Information For Authors

Instructions to Authors

Journal of Aziz Fatimah Medical and Dental College (JAFMDC) follow the “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly work in medical journals.  Available at:http://icmje.org/recommendations/” modified.

While submitting manuscripts, please carefully follow the instructions given below:-

  1. Submit the manuscript with our online journal system at www.journal.afmdc.edu.pk in MS Word in one file starting from title of the manuscript to references including tables. E-mail of each author is required Journal of Aziz Fatimah Medical and Dental College during the submission process. All submitted manuscripts must be exclusively contributed to JAFMDC. Covering letter should also state what information this study adds to medical literature and how it will influence clinical practice.
  2. Manuscript prepared on microsoft word with double spacing, font size for tilte should be 14 and text should be 12 .
  3. Plagiarism: Manuscripts are screened for plagiarism using Turnitin software. Articles with similarity index within more than 19% will not be published
  4. Do not submit tables as photographs.Make sure that each figure, table is cited in the text.
  5. The figures should be sent in JPEG format with atleast 300 dpi of resolution as separate file (upload as supplementary file).
  6. All manuscripts by multiple authors must be signed by all the authors and contain details of individual authors contribution.
  7. Informed consent of the patients participating in the study should be undertaken.
  8. All studies must be approved by the relevant Ethics Committee/Institution Review Boards of the respective institutions and approval letter should be submitted along with the manuscript.
  9. The authors as well as reviewers are expected to declare the conflict of interest if any.
  10. Source of funding for the study should be clearly mentioned.
  11. The desired position of any figure or table should be marked in the manuscript.

Manuscripts except short communications & Guest Editorials should contain the following sections:-

  1. Title Page: should contain 1) complete title of the manuscript 2) the name of all the authors with their highest qualifications 3) the department or institution to which they are attached 4) institutions to which work should be attributed 5)  mobile no 6) e-mail, address with telephone numbers for correspondence 7)  short running title of the article 8) source of funding, 9) total word count of abstract and manuscript  10)  number of figures, tables 11) and total number of pages.
  2. Abstract: All original articles must accompany structured abstract up to 250 words. It should state Objective of the study, Methodology, Results & Conclusions. Emphasize new and important aspects of the study or observations. Authors need to be careful that the abstract reflects the content of the article accurately.Single digit figures should be written in words i.e. 2 should be written as two. This page should contain structured abstract and key words only.
  3. Key Words: Below the abstract give minimum three MeSH key words not more than ten that will assist indexers in cross indexing the article as they are published with abstract. 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.
  4. Case Report/Review Article:All review articles and case reports should be preceded by a summary. Review article contain up-to-date information providing comprehensive coverage of relevant literature. Review articles should preferably be written by scientists who have in-depth knowledge of the topic. Authors submitting review manuscript should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting and synthesizing data, data bases searched and the time period. These methods should also be summarized in the abstract.
  5. Introduction: This should summarize the purpose and the rationale for the study. it should provide sufficient background information for the reader to understand and evaluate the results of the present study without referring to previous publications on the same topic  .It should neither review the subject extensively nor it should have data or conclusions of the study.  Use the full form of abbrevation  first in text  and  write  abbrevation in parentheses. Be careful  for spelling, grammar and punctuation  while writing manuscript . check  and correct all  error  in the manuscript before submission. 
  6. Methodology: This should include exact method or observation or experiment. Describe study design, setting , period and duration of study, sample size , mention ethical approval and also give ethical approval letter number. Describe your selection of observational or experimental participants , humans or laboratory animals. Clearly descrtibe  inclusion and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population. Because the relevance of such variables as age and sex to clear, authors should explain their use when they are included in a study report; for example, authors should explain why only subjects of certain were excluded. The guiding principle should be clarity about how and why a study was done in a particular way. When authors use variables then  define how they measured the variables and justify their relevance.  If an apparatus is used, it’s 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. . Statistical method must be mentioned and specify any general computer programme used. The Info system used should be clearly mentioned.
  7. Results:It must be presented in the form of text, tables and illustrations. The contents of the tables should not be all repeated in the text. Present your results in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not  start the sentence with number. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations. For patients, age, sex with mean age ± standard deviation must be given.    Use upper italics P value i.e  (P =0.048). For all P values include the exact value and not less than 0.05 or 0.001 i.e P =0.048. Extra or supplementary materials and technical details can be placed in an appendix where it will be accessible. It may be omitted from the printed version but may be published in the electronic version of the journal.
  8. Tables and Figures: All tables and figures are merged in text. Tables should be self-explanatory and should not duplicate textual material. All tables and figures should be numbered with numeric numerals. Headings should be placed centrally above the tables and figures. All figures bar chart and pie should be 3D with proper data labeling.
  9. Discussion:This should emphasize present findings & the variations or similarities with other work done in the field by other workers. Discussion should be written with strong literature search. This should interpret the significance of the findings of the work. Citations should be given in support/disagreement of the findings preferably cited from Local, National, regional and then International researches within last five years. 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.
  10. Conclusion: Should be in line with objectives and results of the study. It should be short and simple statement.  It should be same given in abstract.
  11. Conflicts 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 access 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.
  12. References: The References should be written in Vancouver Style. Maximum References: Original Article 25, Case Report 10, Reviews 35. These references should also be marked in the text in superscript form in sequenced numerical order. The author should ensure reference to locally published studies by doing proper literature search of at least last five years. List all the authors when six or less; when authors are seven or more , list only six  and add   et al. Use standard abbreviation of journal name in reference and give DOI number , if available.  Assure uniformity  in writig page numbers in references . for example  write page number as 104 - 109 instead of writing as 104-9.
  13. It may not be possible for the editor and reviewers to check the accuracy of all reference citations. To minimize such errors author should verify references against the original documents.

  14. Acknowledgments: The source of any financial support, technical assistance and advice received for the work being published must be indicated in the Acknowledgments section

  15. Authorship and contribution: Authorship should be based on the following 4 criteria as per ICMJE recommendation:
    • 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.

    It is journal policy that once authorship certificate is submitted no further change will be allowed in a sequence and addition   of new authors.  Detailed contribution made by each author should be mentioned at end of article. Avoid gifted authorship, it  is unethical and not acceptable. Corresponding author of articles will have a responsibility to respond to substantial criticisms of their work and will be asked by editors to respond in case of any query.

  16. Copy Rights:Authors retain copyright of their work and can deposit their publication in any repository. The work can be freely shared and adapted provided that appropriate credit is given and any changes specified. JAFMDCis fully compliant with open access mandates, by publishing its articles under the Creative Commons Attribution non-commercial 4.0 licence.
  17. Manuscript  Submission and publication  fees 
    JAFMDC  does not charge the authors  for the submission & publication of  manuscripts
  18. Provision of printed copies to authors: complimentary copies are provided to all authors of articles published in JAFMDC free of cost 

About Manuscript Formatting:

The article should be formatted accordingly on MS Word:

  • Font Type: Times New Roman
  • Font Size: 14 for article title, 12 for article text
  • Line spacing should be set at 2 throughout the text
  • Alignment: Justified throughout
  • Page numbers should be added
  • Begin the abstract, introduction, methods, results, conclusion, references, and each table and figure on a new page.
  • Tables should be included at end of the manuscript and not in the middle of the text.
  • The figures should be sent in JPEG format with atleast 300 dpi of resolution as separate file (upload as supplementary file).