Policy on publication of Annals of King Edward Medical University Lahore
Objectives:
I. To establish a clear and sound framework for the encouragement of publications;
II. To protect the rights of authors, reviewers and editors with respect to the publication of any research;
III. To transfer the Copy rights of manuscript to Annals of King Edward Medical University at the time of submission through transparent and clear policy;
IV. To formulate and implement Research ethics policies so that uniform criteria for ethical reviews can be practiced;
V. To protect the rights of research participants and ensure their safety, privacy, confidentiality and consent during research;
VI. To formulate and implement blind Peer Review quality criteria and external blind peer review process for publication;
VII. To establish a policy regarding Conflict of interests and disclosure of funding sources for research and publication;
VIII. To establish a policy of selection of editorial team members, their editorial freedom, continuous monitoring and terms of accountability for a defined period;
IX. To protect the interests of the University, including ensuring that the use of the University name and insignias is accurate and appropriate, and ensuring that the University receives appropriate credit of its publications;
1.0 Definitions:
1.1 Research:: includes Works leading to systematic investigation and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions.
1.2 University: means KING EDWARD MEDICAL UNIVERSITY.
1.3 University Personnel: includes all full-time and part-time employees of the University, fellows and residents, interns, volunteers and any non-employees who receive University Support, including visiting faculty, reviewers, editorial board members, advisory board members, researchers, in respect of their work at the University.
1.4 Students: includes all registered students of any College/ University/ Allied Health Sciences, including visiting students.
1.5 University Support: means financial or any other support including but not limited to salaries, personnel facilities, equipment, data, materials or technological information, regardless of origin, which is used in the discovery or development of Intellectual Property and is provided through University channels.
1.6 Work(s): shall include any copyrightable material intended for publication and submitted to Annals of King Edward Medical University.
1.7 Invention(s): include any discovery, process, composition of matter, article of manufacture, know-how, design, model, technological development, biological material, strain, variety, culture of any organism, or portion, modification, translation or extension of these items, and any mark used in connection with these items.
1.8 Author: means a member of University Personnel or Student who creates a Work or Invention or Innovation and submitted it to the office of Annals of KEMU with the intention of publication.
1.9 Patent: is an exclusive right granted by the Government allowing the applicant to exclude all others from making, using, or selling his/her invention within a particular territorial limit for a limited number of years. The patent should be mentioned if intended for publication.
1.10 Trademark: or a service mark is a distinctive word or a graphic symbol identifying the source, producer or distributor of goods or services.
1.11 Copyright: a legal right of the author(s)/creator(s)/owner(s) of copyright to exclusive publication, production, sale and distribution of their work both domestically and internationally regardless of how it is published. Copyright protects the "expression" of an idea, not the idea itself.
1.12 Computer programme/software: any computer programme regardless of form of expression or object in which it is embodied, together with any users’ manuals and other accompanying explanatory materials and any computer database.
1.13 Contract: is a legally binding agreement between two or more parties in which an exchange of value occurs, and which ties each party to certain liabilities covering that exchange. Those signing such an agreement must be authorized to bind the entity that they represent.
1.14 Tangible Research Property (TRP): means any tangible items produced in the course of research projects either through University Support or by external sponsors and includesbut is not limited to biological materials, cell lines, data sets, computer software, computer databases, prototype devices and equipment.
1.15 Net Income: income remaining after deducting all costs incurred for obtaining, protecting, marketing and licensing the Intellectual Property by the University.
1.16 Scholarly Work: means a copyrightable work created by any University Personnel as evidence of academic advancement or academic accomplishment including, but not limited to, scholarly publications, journal articles, research-based bulletins, monographs, books, (excluding case-studies and textbooks and other works).
1.17 Scholarly Publications: means Academic publications which distributes academic research and scholarships based on peer review and editorial refereeing to qualify texts for publication.
1.18 Original Research Articles: means Original research involving independent data collection based on any combination of fieldwork, participant observation, interviews, surveys, and formal data collection and analysis. An article is considered as original research article when The hypothesis and the purpose is described. Research methods are described fully and the results of the research are reported. The researcher interprets the results and discuss possible implications.
1.19 Case reports: means a detailed report of the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of an individual patient. Case reports may contain a demographic profile of the patient and describe an unusual or novel occurrence.
1.20 Case series: means a detailed report on series of cases with similarities and addresses the research objective and research question.
1.21 Short Communications: means short research papers addressing new ideas, controversial opinions, innovations, negative results or interesting findings during a research study.
1.22 Systematic Reviews: means review that collects and critically analyzes multiple research studies or published papers according to the research objectives, research questions, methods, standard criteria for interpretation of results and discussion.
1.23 Clinical Practice Articles: means articles reflecting experiences in healthcare science that determines the safety and effectiveness of medications, devices, diagnostic products and treatment regimens intended for practice in clinical settings. They include prevention, treatment, diagnosis or for relieving symptoms of a disease or health related issues.
1.24 Evidence based Clinical Reviews: means systematically developed reviews to assist practitioners and patient decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances.
1.25 Medical Humanities: means interdisciplinary field of medicine which includes the humanities, social science and the arts and their application to medical education and practice.
1.26 Letter to editor: means letter intended for publication and shall present opinions, critical review on published work, innovative ideas, new results, and idea likely to stimulate further research.
1.27 Editorial: means short article expressing the opinion on current health related issue or innovative idea in research in certain specialty or producing facts by experts of the field.
2.0 Applicability
2.1 This Policy is applicable to all publications in the course of work or study at the University with University Support or submitted from outside the university to the research journal of the University. This Policy extends to all University Personnel and Students and applies to Annals of King Edward Medical University owned, controlled, managed and/or operated by the University.
3.0 Ethics and consent
3.1 This Policy is applicable to all ethical permissions and approvals for publications in the course of research work or study at the University or with University Support or work outside the University intended for publication. The research work must be submitted to the research journal for publication.
3.2 Ethics approval for 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.
3.3 A statement detailing this, including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate, must appear in all manuscripts reporting such research.
3.4 If a study has been 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).
3.5 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.
3.6 The Editor may contact the ethics committee for further information on special cases.
3.7 Retrospective ethics approval in cases when a study has not been granted ethics committee approval prior to commencing, retrospective ethics approval usually cannot be obtained and it may not be possible to consider the manuscript for peer review. The decision on whether to proceed to peer review in such cases is at the Editor's discretion.
3.8 Ethical approval for new clinical tools and procedures in cases when authors are reporting the use of a new procedure or tool in a clinical settings, for example as a technical advance or case report, must give a clear justification and ethical approval statements in the manuscript for why the new procedure or tool was deemed more appropriate than usual clinical practice to meet the patient’s clinical need.
3.9 Ethical approval for new clinical tools and procedures and justification is not required if the new procedure is already approved for clinical use at the authors’ institution. Authors will be expected to have obtained ethics committee approval and informed patient consent for any experimental use of a novel procedure or tool where a clear clinical advantage based on clinical need was not apparent before treatment.
3.10 If tables, illustrations or photographs, which have already been published, are included, a letter of permission for re-publication should be obtained from author (s) as well as the editor of the journal where it was previously published.
3.11 Written permission to reproduce photographs of patients, whose identity is not disguised, should be sent with the manuscript; otherwise the eyes will be blackened out. If a medicine is used, generic name should be used.
3.12 In case of medicine or device or any material indicated in text, a declaration by author/s should be submitted that no financial benefit has been taken from manufacturer/importer of that product by any author. In case of experimental interventions, permission from ethical committee of the hospital should be taken beforehand. All interventional studies submitted for publication should carry Institutional Ethical & Research Committee approval letter.
3.13 Ethical consideration regarding the intervention, added cost of test, and particularly the management of control in case-control comparisons of trials should be addressed: multi-centric authors' affiliation may be asked to be authenticated by provision of permission letters from ethical boards or the heads of involved institutes.
4.0 Research involving animals
4.1 This Policy is applicable to all publications in the course of work involving animals as subjects for research and submitted to the research journal of the University.
4.2 Experimental research on vertebrates or any regulated invertebrates must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines, and should have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. The Basel Declaration outlines fundamental principles to adhere to when conducting research in animals and the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) has also published ethical guidelines.
4.3 The ethical approval (including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate) must be included in the manuscript.
4.4 If a study has been 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 and the reasons for the exemption).
4.5 The Editor will take account of animal welfare issues and reserves the right to reject a manuscript, especially if the research involves protocols that are inconsistent with commonly accepted norms of animal research.
4.6 In special cases, the Editor may contact the ethics committee for further information.
4.7 For experimental studies involving client-owned animals, authors must also document informed consent from the client or owner and adherence to a high standard (best practice) of veterinary care.
4.8 Field studies and other non-experimental research on endangered species of animals must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines, and where available should have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. A statement detailing compliance with relevant guidelines and/or appropriate permissions or licences must be included in the manuscript. We recommend that authors comply with the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction.
5.0 Research involving humans in special situations
5.1 Consent to participate for all research involving human subjects in special situations requires informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 18) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript. Special consent for vulnerable populations like prisoners, insane, internally displaced persons (IDP) should be obtained with permissions from legal custodians or state.
5.2 Clinical Trials Registration must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines, and should have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. A statement detailing compliance with relevant guidelines and/or appropriate permissions and trial registration number must be included in the manuscript and Authorship form.
6.0 Consent for publication
6.1 This Policy is applicable to all publications in the course of work or study at the University with University Support or submitted to the research journal of the University.
6.2 For all manuscripts that include details, images, or videos relating to individual participants, written informed consent for the publication of these must be obtained from the participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 18) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript.
6.3 If the participant has died, then consent for publication must be sought from the next of kin of the participant.
6.4 Authors can use a consent form from their own institution or region or local language.
6.5 This documentation must be made available to the Editor if requested, and will be treated confidentially.
6.6 In cases where images are entirely unidentifiable and there are no details on individuals reported within the manuscript, consent for publication of images may not be required.
6.7 The final decision on whether consent to publish is required lies with the Chief Editor.
7.0 Publication of Clinical Trial
7.1 This Policy follows International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE) criteria. ICMJE defines a clinical trial as any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. Studies designed for other purposes, such as to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (e.g., phase 1 trials), would be exempted.
7.2 The ICMJE does not advocate one particular registry, but Annals of King Edward Medical University will require authors to register their trials in an international trial registery system that meets several criteria.
7.3 The registry must be accessible to the public at no charge. It must be open to all prospective registrants and managed by an organization.
7.4 There must be a mechanism to ensure the validity of the registration data, and the registry should be electronically searchable.
7.5 An acceptable registry must include at minimum the following information: a unique identifying number, a statement of the intervention (or interventions) and comparison (or comparisons) studied, a statement of the study hypothesis, definitions of the primary and secondary outcome measures, eligibility criteria, key trial dates (registration date, anticipated or actual start date, anticipated or actual date of last follow-up, planned or actual date of closure to data entry, and date trial data considered complete), target number of subjects, funding source, and contact information for the principal investigator.
7.6 Registration is only part of the means to an end; that end is full transparency with respect to performance and reporting of clinical trials.
7.7 Patients who volunteer to participate in clinical trials deserve to know that their contribution to improving human health will be available to inform health care decisions. The knowledge made possible by their collective altruism must be accessible to everyone. Required trial registration will advance this goal. The Clinical Trial Registration number should be published and clearly mentioned in the manuscript.
8.0 Availability of data and materials
8.1 This Policy is applicable to all research materials and data in the course of work or study at the University with University Support or submitted to the research journal of the University.
8.2 Submission of a manuscript to Annals of King Edward Medical University implies that materials described in the manuscript, including all relevant raw data, will be freely available to any scientist wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without breaching participant’s confidentiality.
8.3 The authors are encouraged to ensure that their datasets are either deposited in publicly available repositories (where available and appropriate) or presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files, in machine-readable format (such as spreadsheets rather than PDFs) whenever possible.
8.4 The availability and deposition of the data on which the conclusions of the manuscript rely may be required by editor and it is the main responsibility of corresponding author to present it without delays.
8.5 Availability of data and materials section should be included at the end of manuscript detailing where the data supporting their findings can be found. Authors who do not wish to share their data must state that data will not be shared, and give the reason.
8.6 Availability of data and materials statements can take one form (or a combination of more than one if required for multiple datasets); following are the accepted forms:
8.61 The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available in the [NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT WEB LINK TO DATASETS]
8.62 The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
8.63 All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article [and its supplementary information files].
8.64 The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due [REASON WHY DATA ARE NOT PUBLIC] but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
8.65 Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
8.66 The data that support the findings of this study are available from [third party name] but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of [third party name].
8.67 Not applicable. If your manuscript does not contain any data, please state 'Not applicable' in this section.
8.68 Annals of King Edward Medical University requires that all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI).
8.69 For datasets containing clinical data, authors have an ethical and legal responsibility to respect participants’ rights to privacy and to protect their identity. Ideally, authors should gain informed consent for publication of the dataset from participants at the point of recruitment to the trial. If this is not possible, authors must demonstrate that publication of such data does not compromise anonymity or confidentiality or breach local data protection laws, for the dataset to be considered for publication.
8.70 Authors must state in their manuscript on submission whether informed consent was obtained for publication of patient data. If informed consent was not obtained, authors must state the reason for this, and which body was consulted in the preparation of the dataset.
8.71 Any previously unreported software application or custom code described in the manuscript should be available for testing by reviewers in a way that preserves their anonymity.
8.72 The manuscript should include a description in the Availability of Data and Materials section of how the reviewers can access the unreported software application or custom code. This section should include a link to the most recent version of software or code as well as a link to the archived version referenced in the manuscript. The software or code should be archived in an appropriate repository with a DOI or other unique identifier.
9.0 Standards of reporting
9.1 This Policy is applicable to the checklists submitted to the research journal of the University. Annals of King Edward Medical University advocates complete and transparent reporting of biomedical and biological research according to the standards and that is checklist should be submitted for a number of study designs, including:
10.0 Describing new taxonomy/ nomenclature
10.1 This Policy is applicable to all publications containing new taxon names or other nomenclatural acts must follow the guidelines set by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. Authors describing new fungal taxa should register the names with a recognized repository, such as Mycobank, and request a unique digital identifier which should be included in the published article.
10.2 This Policy is applicable to Zoological names. Manuscripts containing new taxon names or other nomenclatural acts must follow the guidelines set by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. We require the new taxon name in italics and the article it is published in to be registered with ZooBank. The unique identifier provided by ZooBank should be included in the published article. Authors are able to update ZooBank with the final citation following publication.
10.3 This Policy is applicable to Bacterial names. In accordance with the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP) effective publication of new prokaryotic names in electronic journals is possible. In order to comply with rules of the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes (ICSP) authors must submit a copy of the published article in its final form, together with certificates of deposition of the type strain (for unrestricted distribution), in at least two internationally recognized, publicly accessible culture collections located in different countries, to the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (IJSEM) editorial office. Following review by the List Editor, effectively published names that conform to all of the rules of the ICNP will appear on a subsequent Validation List, in the order received, thereby becoming validly published.
10.3 This Policy is applicable to Virus names. The proposal of new virus names must follow the guidelines established by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) in the International Code of Virus Classification and Nomenclature. Proposals for new virus taxa should be forwarded to the relevant Study Group of the ICTV for consideration.
11.0 Conflict of interests
11.1 This Policy states that Annals of King Edward Medical University requires authors to declare conflict of interests in relation to their work. All submitted manuscripts must include a ‘conflict of interests’ section at the end of the manuscript and also in letter of Authorship listing all competing interests (financial and non-financial) duly signed by all authors. Where authors have no competing interests, the statement should read “The author(s) declare(s) that they have no competing interests”. The Editor may ask for further information or documents relating to conflict of interests.
11.2 Editors and reviewers are also required to declare any competing interests and may be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists.
11.3 Competing interests may be financial or non-financial. A competing interest exists when the authors’ interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by their personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Authors should disclose any financial competing interests but also any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment if they were to become public after the publication of the manuscript.
11.4 Annals of King Edward Medical University requires disclosure of Financial conflict of interests that include (but are not limited to):
11.41 Receiving reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of the manuscript, either now or in the future.