ONLINE EDITION : A great source of manuscripts

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ONLINE EDITION A great
source of manuscripts potential
regional cooperation

• Dr. Maqbool H. Jafary, FRCP
• Chief Editor / Chairman Editorial Board
• Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences

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Pakistan Journal of Medical
Sciences

• Quarterly journal
• Published regularly since 1984
• Online full-text edition since late 2002
• (www.pjms.com.pk)
• Indexed by Excerpta Medica / EMBASE and WHO-
  ExtraMED but not by Medline

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Overseas Manuscripts (
since going online)
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Geographical Spread
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Focus on Iran
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Discrepancies

• Poor English
• Too lengthy (gt2200 2500 words)
• References
• - lack of uniformity
• - disregard for ICMJE guidelines
• - unmarked in the text
• - too old
• Too many tables / illustrations
• Instructions to the authors not followed

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• Poor quality of figures, photographs etc. in
  non-Jpg format
• Problems with statistical analysis
• Authors eagerness to have early publication soon
  after the submission
• Our worries that there may be a duplicate
  publication in Persian

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• Delays due to
• - time taken to respond to queries
• - too much time for proof reading
• - no response from e-mail address
• - manuscript not in line with LOU

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Our Mission

• Continued improvement of journal standards
• Maximum support and help to the authors even by
  re-writing the manuscripts, while maintaining
  their writing style
• Not to reject articles on flimsy grounds
  including typos/grammar
• Maximize regional cooperation

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Helpful Approach

• Even by the reviewers
• there were excessive mistakes and
  repetitions. My first temptation was to reject
  the article but since it was from our brotherly
  country (Iran), I have rewritten it, with all the
  necessary corrections..
• Prof. Naeem Khan

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Suggestions Conclusions

• More journals in the region should go online
• Journals should encourage submission online
• More training through workshops on medical
  writing needed to minimize discrepancies
• Cooperation between medical journals and academic
  institutions should be enhanced
• More inter-country cooperation needed to learn
  from each other with the help of WHO