WATIM Medical & Dental College
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Information For Authors
1st Update on 12-10-2026
Manuscript and all editorial correspondence should be submitted by e.mail till start of online submission portal of JWMDC.
Note:
Any article submitted to JWMDC must be original and not under publication to any other journal, either in part or in full. Authors are required to confirm that their submission is original by signing a submission agreement. Authors retain the copyright to their work but grant JWMDC exclusive right to publish. Authors will be required to assist the editors in the final proofreading of their articles before publication. Do not state the authors’ names, affiliations or contact details anywhere on the main manuscript.
Clinical Trials:
The clinical trials, including randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental studies, submitted for publication must be prospectively registered in a recognized clinical trial registry before the enrollment of the first participant. The trial registration number and the name of the registry must be reported in the manuscript, and proof of registration must be provided at the time of submission.
- If used artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in the production of submitted work. Authors has to describe, in both the cover letter and the submitted work in the appropriate section if applicable.
- If AI was used for grammatical corrections it should be described in the acknowledgment section. For data interpretation, analysis, or figure generation author should describe this use in the methods.
- Manuscripts with similarity index of more than 19% are not proceeded further unless rectified.
- If plagiarism is identified post-publication, affected articles may be retracted.
- Withdrawal request can only be made at stage of initial review, if the manuscript has undergone peer review.
- Although the articles are be sent to author for proof reading but if a significant Errors identified after publication by authors or readers, these are corrected in a PDF copy of the online version.
EDITORIAL
Each editorial is either written by one member of the editorial board or published as invited manuscript from guest authors. The editorial is scientific review on one or two of the current topics pertaining to medical sciences. If a senior medical professional is interested in writing one, he or she can email at jwmdc@watim.com.pk .
SUBMISSION OF ARTICLE
Original Paper:
Manuscript must be accompanied by a certificate signed by author and all co-authors that they have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and they have not submitted the manuscript to any other journal. Manuscript should include the name/s of supervisor/s, consultant/s of primary place (institute) of study. All manuscript should be typed in double spacing on A-4 paper (8.25” x 11.70” = 21.0 cm x 29.70 cm) with one inch (2.5 cm) margin on both sides. The article words count for quantitative study (2000 - 2500 words, excluding references and abstract) with at least 18-25 references and upto-5 figures or tables. For qualitative study article word count in range of 3000-4000 words. Each manuscript should include:
1. Title page
- Title (complete and short title)
- Name of author(s)
- Department(s)
- Institution(s) at which work was performed
- Author Affiliation (Double affiliation should be mentioned in case of multi-institutions authors)
- Subject Specialty (Specialties of all the authors should be relevant to the study)
- Official phone No., cell No., e-mail address (to whom correspondence is to be addressed) in case of job transfer, please provide new address
- Short running title for header
2. Structured Abstract
- Objective
- Study Design
- Place and duration of study
- Methodology
- Results
- Conclusion
- Keywords 3–10 (Medical Subject Headings – MeSH) in alphabetical order
- Abstract should be upto 250 words
3. Manuscript Text
- Introduction: This section must include problem statement, study gaps, international, regional and Pakistani statistics.
- Methodology: This section must include appropriate study design, settings, duration, well defined inclusion & exclusion criteria, ethical considerations, complete data collection procedure, sample size, sampling technique, study protocol, details of data analysis.Give well-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Institution Review Committee (IRC)/ Ethical Review Board (ERB) certificate to be mentioned in the methodology section along with date of approval. If applicable authors must state that the consent of the patient/ guardian was taken prior to writing of the manuscripts.
- Results: This section must include total study outcomes, brief details of demographic variables, least and most common findings, comparison, association and statistical significance. The contents of the tables should not be repeated in the text. Instead, a reference to the table number may be given.
- Discussion: This section must include critical comparison of study findings with existing literature. The figures of data should not be repeated what is already written in result part. Limitations of the study must be described and future directions mentioned.
- Conclusion: Must relate to the outcome of the study and no recommendations must be put in this section.
- Conflict of Interest & financial disclosure: When authors submit a manuscript they must disclose all financial disclosure (grant support) and personnel relationship that might bias their work. Authors must state explicitly whether potential conflicts do or do not exist.
- Acknowledgements (if any): All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be covered in the acknowledgement section.
- Disclosure: Presentation of the study in any conference, seminar, symposium before submission to JWMDC.
- Key Words: Key words should not be > ten. Use terms from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) listed in Index Medicus.
- Authors Contributions: Authorship credit should be based on:
• Substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data.
• Draft the article or critically review.
• Final approval of the version to be published (like supervisor as author also).
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.(For details of authorship criteria kindly consult ICMJE guidelines).
• Addition, deletion and change in sequence of authors names is not permitted after submission with authorship proforma duly signed.
When a large, multi-center group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. When submitting in a group, the corresponding author should clearly indicate the preferred citation and identify all individual authors as well as the group name. Other members of the group should be listed in the acknowledgement. It is mandatory that all authors be affiliated with the same institute & department, otherwise evidence should be provided for multi-affiliation or double affiliation with proof in the form of official letter from both institutes.
- References: Maximum 18-25 references are allowed for quantitative studies and 20-30 for qualitative studies. Fifty Percent References should befrom the last five years and all references should be listed consecutively as superscript. The final bibliography should be in the order in which they are quoted in the text and written in Vancouver Style. References appearing in a table or figure should be numbered sequentially with those in text. DOI link of references should also be cited. THE JWMDC follows Index Medicus style for references and abbreviated journal names according to the list of Journals indexed in Index Medicus.
- Journal Citation: List all authors when six or less; when seven or more, list only first six and add et al.
- Example of journal article citation: Oczka D, Augustynek M, Penhaker M, Kubicek J. Electrogastrography measurement systems and analysis methods used in clinical practice and research: comprehensive review. Front Med 2024;11(2):1369753. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2024.1369753
- Chapter in a book: Weinstein L, Swartz MN. Pathogenic properties of invading micro organisms.In: Sodeman WA Jr, Sodeman WA, eds. Pathologic physiology: mechanisms of disease. WB Saunders, Philadelphia 1974; 457-72.
4. Tables and Figures
- Upto five figures/ tables are allowed (each table should have complete stand-alone legends). All abbreviations in tables should be explained properly.
- • Tables: All tables should be numbered with Roman numerals (I,III,V). Headings should be placed above tables, left justified.
- • Figures: All figures should be numbered with Arabic numerals (1,2,3). Headings should be placed below figures, left justified.
- • Photographs, X-Rays, CT Scans, MRI, Lab Reports and Photomicrographs should be sent in the Digital format, with a minimum resolution of 3.2 megapixels in JPEG/TIFF compression. Patient’s identification should not be visible on Photographs, X-Rays, CT Scans, MRI, Lab Reports and Photomicrographs.
- • Proof Reading: Final version of manuscript is sent to corresponding author for proof reading before publication to avoid any mistakes. Corrections should be conveyed clearly to the Editor through e-mail.
Short communication:
Short communication or short report of research works, containing new findings. The short communication consists: Title, Abstract (structured - no more then 150 words), Keywords (max. 5), Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Ethical Consideration, Acknowledgment and References. Short report should not exceeding 1500 words from introduction to conclusion without references. The number of tables/figures should not exceed 3.
Review Article:
Types of review articles include: Critical review, Literature review/Narrative review, Mapping review, Meta analysis, Mixed study review, Overview, Systematic review, Scoping review, Systemized review, Umbrella review. They should be written by authors considered expert on the subject (most of the time invited review). For review articles word count should be in the range of 3000-4000 words (excluding references and abstract) with minimum 30 and maximum 50 references and 3–5 figures or tables.
Case Report:
Short report of cases, clinical experience, drug trails or adverse effects may be submitted. The word count should not exceed 1000 words, ten references and either one concise table or figure. The report must contain genuinely new information. All case series require an approval on the institutional letterhead from the head of the department.
Case Series:
A group or series of case reports involving patients who were given similar treatment. Reports of case series usually contain detailed information about the individual patients. This includes demographic information (for example, age, gender, ethnic origin) and information on diagnosis, treatment, response to treatment, and follow-up after treatment. The word count should not exceed 1000 words, ten references and either one concise table or figure. All case series require an approval on the institutional letterhead from the head of the department.
Clinical Audit:
A process for monitoring standards of clinical care to see if it is being carried out in the best way possible (known as 'best practice'). Clinical audit can be described as a systematic 'cycle'. As the process continues, an even higher level of quality is achieved. The word count should not exceed 1000 words, ten references and either one concise table or figure.
Systematic Review Article/Meta-analysis:
The systematic review paper should have a structured abstract of not more than 250 words using headlines as Objective, Data Sources, Study Selection, Data Extraction, Data Synthesis and Conclusions and with 3-10 key words.
Objective:
Give precise statement of the primary objective for the review. Define if the review emphasizes cause and diagnosis, prognosis, therapy and intervention, or prevention. Define if the review would be highly selective as including only randomized controlled trials (RCT) or have wider inclusion criteria.
Data Sources:
Present data sources used, including any time restriction.
Study Selection:
Describe criteria to select studies for detailed review. Specify methods used, as blinded review, consensus, multiple reviewers.
Data Extraction:
Describe how extraction was made, including assessment of quality and validity.
Data Synthesis:
Present the main results of the review and state major identified sources of variation between studies.
Conclusion:
Give a clear statement of the conclusions made, its generalizability and limitations.
Length of paper: The total length of the text should usually not be more than 5000 words. The reference list should be comprehensive and not more than 100 references will be accepted.
Mix Methods Study:
The mix methods study should have all the heading and subheading of original article. The word count of the study should be between 2000-3000 words with 18-30 references in Vancouver style.
Qualitative study format
- Abstract (Maximum 250 words. It is structured as Objective, Study design, Place and Duration of study, Methodology, Results, Conclusion and (Medical Subject Headings – MeSH) in alphabetical order)
- Introduction
- Methodology (Qualitative Approach, Participant selection strategy and Data collection strategy)
- Results (Themes generation)
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- References
Letter to Editor:
Opinions on topics and articles recently published in the journal will be considered for publication if they are constructive in nature and provide academic/clinical interest. These letters will be forwarded to author of the cited article for possible response. The editor reserves the right to shorten these letters, delete objectionable comments, make other changes, or take any other suitable decision to comply with the style of the journal.
Letters could be of two types:
- Commenting either on recently published articles in the journal
- The scientific letter include: reporting cases, outbreaks, or original research.
Institutional Review Board / Biomedical Ethical Committee/ Ethical Review Committee:
- Authors are required to send letter from Institutional Review Board / Biomedical Ethical Committee/Ethical Review Committee along with Original articles, Clinical Audit, Short Report and Short Communications. IRB approval letters are not required for case reports. Instead, a mandatory HOD approval letter must be submitted with the manuscript.
- None of the authors should be among the final signatories of ERC/IERB of the institution.
- If an institution does not have an ethical review committee, the approval should be sought from another institution adhering to ethical norms and govern research involving humans by means of Ethical Review Committees that are willing to cooperate in the enhancement of ethical standards.
Processing /Publication fee
At present no publication charges decided are for the publication
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.
JWMDC follows Budapest Open Access Initiative definition for Open Access which states that, "Readers may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles and use them for any other lawful purpose."
License Terms
The Journal of Watim Medical & Dental college (JWMDC) follows "CC BY NC "creative commons" licensing.
http://creativecommons.org/
Acknowledgement:
A lot of help for the preparation of this information for Authors was taken from PAFMJ, the journal with which editor of JPMDC, Prof Brig Shahid Jamal (R), remained associated (as assistant editor to main Editor) for a long period of time.