Gomal Journal of Medical Sciences

Focus and Scope

AIM

Promotion of research in medical and allied sciences in local, national, regional and global context.

SCOPE

Subject areas in medical sciences;

1. Basic Medical Sciences
2. Public Health 
3. Clinical Sciences
4. Dentistry & Nursing
5. Health Professions  Education

Subject areas in allied sciences, when related to human health;

1. Pharmacy
2. Microbiology

Section Policies

Editorial

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Original Articles

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Students' Corner Original Articles

To facilitate and promote research culture in under graduate and post graduate medical & allied specialties students.

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Review Article

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Case Report

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Letter to Editor

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Peer Review Process

Gomal Journal of Medical Sciences (GJMS) is a double blind, peer-reviewed journal. Each manuscript is reviewed by a panel of two experts in the field, one from Pakistan and another from a developed country. The comments of reviewers are conveyed to the authors for incorporation of the reviewers’ comments. Further evaluation is conducted by the respective editors and finally by the chief editor. If accepted, authors are informed and manuscripts are kept on the waiting list for publication. In case of rejection, authors are informed and the manuscripts are archived.

Publication Frequency

Quarterly.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.

The contents of all the 62 issues from Vol. 1 to Vol. 21, from year 2003 to 2023 are archived and available in LOCKSS  Publisher Manifest Page  in Public Knowledge Project Private LOCKSS Network (PKP PLN).

GJMS Crossmark Policy Statement

DOI:10.46903/gjms/crossmark

The current literature may be questioned. Going through authors, reviewers and editors, when a research document is published, the global readers are supposed to have its critical review. With open access, research work is readily available to readers.  
“Crossmark is a multi-publisher initiative from Crossref to provide a standard way for readers to locate the current version of a piece of content. By applying the Crossmark logo, Gomal Journal of Medical Sciences (GJMS) is committing to maintaining the content it publishes, and to alerting readers to changes if and when they occur. Clicking on the Crossmark logo will tell you the current status of a document, and may also give you additional publication record information about the document.”

Each content published in GJMS will bear a Crossmark. In case of minor changes in the contents such as spelling corrections or formatting changes, it will stay as current. In case of editorially significant changes that are likely to affect “the interpretation or crediting of the work”, its status will be updated. There are 12 defined types of accepted updates within Crossmark:
1. Addendum
2. Clarification
3. Correction
4. Corrigendum
5. Erratum
6. Expression of concern
7. New edition
8. New version
9. Partial retraction
10. Removal
11. Retraction
12. Withdrawal
Any such update in the contents will be published as a regular document in the coming issue, bearing regular pagination and DOI, with a link to its parent content/ document/ work. 
Readers are encouraged to submit their comments regarding our published work as “Editorial Correspondence”. These comments will be shared with the authors to respond and then these comments with author responses will be published in coming issue. If the authors could not respond/ explain properly, then editorial board will decide regarding the fate of that document. 

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

AUTHORSHIP DISPUTES

Acknowledgements

We encourage acknowledgement of contributions to a research work when authorship is not justified. The ICMJE guidelines state: ‘All others who contributed to the work who are not authors should be named in the Acknowledgments, and what they did should be described’. 

Number and order of authors

The number of authors can not be limited, but it should not be disproportionally more than the work conducted. The order of authors should is to be based on the contribution to the work. Number and order should be mutually agreed by all authors.

Principal and corresponding authors

The one with most contribution should be principal/ first author. Principal author may notify himself as corresponding author or he may designate another author for it with mutual consensus of all the authors.

Informed consent & maintaining the confidentiality of research participants

1. The authors must obtain appropriate consents, permissions and releases when they wish to include case details or other personal information or images of patients and any other individuals in their work to take care of the Data Protection and Privacy Laws of the concerned country/region.

2. Each individual, or the individual's legal guardian or other person with legal authority to act on the individual's behalf who appears in any video, recording, photograph, image, illustration or case report (or in any other identifiable form) is made aware in advance of the fact that such photographs are being taken or such video, recording, photograph, image, illustration or report is being made, and of all the purposes for which they might be used, including disclosure in any work or product. That individual, legal guardian or person with legal authority must give his/her explicit written consent. If such consent is made subject to any conditions (for example, adopting measures to prevent personal identification of the person concerned), the journal must be made aware in writing of all such conditions. Written consents must be retained by the author and copies of the consents or evidence that such consents have been obtained must be provided to this journal on request.

3. The form of written consent must comply with each requirement of all applicable Data Protection and Privacy Laws. Particular care should be taken with obtaining consent where children are concerned (in particular where a child has special needs or learning disabilities), where an individual's head or face appears, or where reference is made to an individual's name or other personal details.

4. In the case of a child, if parents or guardians disagree on the use of the images of that child, then consent should be deemed not to have been given and those images should not be used. It is also important to ensure that only images of children in suitable dress are used to reduce the risk of images being used inappropriately.

5. Even if consent has been obtained, care must be taken to ensure that the portrayal and captioning of the individual concerned are respectful and could not be seen as denigrating that individual.
6. Authors have to satisfy the editors that “informed consent to participate” was sought from all adult subjects or from parents/guardians of the subjects less than 16 years age.

7. Patients’ and research subjects’ names, initials, hospital or social security numbers, date of birth or other personal or identifying information should not be used.

8. Images of patients or research subjects should not be used unless it is essential for scientific purposes and that the patient (or parent/ guardian) has given written, informed consent for publication. Even where consent has been given, identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. Editors may ask to provide the written consent.

9. Informed consent is necessary when there is any doubt regarding anonymity.

10. When masking the subjects, the authors should ensure the editors that scientific meaning is not distorted.

11. Formal consents are not required for the use of entirely anonymised images from which the individual cannot be identified, e.g. X-rays, ultrasound images, pathology slides or laparoscopic images, provided that these do not contain any identifying marks and are not accompanied by text that might identify the individual concerned.

12. If consent has not been obtained, it is generally not sufficient to anonymise a photograph simply by using eye bars or blurring the face of the individual concerned.

13. Authors should follow the CARE guidelines for case reports.

Conflicts of interest/ Grant support and financial disclosure

1. All the authors have to disclose any conflict of interest and financial and personal relationships with other people, companies or organizations that may inappropriately influence (bias) their work.

2. Financial conflicts include, but not limited to employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patents or patent applications, and travel grants; all within three years of beginning the submitted work.

3. If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should state that.

4. Authors of study having some grant from some organization 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 collected and the accuracy of the data analysis. This statement should be submitted along with the manuscript.

5. The reviewers are also bound to declare any conflicts with the work they are requested to review.

6. This journal publishes conflicts of interest/ grant support and financial disclosure along with all published items.

Plagiarism Policy

Plagiarism is representation of language, text, thoughts, ideas, or expressions of some other authors as one’s own original work. It also includes self-plagiarism, which includes duplicate/ redundant publication, text recycling and salami slicing. GJMS follows COPE, ICMJE, & HEC (Higher Education Commission), Pakistan guidelines, standards and policies regarding plagiarism. GJMS checks the similarity index by using TURNITIN and the reports are conveyed to the authors if it is up to 50%. If it is >50%, it will be rejected without review and further processing. Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan requires a similarity of less than 20% for authenticity of the work. Authors can also submit the similarity report as supplementary file if they have already checked the manuscript using the same software. Attempt of plagiarism is academic dishonesty. If it is proved after the article is published, it will be retracted and the authors may be debarred permanently or temporarily and the parent institution may be intimated for departmental proceedings against the author. If it is proved before the publication, the current article will be rejected and the authors may be debarred for one or more years for future submissions in this journal.

Self-archiving Policy

Authors are permitted to deposit all versions of their paper in an institutional or subject repository:
1. Preprint
2. Author’s Accepted Manuscript
3. Version of Record
No embargo is applied.

Data Sharing Policy

Authors are encouraged to deposit their data in any public repository and share the information/ link under this heading at the end of the submitted manuscript.

 

Advertising & Direct Marketing Policy

This journal doesn’t allow advertisements & marketing.

Appeals Process

The readers may submit a formal appeal regarding any problem, including but not limited to any conflict, delays in review or publishing or article processing charges or rejection of manuscripts to the Chief Editor. He will refer it for investigation to the Appeals Committee to give recommendations to the Board for decision in the light of the Core Practices of COPE, COPE Guidelines and Policies of WAME and Council of Science Editors. The Committee is comprized of;

1. Prof. Dr. Ihsanullah Mahsud 

2. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Amin Jan Mahsud

3. Dr. Muhammad Akhlaq

Complaints Process

The readers may submit a formal complaint regarding any publication misconduct on the part of author, reviewer or Editor/ Editorial Board to the Chief Editor. He will refer it for investigation to the Complaints Process Committee to give recommendations to the Board for decision in the light of the Core Practices of COPE, COPE Guidelines and Policies of WAME and Council of Science Editors. The Committee is comprized of;

1. Prof. Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad 

2. Prof. Dr. Farmanullah Wazir

3. Dr. Javaid Hussain

Authorship Criteria

Gomal Journal of Medical Sciences (GJMS) follows the International Committee of Medical Journals Editor (ICMJE) guidelines for authorship criteria as “Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors” available at: http://www.icmje.org./recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html

The principal author must ensure that each author has sufficiently contributed to the work to qualify him as author. As per ICMJE guidelines one has to meet all the four criteria for the authorship as under.
1. Conception or design
2. Acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data
3. Manuscript writing and approval
4. All the authors agree 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
Authorship cannot be justified by merely arranging research grant, collection of data or general supervision of the project. Such activities may be otherwise acknowledged. The principal author has to submit the names and order of the authors with their contribution to the work at submission. No addition of authors is allowed later on. Authors’ contribution will be published with document. Any dispute in authorship will be settled by the editorial board in the light of ICMJE and COPE guidelines.
When a large, multi-center group has conducted the study, the group should clearly identify the authors who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These should fully meet the criteria for authorship defined above. When submitting a group author manuscript, the corresponding author should clearly identify all individual authors as well as the group name. Other members of the group should be listed in the acknowledgements. Change in authors’ names and their order cannot be allowed after submission.