Instructions to author
The Journal of Fatima Jinnah Medical University (JFJMU) welcomes contributions in the form of original articles and case reports from all biomedical disciplines, including but not limited to medicine, public health, trauma, medical education, surgery, pathology, infectious diseases, allied health sciences, dentistry, nursing, epidemiology, pharmacology, biochemistry, and microbiology. Manuscripts must adhere to international standards of ethical conduct, reporting, and scientific rigor.
This page contains information regarding preparation of the manuscript for submission, general formatting requirements, and authorship criteria. Information about the journal's policies:
Open access policy
Ethical considerations
Plagiarism policy
Peer review policy
Copyright policy
Privacy Statement
Funding and Revenue Sources
These can also be accessed via the Policies tab in the menu bar.
The sections below provide important information on manuscript submission and formatting, as well as ethical considerations. Therefore, authors are strongly advised to read these guidelines and prepare manuscripts accordingly before submitting the manuscript for consideration to JFJMU to avoid any unnecessary delays. Manuscripts not prepared according to these guidelines will be returned to the authors for changes before proceeding any further. Only those manuscripts that will be of scientific importance and substantiate the existing knowledge will be accepted for publication.
1. GENERAL SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Manuscripts should be submitted in electronic form through the online submission system under the submission drop-down menu above.
The following documents are mandatory:
1.1. Cover Letter
The cover letter must:
· Be addressed to Editor-in-Chief,
· Confirm that the manuscript is original, unpublished, and not under consideration elsewhere
· Confirm that all authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript
· Briefly describe the novelty and significance of the study
· Signed by the corresponding author on behalf of all co-authors
· Names and contact details of 3-5 international subject experts
1.2. Author Contribution and Declaration form
The undertaking form is available under the "Submission" drop-down menu above.
· The form should be signed by all the authors
· Should clearly define individual contributions in line with ICMJE authorship criteria
1.3. AI Disclosure (Mandatory)
In line with the updated ICMJE guidelines, authors must disclose AI use in the manuscript and submit an AI disclosure form (available in the submission menu). The AI disclosure will be published in the article.
1.4. Reporting Guidelines (Mandatory)
Authors must follow appropriate reporting standards from the EQUATOR Network, including:
· CONSORT (randomized trials)
· STROBE (observational studies)
· PRISMA (systematic reviews)
· CARE (case reports)
A completed checklist must be submitted where applicable.
1.5. Ethical Compliance
· Studies involving humans/animals must include ethical approval details
· Informed consent must be explicitly stated
· Clinical trials must be registered in a recognized registry (e.g., WHO ICTRP)
Please also review the journal's ethical policies.
2. MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
The manuscript should be written in English using Microsoft™ Word on an A4-size page, with margins of 1 inch on each side, and should use an appropriate font style (e.g., Times New Roman) in size 12.
The lines should be double-spaced and numbered consecutively. Pages should be numbered consecutively beginning with the title page.
3. MANUSCRIPT STRUCTURE
The body of the manuscript must be structured according to the headings given below (see sections 2.1 to 2.10 for the preparation of the manuscripts):
3.1. Title page
The first page of the manuscript must contain the following information:
· Title (concise and informative)
· Full author names and affiliations
· Corresponding author name and email address under "Correspondence to:" heading
· Short running title (<50 characters)
For case reports, it is recommended that the number of authors be limited to three. For complete authorship criteria and ethical issues, please see "Authorship criteria" at the bottom of the page. Authors should also enter complete/correct names of the authors, affiliations, and email addresses while submitting the manuscript online.
3.2. Conflict-of-interest statement
All authors should declare any conflict of interest involved in the study. In case of no conflict of interest, the following statement must be included in the manuscript:
"All authors declared no conflict of interest exists."
3.3. Abstract
All original articles must contain a structured abstract of not more than 300 words. Break it into four paragraphs:
Background: State why the study was done, and its objectives.
Methods: Describe research participants or patients, laboratory materials, and other methods used. It is important to identify the study design (e.g., randomised controlled trial).
Results: State the main findings of the study; include important numerical values.
Conclusion: State the main conclusion drawn from the results of the study. A non-structured abstract should be written in case of a case report with keywords.
Keywords
Three to six keywords should be provided under the abstract, using the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) classification. The first word of each keyword should be capitalised, and a semicolon must separate them.
3.4. Introduction
It should briefly state the purpose of the study and cite the latest references (preferably from the last 5 years) from the literature, as required.
3.5. Subjects and Methods (or Patients and Methods for clinical studies or Materials and Methods for lab-based studies)
It should explain the methodology in sufficient detail so that readers and reviewers can understand precisely what has been done. It should provide information on the study design and methods, diagnostic criteria, the population or patient sample, and the laboratory and statistical methods used.
The author must also obtain a certificate from their respective institutional, regional, or national ethical review committee(s). The name of the committee, certificate number and approval date must also be mentioned in the manuscript. An ethical approval certificate must be submitted along with the manuscript for the record. The process of obtaining informed consent must also be briefly explained, along with any other practices as the study design requires.
Authors are required to register clinical trials in a suitable publicly available registry, such as the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform or the U.S. NLM Clinical Trials Registry. In the case of registration, the registry name and the clinical trial number must be mentioned in the methodology section.
3.6. Results
Authors should present the study's results concisely and logically. Results should not be duplicated in the tables and figures.
3.7. Discussion
It should state conclusions based on the findings, evidence from the literature that supports or conflicts with the conclusions, the applicability of the conclusions, and implications for future research and clinical applications. Highlight strengths, limitations and implications of the study.
3.8. Acknowledgements
All those who contributed intellectually but do not qualify for authorship should be acknowledged, as per the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (available at: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/).
3.9. Supporting agency
It is mandatory to disclose any funding received to support the research work submitted for publication in JFJMU. Disclosure will not only acknowledge the contributions of the funding agency but also promote transparency in the process. Therefore, all authors are required to individually declare all sources of funding they received for the research work under consideration. In case of funding, the following information must be provided in the manuscript: name of the funding agency, the role of the funding agency in research work, and the web address of the funding agency. The information should be provided in the form of one or two sentences that will be published in the manuscript. Authors are required to declare any role played by the funding agency in writing the methodology, data collection, preparation of the manuscript, and decision to publish the article. If no funding is received, authors should write "No funds received" in the supporting agency field in the manuscript file as well as in the metadata while submitting online.
3.10. Author Contribution Statement
All manuscripts must include a detailed Author Contributions statement specifying the individual roles of each author in accordance with ICMJE guidelines. Authors are encouraged to use standardised contributor roles (e.g., conceptualisation, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, writing—original draft, writing—review & editing, supervision, funding acquisition). Each listed author must have made substantial contributions to the work and must meet all four ICMJE authorship criteria. The contribution statement should be included in the manuscript (before the references section) and must clearly indicate the specific responsibilities of each author using their initials according to the CRediT taxonomy. All authors share responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the work.
2.11. References
The authors should follow the Vancouver Style in both the text and reference sections. The first six authors should be listed; however, for seven or more authors, list the first six, followed by "et al." In-text citations should be indicated with appropriate superscript and bold number(s), for example, Heart3,6,9, Dengue4-6,25, 30.
Help may be obtained from the ICMJE recommendations available online and from the citing guidelines at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/citingmedicine. The list of references should be double-spaced, in consecutive numerical order (the order of citation in the manuscript, not alphabetically). Once a reference is cited, all subsequent citations should refer to the original numbers. Unpublished data and personal communications will not be accepted as references. References to journal articles should be included in the following order:
(1) authors, (2) title of the published article, (3) journal name abbreviation, as mentioned in Index Medicus (for more information, please see: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals), (4) year of publication, (5) volume, (6) issue number and page number(s), while (7) publisher, volume and edition number must be mentioned in case of book.
4. TABLES AND FIGURES
4.1. Figures
All figures should be numbered as cited in the text in consecutive numeric order (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2, and so on). The photographs/images must be high-resolution (preferably in TIFF or BMP format) for final printing. Authors are required to incorporate figures and legends in the same file at the time of initial submission. However, after acceptance of the manuscript for publication, the high-quality figures (300dpi to 600dpi) must be submitted separately. Figure legends should be detailed enough to explain the figure completely.
For photomicrographs, the legends should include the original magnification and scale used. The photographs should be clear and high-resolution. Gel diagrams should be high-resolution, properly labelled, and submitted in TIFF or BMP format. Gel diagrams labelled in Microsoft Word in the text form will not be acceptable.
4.2. Tables
All Tables should be numbered as cited in the text in consecutive numeric order (e.g. Table 1, Table 2, and so on). Tables should be simple and supplement, not duplicate, information already provided in the text. Authors should verify tabular statistics to ensure they tally with and match the data cited in the text. Any abbreviations and symbols, if used, should be explained in the footnotes.
For smaller datasets, authors are advised to prepare charts and figures; for larger datasets, they may be summarised in tables.
4.2 UNITS AND NOMENCLATURE
All units of measurement (except blood pressure) and laboratory values must be expressed in SI units.
Species names of the organisms (animals, plants, microorganisms, etc.) given in the manuscripts must be italicised (e.g. Staphylococcus aureus (or S. aureus), etc.).
5. AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA
Authorship should be based on intellectual contribution as per the criteria given in the recommendations of the International Committee for Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE):
1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or the integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
All the authors listed in the manuscript should meet all four criteria listed above. All authors must declare their contributorship in the undertaking form. "Acquisition of funding, collection of data or general supervision of the research group alone does not justify authorship (ICMJE)."
JFJMU generally discourages additions/removals or changes in the order of byline authors after submission of the manuscript; however, it follows COPE guidelines in such matters. The journal will not consider multiple submissions and duplicate publications.
6. PUBLICATION ETHICS
JFJMU adheres to:
· Committee on Publication Ethics
· Plagiarism screening (mandatory)
· No duplicate or redundant publication
7. COMPLAINT PROCESS
The Journal of Fatima Jinnah Medical University is committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical conduct in all aspects of scholarly publishing. If an author has a complaint regarding the publication process or the content of a published article, the following procedures should be followed:
1. The author should submit a detailed complaint in writing to the Editor-in-Chief, providing specific details of the concerns raised.
2. The Editor-in-Chief will acknowledge receipt of the complaint within two weeks and will initiate an investigation into the matter. This may involve seeking input from relevant parties, such as peer reviewers, editorial board members, or the publisher.
3. The Editor-in-Chief will provide the author with a written response outlining the outcome of the investigation, including any actions that will be taken to address the issue.
4. If the author is dissatisfied with the investigation's outcome, they may submit a formal appeal to the publisher, which will review the case and issue a final decision.
The Journal of Fatima Jinnah Medical University is committed to promptly and fairly handling author complaints and to ensuring that any issues raised are addressed appropriately to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record.
8. APPEAL PROCESS
If an author is dissatisfied with the outcome of a complaint investigation, they may submit a formal appeal to the publisher. The following procedures should be followed:
1. The author should submit a written appeal to the publisher within 30 days of receiving the outcome of the investigation, outlining the reasons for the appeal and providing any additional evidence or information.
2. The publisher will acknowledge receipt of the appeal within two weeks and will initiate a review of the case. This may involve seeking input from relevant parties, such as the Editor-in-Chief, peer reviewers, or members of the editorial board.
3. The publisher will provide the author with a written response outlining the outcome of the review, including any actions that will be taken to address the issue.
4. If the author is still dissatisfied with the outcome, they may request a further review by an independent body, such as a committee appointed by a relevant professional society or association.
The Journal of Fatima Jinnah Medical University is committed to handling appeals promptly and fairly, and to ensuring that any issues raised are addressed appropriately to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record.
9. ARCHIVING POLICY
The journal is committed to providing uninterrupted access to published articles to the research community; therefore, journal backups are maintained on the publisher's domain. However, a suitable archive facility will be adopted (e.g., CLOCKSS or PubMed) in the near future.
10. PUBLICATION CHARGES
Only a minimal fee is charged to the authors to cover printing costs; therefore, it will not be possible to grant any waivers. Details of the Article Processing Charges (APC) are given below:
For submissions from Pakistan
Initial processing fee (nonrefundable): PKR 1500
Printing fee: PKR 8500
For international submissions
Initial processing fee (nonrefundable): $10
Printing fee: $85
An additional Rs. 1000 (or $10) per figure will be charged for more than two colored figures. Printing fee will be charged only upon acceptance of the manuscript for publication.
Payments in cash will not be accepted, and all payments, including processing fee, printing fee, subscription charges, and any other payments, should be made only to the following official bank account:
Bank Account Title: Journal of FJMU
Bank Account Branch: HBL Queen's Road, Opposite Emergency Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore
Bank Account Number: 12527901543703
(Author guidelines were reviewed on 11 April, 2026)
