Instructions for Authors

EDITORIAL POLICY

The "Pakistan Journal of Chest Medicine" (PJCM) is the official journal of the Pakistan Chest Society. The PJCM publishes original articles, reviews, and case reports on the clinical aspects of pulmonology, and on community aspects, with its emphasis on lung health in Pakistan and other developing countries. The PJCM encourages submissions that programs for tuberculosis control and the promotion of lung health.

The PJCM welcomes articles on all aspects of lung health, including public health-related issues such as epidemiology and intervention studies. 

MANUSCRIPTS SUBMISSION

Pakistan Journal of Chest Medicine (PJCM) is a peer-reviewed quarterly 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 and 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. 

All manuscripts should be accompanied by a cover letter from the author responsible for correspondence regarding the manuscript. The cover letter should contain the copyright disclosure statement. We, the undersigned co-authors of this article, have contributed significantly to and share in the responsibility for the above. The undersigned stipulates that the material submitted to the Pakistan Journal of Chest Medicine is new, original, and has not been submitted to another publication for concurrent consideration. Upon acceptance by the Pakistan Journal of Chest Medicine, all copyright ownership for the article is transferred to the Pakistan Journal of Chest Medicine. It is attested that all human and/or animal studies undertaken as a part of the research are in compliance with the regulation of our institution(s) and with generally accepted guidelines governing such work. It is attested that we have disclosed any and all financial or other relationships that could be construed as a conflict of interest and that all sources of financial support for this study have been disclosed and are indicated in the acknowledgment. This statement must be signed by all the major co-authors. The cover letter should also contain a statement that the manuscript has been seen and approved by all authors and should give any additional information that may be helpful to the Editor. If there has been any prior publication of any part of the work, this should be an acknowledgment and appropriate written permission included. The journal is approved by the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council and indexed with DRJI. It is available online at www.pjcm.net.

Submission of Article:

Pakistan Journal of Chest Medicine provides easy and user-friendly online submission of articles on its website. Submissions are allowed only online.

Visit: http://www.pjcm.net and REGISTER yourself as an AUTHOR by filling out a form.

Log in with your username and password.

Click on AUTHOR on the USER HOME page.

Click NEW SUBMISSION and follow the following 5 steps of manuscript submission as per online instructions.

1. Start
2. Upload Submission
3. Enter Metadata
4. Upload Supplementary Files
5. Confirmation

Log in > User Home > Author> Submission > New Submission > Step 1 Starting the Submission > Step 2 Upload Submission > Step 3 Enter Metadata > Step 4 Upload Supplementary Files > Step 5 Confirmation.

UNDERTAKING / COPYRIGHT FORM: Download this form, complete it, and sign it. Please send us a Scanned copy of it with your submission. The file should be submitted as a Supplementary File.

Download Undertaking / Copyright Form of PJCM

Manuscript Structure

All manuscripts of original research should contain the following sections:
a) Title Page 
The title page should carry 

• A concise and informative title.
• A list of author names, affiliation(s), and e-mail addresses.
• The name, and complete mailing address (including e-mail address, telephone, and fax numbers) of the corresponding author.
• A running title not exceeding 45 characters.

b)  Abstract and Keywords

The second page should carry a structured abstract of not more than 250 words. The Abstract should outline the purpose of the paper and the main results, conclusions, and recommendations, using clear, factual, numbered statements. Authors should follow a formula in which point 1 sets the context and need for the work; point 2 indicates the approach and methods used; the next 2-3 points outline the main results, and the last point identifies the wider implication and relevance to management or policy. The final summary point is the most important of all in maximizing the impact of the paper. It should synthesize the paper’s key messages and should be generic, seminal, and accessible to non-specialists.

Keywords: A list in alphabetical order not exceeding ten words or short phrases, excluding words used in the title and chosen carefully to reflect the precise content of the paper.

c) Introduction 

State the reason for the work, the context, background, aims, and the hypotheses being tested. End the introduction with a brief statement of what has been achieved. 
d) Methodology 
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.
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. The provision of an Ethical Approval Report is a MUST, for all the Original Articles, after 1st January 2014.
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. 
e) Results 
State the results of experimental or modeling work, drawing attention to important details in tables and figures. The Results section should conform to the highest standards of rigor.

f) Discussion 
Point out the importance of the results and place them in the context of previous studies and in relation to the application of the work (expanding on the Synthesis and Applications section of the Summary). Include clear recommendations for management or policy.

g) Acknowledgments 
List all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship, such as a person who provided purely technical help, or 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. 

h) References 

The following should be observed while citing the 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.
• Avoid using abstracts as references.
• References to papers accepted but not yet published should be designated as "in the 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 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's style differs from the style now used by NLM. 

Articles in Journals

1. 1.    Standard journal article 

Up to six authors: Iqbal Z, Ali S, Basit A, Ullah Z, Khan MY, Javaid A. Comparison of treatment outcome of tuberculosis before and after the introduction of daily DOTS in TB clinic at Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar. Pak J Chest Med 2014;20(2): 54-60.

More than six authors: List the first six authors followed by et al. Basit A, Khan MA, Khan MD, Ahmad M, Ullah Z, Iqbal Z, et al. Need for establishing a linkage between tertiary care hospital and peripheral DOTS centers. Pak J Chest Med 2013;19(3): 54-60.

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. Issue with no volume Turan I, Wredmark T, Fellander-Tsai L. Arthroscopic ankle arthrodesis in rheumatoid arthritis. Clin Orthop 1995;(320):110-4. 
6. 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: 325-33.7. 
7. 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.
8. 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 
9. Personal author(s) Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany 
(NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996. 
10. Editor(s), compiler(s) as author Norman IJ, Redfern SJ, editors. Mental health care for elderly people. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1996. 
11. Organization as author and publisher Institute of Medicine (US). Looking at the future of the Medicaid program. Washington: The Institute; 1992. 
12. 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. 
13. 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.
14. Scientific or technical report Issued by funding/sponsoring agency: Smith P, Golladay K. 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: workforce and educational issues. Washington: National Academy Press; 1995. Contract No.: AHCPR282942008. Sponsored by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. 
i) Illustrations and legends 
Illustrations 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, x-ray films, or ECG tracings. Glossy photographs are preferred; good black-and-white contrast is essential. The 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 the 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 should be submitted in electronic format. All images should be at least 5 inches wide. 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.
j) 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 double-spaced 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.
k) Short Reports 
Short Reports should be limited to three typewritten 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 references.
l) 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 and e-mail address.
PEER REVIEW 
PJCM is a peer-reviewed journal. All articles on receipt for publication are immediately acknowledged but that does not imply acceptance for publication. Submitted manuscripts are reviewed for originality, relevance, statistical methods, significance, adequacy of documentation, reader interest, and composition. Manuscript not submitted according to the instructions will be returned to the author for correction prior to beginning the peer review process. All manuscripts considered suitable for review are evaluated by a minimum of two reviewers who may take a couple of months time to review the manuscript. The secrecy of authors is maintained. Revised manuscripts are judged on the adequacy of responses to suggestions and criticisms made during the initial review. All accepted manuscripts are subject to editing for scientific accuracy and clarity by the office of the Editor. When the manuscript is deemed fit for publication, a letter of acceptance is issued to the author. The ultimate authority to accept or reject the manuscript rests with the Editor.
CHECKLIST FOR THE AUTHOR 
• Covering letter (should include a section for which manuscript is submitted) 
• Undertaking Form completely filled and signed by all authors 
• Title page containing the title of the manuscript and short running title, if any (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, (Including Objective, Methodology, Results, and Conclusion). It should not be more than 250 words. 
• Text (including Introduction, Methodology, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion) 
• References 
• Illustrations, properly labeled 
• Legends 
• Tables (provide a brief title for each), typed on separate sheets
• Disclosure regarding source of funding and conflict of interest, if any
• Approval of the study from respective Ethics Committee/ Institution Review Board
• Informed consent to publish patient photographs
• All RCTs should be prepared according to CONSORT guidelines
• Permission to reproduce published material in all forms and media