We welcome all contributions that enhance or illuminate medical sciences. In addition to scientific articles, letters, news, and comments are welcome if they serve the purpose of transfer of original and valuable information to our readers.
To give an equal publishing chance to manuscripts from different environments, we will normally publish no more than two papers by the same author or co-author within one calendar year. This rule also applies to editors. Also, we recommend authors not to separate fragments of a study into individual reports, but rather to present a full report on the topic.
Editorial procedure
The Editor-in-Chief reads every manuscript received and assigns it a general priority level: (a) manuscripts sent to reviewers immediately; (b) manuscripts returned to authors with suggestions for the improvement of data presentation; and (c) rejected manuscripts. Editors-in-Chief read the revised manuscript. If the manuscript is improved adequately, it is sent to two reviewers for extramural review and to the Statistical Editor, if it contains numerical data. This editorial procedure reinforces our author helpful policy because all manuscripts undergo editorial scrutiny and advice.
Authorship
According to the International Committee on Medical Journal Ethics (ICMJE), an author is defined as one who has made substantial contributions to the conception and development of a manuscript. Majmaah Journal of Health Sciences adheres to the ICMJE guidelines (http://www.icmje.org/#author), which state that “authorship credit should be based on all of the following: 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or advising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the version to be published. All submissions are expected to comply with the above definition. Changes to the authorship list after submission will result in a query from the publisher requesting written explanation.
Submission
Majmaah Journal of Health Sciences accepts all manuscripts on the strict condition that they have been submitted only to us, and had not been published in any other journal, nor are they under consideration for publication or in press elsewhere. The journal adheres to the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Peer Review
All manuscripts will be subjected to confidential peer review by experts in the field and, on the basis of reviewers’ feedback; papers will be accepted unconditionally, accepted subject to revision or rejected.
Ethics and Consent
Do not use patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that the patient be shown the manuscript to be published.
Copyright and Permissions
It is a condition of publication that authors assign copyright or license the publication rights in their articles, including abstracts, to Majmaah Journal of Health Sciences. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and the Journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Authors may, of course, use the article elsewhere after publication without prior permission from Majmaah Journal of Health Sciences, provided that acknowledgement is given to the Journal as the original source of publication, and it is notified so that our records show that its use is properly authorised.
Authors are required to sign an agreement for the transfer of copyright to the publisher. All accepted manuscripts, artwork, and photographs become the property of the publisher. A copyright agreement form can be downloaded by corresponding authors of accepted manuscripts with proofs. This should be signed and returned to Majmaah Journal of Health Sciences.
Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.
Declaration of Interest
It is the policy of Majmaah Journal of Health Sciences, to adhere in principle to the Conflict of Interest policy recommended by the ICMJE. All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. It is the sole responsibility of authors to disclose any affiliation with any organization with a financial interest, direct or indirect, in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript that may affect the conduct or reporting of the work submitted. All sources of funding for research are to be explicitly stated. If uncertain as to what might be considered a potential conflict of interest, authors should err on the side of full disclosure. If there are no declarations, authors should explicitly state that there are none. This must be stated at the point of submission. Manuscript submission cannot be completed unless a declaration of interest statement (either stating the disclosures or reporting that there are none) is included. This will be made available to reviewers and will appear in the published article. If any potential conflicts of interest are found to have been withheld following publication, the journal will proceed according to COPE guidance.
The intent of this policy is not to prevent authors with any particular relationships or interest from publishing their work, but rather to adopt transparency such that reviewers, editors, the publisher, and most importantly, readers can make objective judgements concerning the work product.
Policy for submissions by members of the Editorial Team
As all editors and Editorial Board members are active professionals and researchers, it may happen that they would want to submit their articles to the Majmaah Journal of Health Sciences. This represents a potential conflict of interest, especially in cases of submissions from decision-making editors. In reviewing submissions from its editors and Editorial Board members, we follows the guidelines for good editorial practice set by international editorial organizations, such as World Association of Medical Editors (WAME; http://www.wame.org/resources/publication-ethics-policies-for-medical-journals#conflicts) and Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE; http://publicationethics.org/case/editor-author-own-journal )
The review of such manuscripts will not be handled by the submitting editor(s); the review process will be supervised and decisions made by a senior editor who will act independently of other editors. In some cases, the review process will be handled by an outside independent expert to minimize possible bias in reviewing submissions from editors.
Review process
- Authorship statement. Upon the receipt of the submission, authors will receive the Authorship Statement form, which should be filled in, signed and returned to the Editor. In this way, the authors confirm the originality of the report and validity of authorship, and assert compliance with the review process, ie, that he or she shall not withdraw the paper until it is published or rejected. We advise the authors to promptly send back the filled out authorship statements, or otherwise the editorial processing of the manuscript may be delayed.
- Pre-review (if necessary). One to three weeks after submission of the manuscript, the author may receive Editor’s letter with a copy of the manuscript with suggestions for the improvement of data presentation. This is the manuscript pre-review. The author should closely follow the instructions, revise the manuscript, and submit the revised version.
- Peer review. The Majmaah Journal of Health Sciences promotes expert refereeing by peers as a best available method for the maintenance of standards of excellence in the scientific community, and is committed to promoting its peer review quality and fairness, as well as its speed and efficiency. Authors are welcome to suggest up to three potential reviewers for their manuscript (excluding co-authors or collaborators for the last three years), or to ask for the exclusion of reviewer(s) and the reasons for it. The reviewers are asked to treat the manuscript with confidentiality, and reveal any research conflict of interest with the reviewed manuscript. Reviewers do not have to sign the review forms with suggestions to the authors, but may do so if they wish. Within two months of submission of the manuscript, the authors will receive the reviews. The comments and suggestions made by the reviewers should be addressed and closely followed. In this respect, the Editor’s accompanying letter will give clear general instructions for further work on the manuscript.
- Author’s cover letter accompanying the revised version of the paper. The authors should state clearly and precisely every step taken in accordance with the reviewers’ requests. The description should be listed on a numbered basis, in the order of reviewers’ comments. Altered paragraphs in the new version of the manuscript should be specified using page and paragraph numbers. Paragraph on top of a page is considered No. 1, even if it does not begin on that page.
Acceptance criteria
The reviewers are asked to apply highest international standards in their assessment of the submitted work. The key advice on concrete criteria that they receive from editors is to look for the originality of work and its importance/relevance to the subject as a whole. If the article does not fulfil these primary criteria, it should not be accepted. The articles which receive one or more reviewers’ recommendations for “major review,” are sent, after revision, with the respective author’s cover letter, to the same reviewer, who makes the final recommendation on acceptance or rejection. To ensure the transparency of the editorial process and responsibilities of all authors, the formal letter of acceptance is sent to all authors on the manuscript, and not just to the corresponding author. In the case of rejection, the authors have the right to appeal if they think that the reviewers did not understand or appreciate some points in the manuscript. The editors of the Majmaah Journal of Health Sciences will then decide if there are grounds for reconsidering the manuscript.
Scientific integrity The Editorial Board is devoted to the promotion of scientific integrity as a vital component of the research process. The Research Integrity Editor will deal with all issues related to possible scientific misconduct in manuscripts submitted to or published in the journal. Majmaah Journal of Health Sciences follows the ethics flowcharts developed for dealing with cases of possible misconduct. The COPE flowcharts are available at: http://publicationethics.org/flowcharts. The following brief guidelines are aimed to increase awareness of our authors and decrease misunderstandings about the publication process in a scientific journal. Although rare events, duplicate publication and scientific fraud (falsification and fabrication of data, and plagiarism) are important issues with serious impact on the integrity of the scientific community. The Majmaah Journal of Health Sciences will not consider papers that have already been published as an article or have been submitted or accepted for publication elsewhere in print or in electronic media. This policy does not preclude consideration of a paper that has been rejected by another journal or of a complete report that follows publication of a preliminary report, such as an abstract or poster displayed at a professional meeting. Short abstracts (400 words) of preliminary research findings presented at conferences and included in conference proceedings are not considered previous publications. Authors should indicate this on the first page of the manuscript and in the cover letter. Presentations longer than an abstract may disqualify the paper. The author should alert the Editor if the work includes subjects on which a previous report has been published.
Any such work should be referred to and referenced in the new paper. If the Editor was not aware of the violations and the article has already been published, a notice of duplicate publication will be published without the authors’ explanation or approval. This policy is based on the international copyright laws, ethical conduct, and cost effective use of resources). If the Editor discovers or is presented evidence of such problems, he will contact the appropriate official(s) at the institution(s) from which the manuscript originated. It is then left to the institution(s) in question to pursue the matter appropriately. Depending on the circumstances, publish errata, corrigenda, or retractions of manuscripts. In cases of scientific disagreement about the methodology and/or contents of an article published in the journal, which do not allege fraud, we encourages the concerned individuals to either directly contact the authors or write a letter to the Editor.