ISSN 0303-5212
 

Rawal Medical Journal

Information for authors

Please see the Check List carefully before submission

Click here to download Authors Certificate.doc

The RMJ accepts manuscripts prepared in accordance with the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to the Biomedical Journals", is available at website http://www.icmje.org/ The journal adheres to international editorial standards and accepts original articles, case reports and reviews.

MANUSCRIPTS: Manuscripts are accepted for consideration if neither the article nor any of its contents have been or will be published or submitted elsewhere. Please use double-spaces throughout and submits manuscript with tables and figures, if any, to our interactive web site at http://www.rmj.org.pk. No more than 6 names will be listed under the title. Total length of manuscript for original articles should be less than 2400 words, 1200 words for case report and 3000 words for review article including abstract and references. Short Communications should have 1200 words total with 10 references and one table/figure. Number of tables and figures should be four or less. All authors names with correct spellings must be listed on submission. No additions, deletions or changes will be made later. Social Sciences, psychology and physical therapy manuscripts should be submitted to relevent journals.

TITLE AND AUTHORS’ NAME: The first page of the manuscript must give the title of article that should be concise and descriptive. Authors names, the name of the department and institution in which the work was done and the institutional affiliation of each author should not be given on the body of manuscript. Names of authors and co-authors must be spelled out correctly on submission, as no further correction requests will be entertained. Author sequence changes and any  additions or deletions will not be possible afterwards. Any grant/support that requires acknowledgment should be mentioned on this page. Any conflict of interest must be disclosed. No more than six (6) authors are allowed.

ABSTRACTS: This must not be more than 250 words. The abstract should consist of four paragraphs, labeled Objective, Methodology, Results, and Conclusions. They should briefly describe, respectively, the problem being addressed in the study, how the study was performed, the salient results, and what the authors conclude from the results. Lenght must be less than 250 words.

KEY WORDS: 3 to 10 key words or short phrases should be added to the bottom of the abstract page. Please use terms from the Medical Subject headings (MeSH) from Medline.

REFERENCES: The total number of references in an original article must not exceed 24, while in the review articles maximum limit is 40 and for case reports maximum is 10. References must be written double-spaced and numbered as they are cited. References in the text should be in superscript without brackets.

IRB APPROVAL: IRB approval from concerned institution is mandatory. Approval letter duly signed and stamped needs to be uploaded as additional file. Approval letter number must be mentioned in Methodology.

The style of references should be according to Vancouver style. List all authors when there are six or fewer. If there are seven or more list the first six followed by “et al.” The following are sample references:

Journal Article: Khaliq MA, Khan JA, Shaheen P. Bacteriological study of drinking water in Abbottabad. Pak J Med Res 1986;25:96-9.

Chapter in a Book: Woessner JF. Lysosomal function. In: Dingle JT, Fell HG, editors. Lysosomes in biology and pathology. London: North Holland Publishing Co; 1969. p. 299-329.

TABLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS: Each of the tables and illustrations should be on a separate page, must have a title and be on double space. Figures should be professionally designed. Symbols, lettering, and numbering should be clear and large enough to remain legible after the figure has been reduced to fit the width of a single column. Tables should be in MS Word format and not jpg. Caption should be brief and at the top of figure or table. If photographs of patients are used, either the subjects should not be identifiable or their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the figure. Duplication of results given in tables into figures must be avoided. Total of four (4) figures/table are allowed.

UNITS OF MEASUREMENT: Authors should express all measurements in conventional units, with System International (SI) units given in parentheses throughout the text.

ABBREVIATIONS: Except for units of measurement, abbreviations are discouraged. The first time an abbreviation appears it should be preceded by the words for which it stands. However, title and abstract must not contain any abbreviation.

DRUG NAMES: Only generic names should be used.

AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA

As per ICMJE guidelines the authorship should be based on the following criteria:

  1. Substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data.

  2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content.

  3. Final approval of the version to be published.

  4. All those who meet the above three conditions are eligible to be included as Authors in the manuscript

  5. There has to be one of the authors who gives final approval and is guarantor of the article for accuracy of data.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, general supervision of the research group does not qualify any one to be an author. All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgment section. Those who provide technical support, writing assistance, or department chair who provided just general support should also be mentioned in acknowledgment. It is also important that all those whose names appear in acknowledgement must have given permission to be acknowledged. All authors must be from relevent specilities. Unrelated speciality authors will not be entertained.

AUTHOR CERTIFICATE AND PERMISSIONS: Please down load this from link above, complete it, sign and upload with manuscript. The material taken from other sources for reproduction in the journal, must accompany the necessary permission in writing from both author and publisher.  Conflicts of interest, ethical and confidentiality issues must be disclosed. 

PLAGIARISM: All manuscripts are screened for plagiarism using Turnitin software before they are processed further. An unacceptable level of similarity will be returned for resubmission after appropriate corrections made by the author(s). All with higher unacceptable similarity will be rejected. Please do not scan before submitting your manuscript. Those found guilty or involved in publication misconduct are liable to be black listed.

PROCESSING CHARGES: All manuscripts from Pakistan should be accompanied with a payment of Rs. 4,000/- (Non-refundable). Those from overseas should be accompanied bt US $ 150/-. Please upload bank receipt when uploading manuscript.

PUBLICATION CHARGES: Once the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors are required to pay publication charges of Rs.12,000/- (in case of overseas US$ 250/-). No reprints will be provided to the authors. Authors can download the manuscript in PDF form from the online edition of the journal at www.rmj.org.pk

FAST TRACK: Manuscripts can be considered for quick review, if authors so desire. These will have initial decision in 12-16 weeks. Please check with us if this is possible before submission. The publication fee is Rs 18,000 (Overseas US $ 450).

PAYMENT MODE AND PROCESS: Authors can pay the processing and publication charges by cash, check, bank draft, pay order, online bank transfer (TT) or through Western Union.

  1. Check/Pay-Order/Bank Draft should be drawn in the name of PMA Rawal Medical Journal and mailed to the Editorial Office at: Rawal Medical Journal PMA House G/220-B Liaquat Road, Rawalpindi. Phone: 92-51-555-9812 Fax: 92-51-553-7088.

  2. Cash can be deposited at our Editorial Office, as above. Cash regarding Processing fee can be deposited in our account at any MCB Branch (see acount details below) and upload the Bank Reciept.

  3. Payment through Western Union, should be payable to Mr. Mazhar Khan. After sending the payment, please send us the Money Transfer Code No. as well as the name of the sender via E-mail to mazarkhan@hotmail.com

  4. The funds can be sent directly to our bank account through telegraphic transfer (TT) under intimation to us. For Publication fee, please send a scan copy of bank receipt to mazarkhan@hotmail.com For Processing fee, please upload the bank receipt when uploading your manuscript.


The bank account details are as under:

Title: PMA House Trust 

Bank: Allied Bank

Branch: Liaquat Bagh Murree Road, Rawalpindi 

Account #: 06610010028570540014

IBAN #: PK88ABPA0010028570540014


REVIEW AND ACTION: An acknowledgment is issued after receiving the manuscript. The manuscripts are examined by the editorial staff and may be returned for redressing. If found suitable, they are sent to external experts for review. The comments of reviewer are communicated to the corresponding author. If accepted, acceptance of article is notified to the authors at their correspondence address.

DOI: If authors want a doi assigned, they need to request. A charge of Rs 1000 is required.

ENQUIRIES: All enquiries regarding manuscripts must be sent via email. Phone calls will be non-productive. Correct reference number and full title of manuscript needs to be given with any request.