Author & Submission Guidelines

Author & Submission Guidelines

Ethical Issues Regarding the Research Work:

Originality

Instructions to authors appear on the last page of each issue. Prospective authors should consult these before submitting their articles and other material for publication. The JBUMDC accepts only original material for publication with the understanding that except for abstracts, no part of the data has been published or will be submitted for publication elsewhere before appearing in this journal. However, a complete report following the publication of a preliminary report, usually in the form of an abstract, or a paper that has been presented at a scientific meeting, if not published in full in a proceeding or similar publication may be submitted. The Editorial Board makes every effort to ensure the accuracy and authenticity of material printed in the journal. However, conclusions and statements expressed are views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Editorial Board or the JBUMDC. Publishing of advertising material does not imply an endorsement by the JBUMDC.

 Ethical approval

Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. The submission of ethical/institutional approval letter is a mandatory requirement. The approval letter must contain the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate. Moreover, a statement including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number must also be mentioned in the manuscript. An example is shown below:

• The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Bahria University Medical and Dental College (Ref #. 43/2019).

If a study was granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption). Further information and documentation to support this should be made available to the Editor on request. Manuscripts may be rejected if the Editor considers that the research has not been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. In rare cases, the Editor may contact the given ethics committee for further information. In addition, the journal will not be approved studies without IRB approval or the manuscript with post-study IRB approval. The decision on whether to proceed to peer review in such cases is at the Editor's discretion.

Research Involving Human Subjects

When reporting on research that involves human subjects, human material, human tissues, or human data, authors must declare that the investigations were carried out following the rules of the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975 (https://www.wma.net/what- we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/), revised in 2013. According to point 23 of this declaration, an approval from an institutional ethics committee should have been obtained before undertaking the research. A statement including the project identification code, date of approval, and name of the ethics committee or institutional review board should be stated in methodology section of the manuscript.

Consent Policy

A written informed consent for publication must be obtained from participating patients who can be identified (including by the patients themselves). Patients’ initials or other personal identifiers must not appear in any images. For manuscripts that include any case details, personal information, and/or images of patients, authors must obtain signed informed consent from patients (or their relatives/guardians) before submitting the manuscript to JBUMDC. Patient details must be anonymized as far as possible, e.g., do not mention specific age, ethnicity, or occupation where they are not relevant to the conclusions. A blank version of the form used to obtain permission (without the patient names or signature) must be uploaded with your submission.

Ethical Guidelines for the Use of Animals in Research

In case the study is based on experiments on animals, authors will be asked to indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed or not. Manuscripts containing original research on animal subjects must have been approved by an institutional ethical review committee. The project identification code, date of approval and name of the ethics committee or institutional review board must be cited in the Methods Section. For research involving animals, any potentially derived benefits must be significant in relation to harm suffered by participating animals. Authors should particularly ensure that their research complies with the commonly accepted '3Rs':

• Replacement of animals by alternatives wherever possible;
• Reduction in number of animals used;
• Refinement of experimental conditions and procedures to minimize the harm to animals.

Clinical Trials Registration

JBUMDC follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines which require and recommend registration of clinical trials in a public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. Purely observational studies do not require registration. A clinical trial not only refers to studies that take place in a hospital, but also refer to all studies which involve participant randomization and group classification in the context of the intervention under assessment.

Authors are strongly encouraged to pre-register clinical trials with an international clinical trials register and cite a reference to the registration in the Abstract and Methods section. Suitable databases include; clinicaltrials.gov. Approval to conduct a study from an independent local, regional, or national review body is not equivalent to prospective clinical trial registration. JBUMDC reserves the right to decline any paper without trial registration for further peer-review.

Citation Policies

Authors should ensure that where material is taken from other sources (including their own published writing), the source is clearly cited and that where appropriate permission is obtained.

• Authors should not engage in excessive self-citation of their own work.
• Authors should not copy references from other publications if they have not read the cited work.
• If DOI ID is available for a certain article being referenced, it should be mentioned in the reference.
• Authors should not preferentially cite their own or their friends’, peers’, or institution’s publications.
• Authors should not cite advertisements or advertorial material.
  In accordance with COPE guidelines, the editorial team expects that “original wording taken directly from publications by other researchers should appear in quotation marks with the appropriate citations”. This condition also applies to an author’s own work. COPE have produced a discussion document on citation manipulation with recommendations for best practice. ( https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.3.1)

 

Formatting and Referencing Guidelines

1. Manuscript Layout

• Font: Times New Roman, 12 pt
• Spacing: Double (2.0)
• Margins: 1 inch on all sides
• Alignment: Left aligned
• Headings: Bold; follow journal hierarchy
• Page Numbers: Bottom-center or top-right
• Figures and Tables
• File Types: JPEG or TIFF
• Resolution: ≥300 DPI (color), ≥600 DPI (line art)
• Legends: In manuscript, with abbreviations explained
• Size Limit: ≤10 MB per file

1. Referencing

• Style: Vancouver
• In-text: Superscript numbers (e.g., ¹, ²)
• Reference List: Numbered sequentially
• Example:
• Smith J, Khan R. Effects of restorative materials. J Dent Res. 2024;103(2):101-7. doi:10.1000/jdr.2024.001

1. Units

• Use SI Units: g, mL, cm, °C, s
• Leave a space between number and unit (e.g., 10 mL).
• Do not pluralize units (e.g., 5 cm not 5 cms).

 

Workflow and Publication Process

Stepwise Process

Stage	Description
1. Initial Screening	Relevance, formatting, scope
2. Plagiarism & Ethics Check	Turnitin and IRB verification
3. Peer Review	Double-blind review
4. Statistical Review	Data accuracy check
5. Formatting & Referencing Review	Layout and citation compliance
6. Final Editorial Decision	Approval by Editor-in-Chief
7. Author Proofing	Author approval of final version
8. Publication	Online and print release

 

Updating Published Papers:

JBUMDC differentiate between Addendum, Erratum, Corrections and Retractions. Complaints made against papers or requests to update are thoroughly investigated by the Editorial Office with the support of the Editorial Board and final approval by the Editor-in-Chief. Other persons and institutions will be consulted as necessary, including university authorities, or experts in the field.

• Addendum
  If crucial results (e.g., additional affiliation, clarify some aspect of methods/analysis, etc) were unintentionally omitted from the original publication, the original article can be amended through an Addendum reporting these previously omitted results. The Addendum will be published, with article numbers added, in the current issue of the journal.
• Erratum
  Errata should be published for scientifically relevant formatting changes, or changes to authorship if the author or contributor list is incorrect when a deserving author has been omitted or somebody who does not meet authorship criteria has been included. Scientifically relevant formatting issues that require an Erratum might include missing or unclear figures, or errors introduced during proofreading (e.g., missing text). Minor errors that do not affect readability or meaning (e.g., spelling or grammatical errors) do not qualify for an Erratum. All authors should proofread the final version carefully.
• Corrections
  Corrections should be submitted for any scientifically relevant errors in published articles. Any changes may be evaluated by the Assistant Editor. Any changes after publication that affect the scientific interpretation (e.g., changes to a misleading portion of an otherwise reliable publication, an error in a figure, error in data that does not affect conclusions, or addition of missing details about a method) are announced using a Correction. This is a separate publication that links to the original paper, which is updated. A note will also be added to the abstract page, which tells the readers that an updated version was uploaded.
• Retractions

Sometimes an article needs to be completely removed from the body of research literature. This could be due to inadvertent errors made during the research process, gross ethical breaches, fabrication of data, large amounts of plagiarism, or other reasons. Such articles threaten the integrity of scientific records and need to be retracted. JBUMDC follows the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for retraction. Potential Retractions are thoroughly investigated by the Editorial Office with the support of the Editorial Board and final approval by the Editor-in-Chief. Other persons and institutions will be consulted as necessary, including university authorities, or experts in the field. If a Retraction is published, the original publication is amended with a “RETRACTED” watermark, but will still available on the journal’s website for future reference. However, retracted articles should not be cited and used for further research, as they cannot be relied upon. For published articles, the allegedly plagiarized article will be temporarily retracted from publication and a notice to the effect will be published in the JBUMDC. The author will be served an explanation demand and in case of non-response in the stipulated time or unsatisfactory explanation, the article will be permanently retracted and the author will be on watch. The Higher Education Commission, Pakistan Medical Council and author’s institute will also be notified.