GUIDE FOR AUTHORS
1. Manuscript Submission
Manuscript Submission at Foundation University Medical Journal (FUMJ) is online via the OJS only. We do not accept submissions via email, nor hard copies by hand or post. All manuscripts must be submitted by the corresponding author. The instruction for using OJS can be found at https://docs.pkp.sfu.ca/learning-ojs/en/authoring.
If you have trouble uploading and submitting the manuscript, email us at fumj@fui.edu.pk for guidance. The office contact details are given below:
Editorial Office
Foundation University Medical Journal (FUMJ)
Foundation University Medical College
Foundation University School of Health Sciences
Defense Avenue, DHA Phase 1
Islamabad, Pakistan
UAN: +92-51-111 384 (FUI) 111
Phone: +92-51-5788171 Extension: 207
All manuscripts submitted for publication must be accompanied by a cover letter certifying the originality of the work, freedom from conflict of interest, and conduct of research per ethical guidelines established for human subjects and animal welfare. Please note that no article will be processed without a Cover Letter, Ethical Approval, and Authorship & Conflict of Interest Statement Form. Upon initial submission, the team confirms if all the valid documents are present and complete. If the submission is incomplete, the article is returned to the author for completion. The authors will have two weeks to complete the submission. Failure to do so within the time limit will result in the automatic deletion of the article from the online submission system without prior notice. There is no publication fee to submit or publish content in FUMJ.
2. Manuscript Preparation and Format
The main document with the manuscript text and tables should be prepared with MS Word in proper and clear British English. This journal adheres to a double-blinded peer-review policy. The title page should NOT be included in the main document. The manuscript text should be typewritten in double-spaced, 12-point font, Alignment justified throughout, Continuous line numbers, Times New Roman on A4 sized paper with 2.5 cm margins on the top, bottom, right, and left. Page numbers should be added at the bottom right corner.
The arrangement of the sections is as follows: Title Page, Abstract and Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgments (if any), Disclaimer, Conflict of Interest, Ethical statement, Funding Disclosure, Supplementary Materials (if any), Authors’ contributions, References, Tables, and Figures with Legend for Figures. Make sure to start each section on a new page. Tables and figures should be included at the end of the manuscript and not in the middle of the text. Additional material, which is not pivotal, but supporting in nature to the theme of the manuscript, can be submitted as “Supplementary Material” and will be published only online (not in print).
Authors should be limited the use of abbreviations to a minimum. Abbreviations are not to be used in titles. Abstracts may contain abbreviations for terms mentioned many times in the Abstract, but each abbreviation must be defined the first time it is used. Do not start a sentence with a number. Drug and chemical names should be stated in standard chemical or generic nomenclature. Units of measure should be presented according to the International System (SI) of Units. All units must be preceded by one space except percentage (%) and temperature (°C). Descriptions of genes or related structures in a manuscript should include the names and official symbols provided by the US National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) or the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee. For generic and brand names of medicine, use generic names. If a brand name should be used, insert it in parentheses after the generic name. Failure to do so may result in delays or manuscript unsubmission.
3. Manuscript Types
The types of manuscript accepted for publication in FUMJ includes;
Original Article: These include randomized controlled trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, outcome studies, cost-effectiveness analyses, case-control series, and surveys with high response rates.
Structured abstract: 250 words (Structured format: Objectives, Materials and Methods, Results, Conclusions) with 3 to 6 MeSH keywords.
Maximum word count of text: 3500 words
Maximum of 25 references with at least half from the previous five years.
Maximum 4 allowed tables and figures
Use the following section headings in the main text: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. This is followed by Acknowledgments (if any), Disclaimer, Conflict of Interest, Ethical statement, Funding Disclosure, Supplementary Materials (if any), Authors’ contributions, References, Tables, and Figures with legends for Figures. Do not use any other sub-headings.
State clearly when and where the study was conducted.
Quote the ethical approval and informed consent, if applicable.
A clinical trial number should be included for all randomized controlled trials
Narrative Review: A narrative or traditional literature review is a comprehensive, critical, and objective analysis of the current knowledge on a topic. It is expected that these articles would be written preferably by individuals who have done substantial work on the subject or are considered experts in the field.
Unstructured abstract (i.e., no subheadings): 250 words with 3 to 6 MeSH keywords.
Maximum word count of text 4500 words
Maximum of 75 references with at least half from the previous five years.
Maximum 3 allowed tables or figures
Follow a logical sequence and use sub-headings as required
FUMJ does not accept narrative review articles written by undergraduate students
Make sure to state any acknowledgements, disclaimer, conflicts of interest, and funding disclosure.
Systematic Reviews: A systematic review attempts to identify, appraise and synthesize all the empirical evidence that meets pre-specified eligibility criteria to answer a specific research question. Researchers conducting systematic reviews use explicit, systematic methods that are selected with a view aimed at minimizing bias, to produce more reliable findings to inform decision making.
Structured abstract: 250 words (Structured format: same as the original article) with 3 to 6 MeSH keywords.
Maximum word count of text 4500 words
Maximum of 75 references
Maximum 4 allowed tables or figures
Section headings of the main text should be the same as the original article.
The manuscript should be written following PRISMA guidelines.
Meta-Analysis: Meta-analysis is a systematic review of a focused topic in the literature that provides a quantitative estimate of the effect of a treatment intervention or exposure. It includes the use of statistical methods to summarize the results of independent studies. By combining information from all relevant studies, meta-analysis can provide more precise estimates of the effects of health care than those derived from the individual studies included within a review. Not all systematic reviews contain meta-analysis.
Structured abstract: 250 words (Structured format: Same as the original article) with 3 to 6 MeSH keywords.
Maximum word count of text 4500 words
Maximum of 75 references
Maximum 3 allowed tables or figures
Section headings of the main text should be the same as the original article.
The manuscript should be written following PRISMA guidelines.
Case Report: These are short discussions of a case or case series with unique features not previously described that make an important teaching point or scientific observation. They may describe novel techniques or use of equipment, or new information on diseases of importance.
Unstructured abstract (i.e., no subheadings): 150 words with 3 to 6 MeSH keywords.
Maximum word count of text 1250 words
Maximum of 20 references
Maximum 2 allowed tables or figures
Section headings of the main text should be Introduction, Case Report (state clearly when the case was seen, describe the follow-up of the patient), Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgments (if any), Disclaimer, Conflict of Interest, Ethical statement, Funding
Disclosure, Supplementary Materials (if any), Authors’ contribution, References, Tables, and Figures with Legend for Figures. Do not use any other sub-headings.
Ensure that a statement is present within the text of your manuscript which declares that the consent of the patient/guardian was taken before the writing of the manuscript. FUMJ does not require a signed patient consent form; however, keep it with you in case the journal asks for it in the future to verify this.
F. Short Communication: These reports should be concise presentations of preliminary experimental results, instrumentation and analytical techniques, or aspects of clinical or experimental practice that are not fully investigated, verified, or perfected but which may be of widespread interest or application. The Editors reserve the right to decide what constitutes Short Communication.
Unstructured abstract: 150 words with 3 to 6 MeSH keywords.
Maximum word count of text 1500 words
Maximum of 10 references
Maximum 2 allowed tables or figures
Use the following three headings in the main text: Introduction, Patients/Materials and Methods, Results, and Conclusion. This is followed by Acknowledgments (if any), Disclaimer, Conflict of Interest, Ethical statement, Funding Disclosure, Supplementary Materials (if any), Authors’ contributions, References, Tables, and Figures with legends for Figures. Do not use any other sub-headings.
Letter to the Editor: These should be short and decisive observations or a short comment on a previously published article within the journal. A letter to the Editor is a brief report that is within the journal's scope and of particular interest to the community, but is not suitable as a standard research article. They should not be preliminary observations that need a later paper for validation.
Abstract and keywords: Not required.
Maximum word count of text: 500 words
Maximum of 5 recent references
Maximum 1 allowed table or figure
Should not be signed by more than 3 authors
No section heading is required in the main text however, state Acknowledgement (if any), Disclaimer, Conflict of Interest, Ethical Statement, Funding Disclosure and Authors Contribution before the References.
Letters to the Editor may be edited for clarity or length and may be subject to peer review at the Editors' discretion.
4. Reporting Guidelines
Authors are strongly encouraged to refer to the scientific reporting guidelines for health research, hosted by the EQUATOR Network (Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research).
Authors should adhere to these scientific reporting guidelines when drafting their manuscripts. Separate guidelines are available for each study design and topic under study. Although FUMJ has not submitted these checklists mandatory, doing so will aid in the processing of the manuscripts. The most used study design methods are STROBE (Observational Studies in Epidemiology e.g., cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies), CONSORT (Randomized Control Trials), TREND (Non-Randomized Controlled Trials), PRISMA (Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses), MOOSE (Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies), CARE (Case Reports), ORION
(Infection Control Intervention Studies), STARD (Diagnostic Accuracy Studies), and SPIRIT (Study Protocols). If you are not sure which guideline to use, use the new tool developed by EQUATOR Network and Penelope Research to guide the authors.
5. General Guidelines
A. Title Page
The title page should contain the following information (in order, from the top to bottom of the page): Article category, article title, names (spelt out in full) of all authors*, and the institutions with which they are affiliated; indicate all affiliations with a superscripted Arabic numeral after the author's name and in front of the matching affiliation, email addresses of all the authors and corresponding author details in the last (name, e-mail, mailing address, telephone, and fax numbers).
*The name of each author should be written with the family name last, e.g., Hamida Jamil, and authorship is restricted only to direct participants who have contributed significantly to the work; each author may list a maximum of 3 affiliations only.
B. Abstract and Keywords
An abstract (no longer than 250 words) and 3-6 relevant keywords (in alphabetical order) are required for the following article categories: Original Articles, Narrative Reviews, Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis. For Case Reports and Short Communications, an abstract should be no longer than 150 words and 3-6 relevant keywords.
Abstracts for Narrative Reviews, Case Reports, and Short Communications should be unstructured (in one single paragraph with no section headings) and include information on the background/purpose of the report, methods, results (or case report), and conclusions.
Abstracts for Original Articles, Systematic Reviews and meta-analyses should be structured into the following sections:
Objective: Briefly explain the importance of the study topic and state a precise study question/purpose/objective.
Materials and methods: Briefly introduce the methods used to perform the study; include information on the study design, setting, subjects, interventions, outcome measures, and analyses as appropriate.
Results: Briefly present the significant results, with data and statistical details such as p-values where appropriate; be sure that information in the abstract matches that in the main text.
Conclusion: State the meaning of your findings, be careful to address the study question directly, and confine your conclusions to aspects covered in the abstract; give equal emphasis to positive and negative findings.
Keywords should be taken from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus
No abstract or keywords are required for Correspondence and Letters to the Editor.
C. Main Text
The main text for Original Articles, Systematic Reviews, Meta-analysis and Short Communications should be organized into the following sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. This is followed by Acknowledgments (if any), Disclaimer, Conflict of Interest, Ethical statement, Funding Disclosure, Supplementary Materials (if any), Authors’ contributions, References, Tables, and Figures with legends for Figures. Sub-headings are not allowed however, for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis, following PRISMA guidelines, the author can use sub-headings for clarification and ease of reading.
Sections for Case Reports are Introduction, Case Report (state clearly when the case was seen, describe the follow-up of the patient), Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgments (if any), Disclaimer, Conflict of Interest, Ethical statement, Funding Disclosure, Supplementary Materials (if any), Authors’ contribution, References, Tables, and Figures with Legend for Figures. Do not use any other sub-headings. For all article categories, each section should begin on a new page.
D. Abbreviations
Where a term/definition will be continually referred to, it must be written in full when it first appears in the text, followed by the subsequent abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter, the abbreviation may be used. An abbreviation should not be first defined in any section heading; if an abbreviation has previously been defined in the text, then the abbreviation may be used in a subsequent section heading. Restrict the number of abbreviations to those that are necessary and ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article. Ensure that an abbreviation so defined does appear later in the text (excluding in figures/tables), otherwise, it should be deleted.
E. Numbers
Numbers that begin a sentence or those that are less than 10 should be spelt out using letters. Centuries and decades should be spelt out, e.g., the Eighties or nineteenth century. Laboratory parameters, time, temperature, length, area, mass, and volume should be expressed using digits.
F. Units
Système International (SI) units must be used, except for blood pressure values which are to be reported in mmHg. Please use the metric system for the expression of length, area, mass, and volume. Temperatures are to be given in degrees Celsius.
G. Names of Drugs, Devices and Other Products
Use the Recommended International Nonproprietary Name (rINN) for medicinal substances, unless the specific trade name of a drug is directly relevant to the discussion. Generic drug names should appear in lowercase letters in the text. If a specific proprietary drug needs to be identified,
the brand name may appear only once in the manuscript in parentheses following the generic name the first time the drug is mentioned in the text.
For devices and other products, the specific brand or trade name, the manufacturer, and their location (city, state, country) should be provided the first time the device or product is mentioned in the text, for example, "SPSS version 21 was used (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA)". Thereafter, the generic term (if appropriate) should be used.
H. Gene nomenclature
Current standard international nomenclature for genes should be adhered to. For human genes, use genetic notation and symbols approved by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee. Besides, you can also access The Human Genome Variation Society which guides naming mutations. In your manuscript, genes should be typed in italic font and include the accession number.
I. Statistical requirements
Statistical analysis is essential for all research papers except Narrative Reviews and Case Reports. Use correct nomenclature of statistical methods (e.g., two-sample t-test, not unpaired t-test). Descriptive statistics should follow the scales used in the data description. Inferential statistics are important for interpreting results and should be described in detail. All p-values should be presented to the third decimal place for accuracy. The smallest p-value that should be expressed is p < 0.001 since additional zeros do not convey useful information; the largest p-value that should be expressed is p > 0.99.
J. Personal communications and unpublished data
These sources cannot be included in the references list but may be described in the text. The author(s) must give the full name and highest academic degree of the person, the date of the communication, and indicate whether it was in oral or written (letter, fax, e-mail) form. A signed statement of permission should be included from each person identified as a source of information in a personal communication or as a source for unpublished data.
K. Tables
Tables should supplement, not duplicate, the text. They should have a concise table heading, be self-explanatory, and be numbered consecutively in the order of their citation in the text. Items requiring explanatory footnotes should be denoted using superscripted lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.), with the footnotes arranged under the table in alphabetical order. Asterisks (*, **) are used only to indicate the probability level of tests of significance. Abbreviations used in the table must be defined and placed after the footnotes in alphabetical order. If you include a block of data or table from another source, whether published or unpublished, you must acknowledge the original source by adding a credit line as the first footnote beneath each table. This credit line should be a complete bibliographical listing of the source publication (as a reference), or other credit lines as supplied by the copyright holder. For example, “Reprinted with permission from Calfee DR,
Wispelwey B. Brain abscess. Semin Neurol 2000;20:357.” (“Data from . . .” or “Adapted from . . .” may also be used, as appropriate.)
Do not intersperse tables in the text. Tables should appear before the figure legends. Insert a page break between the end of the table and the start of the figure legends. If a table contains artwork, supply the artwork separately as a digital file.
L. Figures
General guidelines
The number of figures should be restricted to the minimum necessary to support the textual material. Figures should have an informative figure legend and be numbered in the order of their citation in the text. All symbols and abbreviations should be defined in the figure legend in alphabetical order. Items requiring explanatory footnotes should follow the same style as that for tables as described in Section "Tables". It is best to use Adobe Photoshop to create and save images, and Adobe Illustrator for line art and labels. Do not submit art created in Microsoft Excel, Word, or PowerPoint. These files cannot be used by the typesetter.
Unless you have written permission from the patient (or, where applicable, the next of kin), the personal details (such as their name, date of the birth, hospital or social security numbers, or other personal or identifying information) of the patient must be removed. If their face is shown, use a black bar to cover their eyes so that they cannot be identified.
All lettering should be done professionally and should be in proportion to the drawing, graph, or photograph. Photomicrographs must include an internal scale marker, and the legend should state the type of specimen, original magnification, and stain.
Figures must be submitted as separate picture files at the correct resolution. The files should be named according to the figure number, e.g., “Fig1.tif”, “Fig2.jpg”.
Images of patients or research subjects should not be used unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and explicit permission has been given as part of the consent. Even where consent has been given, identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential.
If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, authors should provide assurances that such alterations do not distort scientific meaning.
Formats
Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalized, please “save as” or convert the images to one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):
EPS: Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text as “graphics”.
TIFF: Color or grayscale photographs (halftones) — always use a minimum of 300 dpi (dots per inch).
TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings — use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF: Combination of bitmapped line/halftone (colour or grayscale) — a minimum of 600 dpi.
Black-and-white artwork can be halftone (or grayscale) photographs, radiographs, drawings, line art, graphs, and flowcharts. FUMJ/OJS will only accept digital artwork. For best results, line art should be black on a white background. Lines and types should be clean and evenly dark. Avoid screens or cross-hatching, as they can darken or be uneven in printing and lead to unacceptable printing quality. All colour artworks should be saved in CMYK, not RGB.
Please do not: Supply files that do not meet the resolution requirements detailed above; Supply files that are optimized for screen use (such as GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG) as the resolution is too low; Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.
Lower resolutions (less than 300 dpi) and JPEG format (.jpg extension) for grayscale and colour artwork are strongly discouraged due to the poor quality they yield in printing, which requires 300 dpi resolution for sharp, clear, detailed images. JPEG format, by definition, is a lower resolution (compressed) format designed for quick upload on computer screens.
Arrows, asterisks, and arrowheads (or other markers) should be white in dark or black areas and black in light or white areas, and large. If not, these highlighting marks may become difficult to see when figures are reduced in size during the typesetting process. Use 1-point (or thicker) rules and leader lines. Capitalize the first word of each label and all proper nouns. Consider using all capitals if you need a higher level of labels. Where there are alternate terms or spellings for a named structure, use the most common one and make sure it is consistent with what is used in the text. Avoid using multiple fonts and font sizes for the labels; use only one or two sizes of a serif font.
M. Acknowledgments
After the conclusion section, general acknowledgements for consultations and statistical analyses should be listed concisely, including the names of the individuals who were directly involved. Consent should be obtained from those individuals before their names are listed in this section. Those acknowledged should not include secretarial, clerical, or technical staff whose participation was limited to the performance of their normal duties.
N. Conflict of Interest
It is required that a list of disclosures from every named author is submitted alongside the manuscript. In it, each author should identify any financial or non-financial conflicts relevant to the article. If no conflicts exist, please state so in this section.
O. Funding Disclosure
All sources of grants received, and their spending should be disclosed. If there is no funding disclosure, authors should still include this heading and write “The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.”
