Peer Review Policy
– After initial screening, the paper selected are subjected to peer review by two external peer reviewers belonging to the subject specialty as identified by the Editor. The Journal follows double blind peer-review procedure. An average of two weeks’ time is given to reviewers for reviewing the manuscript.
– The peer reviewers will ensure that manuscript is evaluated critically but constructively and he/she gives detailed comments about the research and the manuscript to help authors improve their work. The reviewers will be provided the reviewers’ proforma, along with the manuscript.
The evaluation should include:
Assessments of the originality and importance of the research; accuracy and relevance of the design of the study, methods of study, including analytic and statistical methods, results, discussion with new emerging findings, possible confounding, the strength of the conclusions and overall quality of the manuscript.
– The peer reviewer shall be also be responsible to make recommendations to the editor regarding the suitability of the manuscript for publication in JSZMC. Reviewers may be asked to give to the editor regarding acceptance or rejection, with or without changes.
– Reviewers should declare to the editor any potential conflicts of interest with respect to the authors or the content of a manuscript they are asked to review, and in most instances when such conflicts exist should decline to review the manuscript.
– Reviewers must ensure the confidentiality of the manuscript and complete the review promptly. Reviewers should not make derogatory comments about the manuscript in their comments for the authors. If reviewers do make such comments, the editor may choose to edit the comments or even withhold all the reviewer’s comments from the authors. Reviewers must not make any use of the work described in the manuscript.
– Reviewers should not communicate directly with authors or even identify themselves to authors, except by signing their reviews. The editor will provide guidance to the reviewers, particularly new reviewers, regarding how the editor wishes the reviewers to evaluate the manuscript and how the reviewers should meet their dual responsibility of providing constructive comments for the author and advice to the editor.
– Reviewers should meet the agreed-upon deadline (usually 4 weeks) for manuscript review and should respond to the reminders if sent any.
Plagiarism Policy
JSZMC follows the ICMJE, COPE, PMDC and HEC guidelines/criteria for all types of plagiarism. The same can be accessed at www.icmje.org, www.pmdc.com and www.hec.gov.pk. All the submitted manuscripts are subjected to plagiarism checking through the software Turnitin (courtesy HEC). Manuscripts with similarity index more than 19% are not processed further unless rectified. It is the authors’ responsibility to apprise themselves of plagiarism in any form including paraphrasing and self-plagiarism. Manuscripts submitted to JSZMC can be sent to HEC, other medical journals’ editors and international agencies for authentication of originality. The disciplinary committee of JSZMC would deal with cases of plagiarism and comprise of the staff and editors or person nominated by Editor.
For a plagiarized article (multiple submissions) in processing, the identification of act will lead to dropping of article from further processing / consideration of publication. The corresponding author will be asked in written to give an explanation on the issue. In case of an unsatisfactory reply, the matter will be referred to the disciplinary committee that may decide the course of action. For a published articles, the allegedly plagiarized article will be temporarily retracted from publication and a notice to the effect will be published in the JSZMC. The author will be served an explanation letter. In case of non-response in specified time or unsatisfactory response, the article will be permanently retracted and the author will be blacklisted. HEC, COPE, PAME, PMDC and author’s institute will also be notified. In case of multiple submissions, other editors will also be informed at PAME forum. The author(s) will have to provide documentary proof of retraction from publication, if such a defense is pleaded. Those claiming intellectual / idea or data theft of an article must provide documentary proof in their claim.
Copyright Policy
Prospective authors should read copyright policy before submitting their articles and other material for publication, as we always share our copyright statement at the end of abstract as follows; “This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited”. All articles published in the Journal of Sheikh Zayed Medical College (JSZMC) are open-access and freely available online, immediately upon publication. This is made possible by an article-processing charge (APC) that covers the range of publishing services we provide, including online tools for editors and authors, article production and hosting, liaison with abstracting and indexing services, and customer services. The APC is payable when the manuscript is editorially accepted but before publication. For further details visit Creative Commons Website
Archiving / Data Preservation Policy
Journal of Sheikh Zayed Medical College is registered with PKP Preservation Network to ensure long-term digital preservation of material published. Additionally we also maintain published material on hard disk annually.
Advertising Policy of Journal of Sheikh Zayed Medical College
Journal of Sheikh Zayed Medical College derives its Advertising Policy by following the vision and guidelines of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Following are the important points regarding advertising policy.
– The advertisements published in Journal of Sheikh Zayed Medical College shall not influence the editorial decisions.
– The Editor keeps the right to decline any potential advertisement regarding addictive materials, and those which contain racial, or religious content.
– As for as the content of the advertisement is concerned, potential advertisements must be clear and must not deceive the readers. It must show the company name who advertised the advertisements.
– In case of any valid objection raised on the advertisement, the Editor of the Journal reserves the right to withdraw it, after due consideration. However, a designated Ombudsman, Prof. Dr. Abdul Razzaq Malik may be contacted for redressal of the grievances on his email. (mailsi58@yahoo.com)
– The advertisements of the pharmaceutical and biological drugs, and enlisted Health and OTC products, must be in accordance with the relevant regulatory authority such as Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan and other administrative departments at the Province and National level.
– The advertisement must be based upon and include correct evidence showing the generic names (in case of drugs) clearly, along with manufacturer names, contact information and address mentioned.
– Any use of the research content published in Journal of Sheikh Zayed Medical College should be after a written permission from the Editor.
– A sponsored supplement will clearly indicate the sponsor and must be peer reviewed.
– Journal of Sheikh Zayed Medical College provides website advertisement along with print version, and charges 35% of the print fees additionally. We need advertisement created in PDF file, supplied as single pages. A hard copy of the advertisement must be accompanied.
– Advertisement rates are as following; Back of front page; 20,000/- Inside of last page; 15,000/-.
For advertisements, you may contact: jszmc.ryk@gmail.com