permission

of the author and publisher must be obtained.

Send letters of permission to the Editor with the manuscript.

m) Conflict of Interest Notification Page

Authors should declare any potential conflict of interest

and any financial support for the study may be disclosed

as well.

n ) Short Reports

Short Reports should be limited to three type written

pages on current research, a short introduction, material

and methods and results should be written under

the same heading followed by brief comments and six to

ten reference.

o ) Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor are considered for publication

(subject to editing and abridgment) provided they do

not contain material that has been submitted or published

elsewhere. The letter must be typewritten and

double-spaced. Its text, not including reference, must

not exceed 250 words if it is in reference to a recent

journal article, or 400 words in all other cases (please

provide a word count). It must have no more than five

references and one figure or table. Letters referring to

a recent journal article must be received within four

weeks of its publication. Please include your full address,

telephone number, fax number an e-mail address.

• Illustrations, properly labeled (3 glossy sets)
• Legends
• 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

6) AUTHORSHIP

All persons designated as authors should qualify for

authorship. An "author" is generally considered to be

someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions

to a published study. To qualify as an author one

should

Authors should take help from following guidelines in writing manuscripts

Initiative Type of study Source

CONSORT randomized controlled http://www.consort-statement.org

trials

STARD studies of diagnostic http://www.consort-statement.org/stardstatement.htm

accuracy

QUOROM systematic reviews http://www.consort-statement.org/Initiatives/MOOSE/moose.pdf

and meta-analyses

STROBE observational studies http://www.strobe-statement.org

in epidemiology

MOOSE meta-analyses of http://www.consort-statement.org/Initiatives/MOOSE/moose.pdf

observational studies

in epidemiology

p) Guidelines

5. CHECKLIST FOR THE AUTHOR

• Covering letter (should include section for which

manuscript is submitted)

• Copyright transfer statement signed by all authors
• Original and two photocopies of the article

(double-spaced)

• Title page
• Section of Journal to be published in (or note if a

review article)

• Title of article and short title (40 characters or fewer)
• 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-word maximum
• Text (including Methods, Results, Discussion)
• References

1) have made substantial contributions to conception

and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis

and interpretation of data;

2) have been involved in drafting the manuscript or

revising it critically for important intellectual content;

and

3) have given final approval of the version to be published.

Each author should have participated sufficiently in the

work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions

of the content. Acquisition of funding, collection of

data, or general supervision of the research group, alone,

does not justify authorship.

7) MANUSCRIPT EVALUATION

• KMJ: KUST MEDICAL JOURNAL is a biannual peer

reviewed journal published by Kohat University of

Science and Technology (KUST) Institute of Medical

Sciences, Kohat.

• Every new manuscript submitted to KMJ is immediately

assessed by an editor for an initial inspection

(internal peer review).

• An article with publication potential is sent to two

external peer reviewers to evaluate the suitability

of the article for publication based on its quality,

novelty, and relevance for publication.

• A time frame of minimum 4 weeks will be given for

a reviewer to go through a manuscript and send

his suggestions to the editor. Failing which will

generate a reminder from the editor with additional

4 weeks time for review to be completed.

• 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 establish a system for rapid review

of especially important manuscripts. This may include

review only by editors or asking reviewers

to complete their evaluations within a shorter period

of time than is allowed routinely. Authors who

seek rapid review should explain why their manuscripts

merit such review.

• Reviewers are advisors to authors and editors. The

editor may ask reviewers to make recommendations

regarding acceptance or rejection of manuscripts,

and should pay attention to the recommendations,

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.

8) DECISION MAKING AND

COMMUNICATION TO AUTHORS

• The editor makes a decision about the manuscript

(accept, invite a revision, or reject) based on a

consideration of all the reviewer comments, his

own critique, and other external factors.

• What considerations should enter into the decision?

These may include the comments and recommendations

of the reviewers, the availability of

space, and-most important-the judgment of the

editor(s) regarding the suitability of the manuscript

for the journal and the value and interest of the

manuscript to the journal's readers.

• The editor may always seek additional review and

advice if required.

• Decisions are communicated to authors by the

editor. This means that the editor may need to provide

explanations for the decision independent of

the comments of the reviewers that are to be sent

to the authors.

• Decisions to reject a manuscript may be based on

scientific weakness (poor research design, inappropriate

methods of study), lack of originality, lack

of importance and interest to readers, or simply

lack of space. The editor will explain to authors

the reasons for decisions to reject manuscripts.

This is particularly important when the editor rejects

a manuscript but the tone of the comments of

the reviewers that will be sent to the authors is

favorable.

• The editor should actively encourage revision of

manuscripts thought to be potentially acceptable.

When an editor seeks revision of a manuscript, he

should make clear which revisions are essential,

and which are optional. If the comments of the

reviewers are contradictory, the editor must decide

and tell the authors which comments the authors

should follow. Editors may add their own

comments and suggestions for revision, and they

(or some person in the editorial office designated

by the editor) are responsible for ensuring that

manuscripts meet the journal's policies regarding

length and style.

• In general, manuscripts that are potentially acceptable

but need very major revision or additional

data should be rejected, but the editor can encourage

resubmission. When this is done, the editor

should explain precisely what is needed to

make the manuscript acceptable. It is a disservice

to authors to request revision and then later reject

the manuscript. As an alternative, the editor may

choose to work closely with the authors to make

the manuscript acceptable for publication.

• The editor should not make decisions regarding

manuscripts about which he may have a conflict

of interest, for example manuscripts submitted by

members of the editor's own institution or people

who have been collaborators of the editor in the

past. In this instance, the manuscript should be

handled by an assistant editor or preferably a person

outside of the editorial office who is given full

power to select reviewers and make decisions regarding

acceptance or rejection. The same policy

should be followed if the editor himself submits a

manuscript - other than an editorial - to his journal,

which he should only rarely.

• Revised manuscripts should be evaluated by editors,

to determine if the revisions are satisfactory,

and not returned to reviewers. An exception might

be when the revised manuscript includes changes

that may have introduced important new shortcomings

about which the editor needs advice from one

or more of the original reviewers. Revised manuscripts

should not be sent to new reviewers.

• Editors should immediately reject a resubmitted

manuscript that was previously rejected and has

not been revised.

9) PLAGIARISM

• All articles submitted to KMJ are subjected to plagiarism

testing. KMJ follows the standard definition

and description of plagiarism (http://

facpub.stjohns.edu/~roigm/plagiarism/

Index.html) and we endorse ICMJE and Higher

education commission policies regarding plagiarism

available on www.icmje.org and

www.hec.gov.pk.

• Intellectual contribution and originality of every

article is to be defined by the authors and this is

the responsibility of authors to be aware of various

forms of plagiarism like plagiarism of ideas,

text, paraphrasing, self plagiarism including redundant/

duplicate publication, salami slicing( data

fragmentation) and text recycling etc. Iignorance

regarding plagiarism and its various forms will not

be considered as excuse.

• Any manuscript submitted for publication or a

manuscript accepted for publication or even an

article that has already been published in the journal

is found to be plagiarized, the matter will be

forwarded to disciplinary committee of KMJ comprising

of chief editor, managing editor and one

staff editor.

• Disciplinary committee will immediately stop the

further processing/ publication of the article and

will ask for an explanation from the authors. The

corresponding author will be required to respond

with an explanation within 30 days of receiving

the letter from the editor.

• In case an acceptable explanation is provided by

the author(s), the disciplinary committee may recommend

appropriate changes after which the review

process for the submitted manuscript may

commence.

• In case of non response in the stipulated time or

unsatisfactory explanation, the disciplinary committee

will decide regarding the fate of the article

and authors including

• Rejection of the manuscript,
• Withdrawn of already published article (as the case

may be)

• Debarment of the authors(s) from further publication

in the KMJ for one year or permanent depending

upon the nature of offence.

• The author will be on watch.
• HEC, PMDC and author's institute will also be notified

for information and possible action

• In case of multiple submissions, other editors will

also be informed. The author(s) will have to provide

documentary proof of retraction from publication,

if such a defence is pleaded.

• Those claiming intellectual/idea or data theft of an

article must provide documentary proof in their

claim.

10) PUBLICATION AND DISTRIBUTION

• The " KMJ: KUST MEDICAL JOURNAL is published

on controlled circulation basis and distributed

among the faculty of all medical colleges and

tertiary referral centres, main libraries and private

clinics throughout Pakistan and abroad. All rights

reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,

photocopying, except for internal or personal

use, without the prior permission of the publisher.

The publisher and the member of the editorial

board cannot be held responsible for errors or for

any consequences arising form the use of the information

contained in this journal. The " KMJ:

KUST MEDICAL JOURNAL is published six

monthly composed and printed at Khyber Mail

Printers, Peshawar Cantt.

• PUBLICATION OFFICE

Department of Publications,

KUST INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES,

DHQ KDA HOSPITAL, KOHAT, NWFP, PAKISTAN

• Email: editorkmj@yahoo.com, kmj@kust.edu.pk

• URL: http://kmj.kust.edu.pk

INSTRUCTION TO AUTHORS

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
2. The submission file is in Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
3. Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
4. The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
5. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
6. It is hereby submitted that the manuscript has been seen and approved by all authors who have contributed significantly to satisfy the following authorship criteria and share in the responsibility for above. ( (*Kindly mention the role of individual author as per following criteria at the end of the article in a separate note). AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship. An “author” is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. To qualify as an author one should: 1) have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) have been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) have given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship.

Copyright Notice

Upon acceptance by KMJ, all copyright ownership for the article is transferred to KMJ.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.