Instructions to Authors

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS:

AIMS AND SCOPE:

Pacific Journal of Medical Sciences is a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal published by the School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS), University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG).

The aim of The Pacific Journal of Medical Sciences is to provide the forum for researchers, medical practitioners and other professionals to record, publish, and share ideas and research findings that serve to enhance the understanding of the aetiology, symptoms, diagnosis, prevention, control and management of human disease conditions world wide.

The Pacific Journal of Medical Sciences publishes original scientific research reports, case reports, short communications, letters to the editor and reviews, representing new and significant findings in all areas of medical, biomedical and health sciences (including epidemiology, public and environmental health). Book reviews, scientific news and conference proceedings are published on special request.

EDITORIAL POLICIES:

The Pacific Journal of Medical Sciences (Pac J Med Sci) editorial policies require that: All manuscripts (papers) accepted for publication must reflect novelty and originality of quality research and be of interest to a multidisciplinary audience. All papers submitted for publication are bench reviewed. If the bench review report of a paper is positive, the paper is then sent for peer-review by three anonymous reviewers. If two of the three reports are positive then the editor-in-chief or a member of the editorial board will review the paper further. If the report is positive, the paper will be sent to the corresponding author for corrections to be made. The corrected paper will be sent to one or two of the reviewers for rechecking. After rechecking, the paper will then be sent for technical review. The report of the technical reviewer will determine if the paper will be accepted for publication.

The editorial board may request for review articles, commentaries or short reviews on contemporary medical or biomedical issues that the board considered important to the advancement of the aims of the journal.

Original research papers should be both complete and concise; they should essentially offer conclusive results, but they should not exceed 7,500 words, including abstract, tables, figures and references.

Short communications and reports should not exceed 3500 words, including abstract, tables, figures and references. Review articles should not exceed 6,000 words, including tables, figures and references. Letter to the Editor should be brief and to the point.

On preliminary editing, all manuscripts that fail to meet the basic requirements indicated above and those that contain significant and obvious typographical errors are returned without further processing.

Manuscripts submitted will be reviewed and considered for publication only if they have not been published, simultaneously submitted or already accepted for publication in another journal. The author responsible for correspondence must show evidence of approval of all co-authors when submitting a paper for publication.

All relevant ethical approval for research involving human and animal subjects must conform to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki in 1995 (as revised in Edinburgh 2000).

Only research methods that comply with internationally accepted principles of humane animal experimentation are accepted for publication in The Pacific Journal of Medical Sciences. The decision to accept, revise or reject any manuscript for publication in The Pacific Journal of Medical Sciences is the responsibility of the editor-in-chief; this is done after reviewing the reports and comments from the reviewers, and technical reviewers in consultation with members of the editorial board.

Disclaimer:

All statements and opinions expressed in any of the manuscripts published in The Pacific Journal of Medical Sciences are of the authors and co-authors, and not necessarily of the editors or members of the editorial board.

The editor-in-chief and members of the editorial board of The Pacific Journal of Medical Sciences disclaim any responsibility or liability for such material and do not guarantee or endorse any products or services mentioned in the articles, nor guarantee any claims made by the authors of the articles.

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPT (PAPER):

Manuscript should be written in clear and concise English and be intelligible to those that are not specialists in the particular scientific area. Manuscript that does not satisfy these requirements but is acceptable for publication in the Pacific Journal of Medical Sciences because of its essential scientific content will be returned to the authors for extensive and appropriate revision, as recommended by the reviewers and editors.

A covering letter to clarify the following should accompany any manuscript submitted for publication in the Pacific Journal of Medical Sciences: (a) That the scientific data contained in the manuscript has not been published or submitted for publication in any other journal; (b) That ethical clearance and permission for the research had been obtained from the appropriate committee(s) in the institution(s) where the work was carried out; (c) That all the authors have read and approved the content of the manuscript; (d) The name, address and email contact of the author responsible for correspondence and for communicating with others about revisions and final approval of the galley proof of the manuscript; (e) Statements quantifying the contribution of each author to the manuscript (this is a requirement in the latest guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors).

Only electronic copy of the manuscript sent as e-mail attachment should be submitted using the approved format indicated in the appropriate sections of this document.

Manuscript should be sent by email to any of the following: managingeditorpjms1625@gmail.com;

pacjmedsci1625@gmail.com; pacjmedsci@gmail.com.

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPT / PAPER:

Manuscripts should be prepared on A 4 paper, using double-spacing. Pages are to be numbered consecutively in the bottom right-hand corner. Manuscript should include the following sections: Title page, abstract, keywords, main text, acknowledgements, references, tables and figures.

Style: The Pacific Journal of Medical Sciences uses both UK and US spelling. Only one or the other should be used throughout a manuscript. SI units should be used for all measurements. Use abbreviations or acronyms to avoid repetition of long technical terms: Indicate the abbreviation in parentheses when the word is used in full for the first time. Use the approved generic names of chemical substances and drugs. Do not use trade names or brand names of chemicals and drugs.

Title page: The following should be on the title page: (a) Title of the manuscript – it should be concise and informative; (b) Short running title of not more than 40 characters (optional); (c) Name of each author (first name, middle initial and last name); (d) Name and address of institution(s) in which the work was carried out; (e) Name, postal address and email contact of the author responsible for correspondence; Source(s) of research or other types of support for the research project, if any,

Abstract and key words:

The abstract should not be more than 300 words. The following should be clearly stated in the abstract: the purpose of the study, basic procedures, main findings (specific results and statistical significance, if any), and principal conclusions. Abbreviations and references should not be included in the abstract. Not more than 8 key words should be put below the abstract. Key words are used to assist indexers in cross-indexing published articles and may be published with the abstract. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of the Index Medicus should be used for selecting key words (www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html)

Main Text:

Text of an original manuscript / paper should be separated into the standard IMRAD format as follows: Introduction, Materials and Methods (Methodology), Results, Discussion. Sections on Acknowledgements and References should be included.

Introduction: This section should: (a) summarize relevant previous work, using appropriate references, without any extensive review of the subject; (b) clearly state the purpose of the study and summarize the rational for the study or observation; (c) avoid given any data on the work being reported.

Materials and Methods (Methodology): This section should: (a) clearly indicate either the sampling procedure or observational subjects; (b) give appropriate references for established techniques and procedures; (c) new techniques and procedures and extensive modifications of existing ones should be presented in sufficient details so that other researchers can easily reproduce and evaluate them; (d) indicate appropriate quality control procedures used for laboratory methods and techniques; (e) indicate ethical procedures if either human subjects were involved [if informed consent was obtained from each subject] or if appropriate guide line for using laboratory animals were followed [see editorial policies above]; (f) indicate statistical methods used, if any.

Results: Data obtained should be presented in logical sequence in the text, tables and figures should be adequately explained to facilitate their interpretation. Avoid duplicating the results by repeating in the text all the data presented in the tables and figures. Import to include the values on all figures/ graphs. Cutting and pasting of figures or graphs is not acceptable. The text in the results section should only emphasize or summarize the important data.

Discussion: Major findings should be highlighted before the minor findings. All findings should be related to other relevant studies, if any, using appropriate references. Indicate the implications of the findings and their significance or limitations, including implications for future research. When warranted, propose new hypotheses with appropriate data, but be sure to clearly label them as such.

Conclusions: should be linked with the goals of the study and be clearly supported by evidence / data. Include recommendations, if applicable.

Acknowledgements:

The following should be acknowledged: Research or other financial grants; Material support, Contributions of Institutions, Colleagues, and other relevant participants.

References:

The Pacific Journal of Medical Sciences uses the Vancouver system of referencing. The references should be numbered, using Arabic numerals in square brackets [ ], in the order in which they are first used in the text, tables, figures, and legends.

In the reference section, list the references in the order of appearance in the text, tables, figures and legends.

Abstracts, unpublished data, oral communications, and personal communications should not be included in the reference section.

All references should be verified against the original documents.

In the reference section, the names of all authors should be included. Avoid using “et al.” in the reference section. Names of journals should be abbreviated, using the approved style indicated in Index Medicus/PubMed.

References should be listed according to the examples given below:

Journal articles:

Gima E and Vince JD. The Brixia Chest X-Ray Severity Score in Adult Patients with Symptomatic COVID-19 Infection: A Useful Guide to Management: Pac J Med Sci. Vol. 23, No 2, January 2023: 16 – 24.

Book:

Berdanier, C.D., & Berdanier, L.A. (2021). Advanced Nutrition: Macronutrients, Micronutrients, and Metabolism (3rd ed.). CRC Press.

Chapter in a Book:

Delange F, Dunn JT. Iodine deficiency. In: The Thyroid. A Fundamental of Clinical Text. L E Braverman and R T Utiger eds. Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins publ. Philadelphia: 2005. pp 264 – 288.

Published proceedings paper:

Kruse JD. Basic principles of zinc metabolism. In: Kruse-Jarres JD, Scholmerich J, editors. Zinc and diseases of the digestive tract. Proceedings of an International workshop, Australia, 2019: 3 – 15.

Tables:

Tables should be numbered sequentially in Arabic numerals, typed single-space and included within the appropriate section in the text of the manuscript. Vertical lines can be used to separate columns. Each table should be self-contained with a comprehensive but concise legend/heading; column headings should be brief, with units in parenthesis. All non-standard abbreviations used in tables should be explained in footnotes, using the following symbols in this sequence: *, §, ¶, #, $.

Illustrations:

Graphs, line drawings, bar charts, maps, etc., should be labelled as ‘figures’ and numbered consecutively, using Arabic numerals. All figures should be drawn using computer graphics, do not copy and paste figures. Legends should be brief but understandable without referring to the text. Photographs should be black and white or colored, sharp, glossy, black and white prints. Photographs can contain scale bars, but not magnifications. Figures, reproduced from another source, should be clearly indicated and appropriate references and written permission from the copyright holder must be submitted with the manuscript.

Electronic copy of manuscripts (e-mail):

When a manuscript is accepted for publication, the corresponding author will be required to send an electronic copy of the corrected or modified manuscript by email. All email attachments should be scanned with anti-virus software before sending. Automatic software for referencing, footnotes, headers, footers, etc., should NOT be used during formatting.

All manuscripts should be formatted using MS WORD on A 4 size paper.

GALLEY PROOFS:

Galley proof will be sent by email to the correspondent author. Only minor corrections should be made, no major alterations to the manuscript will be accepted. Galley proof should be returned within 7 working days from the date of receipt. If any major modification is made, the manuscript will be rejected at this stage. Correspondent author should correct all printing errors and ensure that the typesetting is accurate in the galley proof. Note that the correspondent author, not the editorial board of the Pacific Journal of Medical Sciences will be responsible for any such errors, should they occur in the published paper.

REPRINTS:

Reprints will not be sent to authors, because the PJMS is an on-line journal. The Web-link will be sent by email to the corresponding author. The full copy of the journal and individual papers in the journal will be available for downloading from the website. Authors are free to download and print the journal at their own expense.

Manuscripts accepted for publication in The Pacific Journal of Medical Sciences become the property of the journal. Therefore, all authors are requested to indicate that the copyright is transferred to the journal. The copyright gives the journal the exclusive rights to reproduce, translate and distribute the article only for academic purposes.

CHECKLIST FOR AUTHORS:

Running title included (Can be omitted if not applicable);
Abstract prepared according to instructions and include key words;
Manuscript typed double-space on A 4 with normal margin;
References cited in square brackets in text and listed according to approved style for this journal; Uniform spelling throughout the text;
Tables and Figs located in the appropriate section within the text of the manuscript;
Covering letter written as required by this journal;
E-mail address of corresponding author indicated .