Editorial Policy – THE PAKISTAN JOURNALS OF PLASTIC SURGERY

Objectives:

I. To establish a clear and sound framework for the encouragement of publications related to Plastic & Reconstructive surgery

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 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) 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

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 PAPS: means Pakistan Association of Plastic Surgery.

1.3 PAPS Members: including all the fill time members.

1.4 PAPS 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 PAPS.

1.6 Work(s): shall include any copyrightable material intended for publication and submitted to Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS).

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 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) 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 sell 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 PAPS/PJPS.

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).

1.17Scholarly 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: Applicability

2.1 This Policy is applicable to all publications

3: Ethics and consent

3.1 This Policy is applicable to all the publication submitted to the research Journal. 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: 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.

5: 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 Consent for publication

6.1 This Policy is applicable to all publications submitted to the research journal.

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 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 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) will require authors to register their trials in an international trial registry 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 submitted to the research journal.

8.2 Submission of a manuscript to Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) 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 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) 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. Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) 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

9.2 Randomized controlled trials (CONSORT) and protocols (SPIRIT)

9.3 Systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) and protocols (PRISMA-P)

9.4 Observational studies (STROBE)

9.5 Case reports (CARE)

9.6 Qualitative research (COREQ)Diagnostic/prognostic studies (STARDand TRIPOD)

9.7 Economic evaluations (CHEERS)

9.8 Pre-clinical animal studies (ARRIVE)

10.0 Conflict of interests

10.1 This Policy states that Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) 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.

10.2 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.

10.3 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.

10.4 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) requires disclosure of Financial conflict of interests that include (but are not limited to):

10.41 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.

11.42 Holding stocks or shares in an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of the manuscript, either now or in the future.

10.43 Holding, or currently applying for, patents relating to the content of the manuscript.

11.44 Receiving reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that holds or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript.

10.45 Authors from pharmaceutical companies, or other commercial organizations that sponsor clinical trials, should declare these as conflict of interests on submission and publications should be produced in a responsible and ethical manner. The policies also apply to any company or individuals that work on industry-sponsored publications, such as freelance writers, contract research organizations and communications companies.

10.46 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) also requires disclosure of non-financial conflict of interests that include (but are not limited to) political, personal, religious, ideological, academic, and intellectual competing interests. Public trust in the scientific process and the credibility of published articles depend in part on how transparently conflicts of interest are handled during the planning, implementation, writing, and publication of scientific work.

11.0 Authorship

11.1 This Policy states that Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) requires letter of Authorship duly signed by corresponding author, authors and co authors as compulsory requirement for publication. Authorship confers credit and has important academic, social, and financial implications.

11.2 Authorship also implies responsibility and accountability for published work.

11.3 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) requires information about the contributions of each person named as having participated in a submitted research study as authorship does not communicate what contributions qualified an individual to be an author.

11.4 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) has adopted ICMJE criteria for authorship and contributorpolicy. Authors are strongly encouraged to follow contributorship policy. This policy removes much of the ambiguity surrounding contributions.

11.5 The letter of Authorship for Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) is based on the following 4 criteria. All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged.

11.51 Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND

11.52 Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND

11.53 Final approval of the version to be published; AND

11.54 Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

11.6 In Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS), author is accountable for the parts of the research work he has done and should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work. In addition, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors. The individuals who conduct the work are responsible for identifying who meets these criteria and ideally should do so when planning the work, making modifications as appropriate as the work progresses.

11.7 It is not the responsibility of Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) but the collective responsibility of the authors to determine that all people named as authors meet the criteria; it is not the role of journal editors to determine who qualifies or does not qualify for authorship or to arbitrate authorship conflicts.

11.8 If agreement cannot be reached about who qualifies for authorship, the institution(s) where the work was performed should be asked to investigate.

11.9 If authors request removal or addition of an author after manuscript submission or publication, journal editors should seek an explanation and signed statement of agreement for the requested change from all listed authors and from the author to be removed or added.

11.10 The Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) communicates with corresponding author who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process, and ensures that all the journal’s administrative requirements, such as providing details of authorship, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation, and gathering conflict of interest forms and statements, are properly completed, although these duties may be delegated to one or more coauthors by corresponding author. The corresponding author should be available throughout the submission and peer review process to respond to editorial queries in a timely way, and should be available after publication to respond to critiques of the work and cooperate with any requests from the journal for data or additional information should questions about the paper arise after publication.

11.11 When a large multi-author group has conducted the work, the group ideally should decide who will be an author before the work is started and confirm who is an author before submitting the manuscript for publication. All members of the group named as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, including approval of the final manuscript, and they should be able to take public responsibility for the work and should have full confidence in the accuracy and integrity of the work of other group authors. They will also be expected as individuals to complete conflict-of-interest disclosure forms.

11.12 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) gives credit of authorship to all members of group if multi-author groups designate authorship by a group name, with or without the names of individuals. When submitting a manuscript authored by a group, the corresponding author should specify the group name if one exists, and clearly identify the group members who can take credit and responsibility for the work as authors or credit should be equally distributed to everyone in the group authorship. In contributors there should be a note clearly stating the individual names and whether those names are authors or non-author collaborators.

11.13 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) requires contributors who meet fewer than all 4 of the above criteria for authorship should not be listed as authors, but they should be acknowledged. Examples of activities that alone (without other contributions) do not qualify a contributor for authorship are acquisition of funding; general supervision of a research group or general administrative support; and writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, and proofreading. Those whose contributions do not justify authorship may be acknowledged individually or together as a group under a single heading (e.g. "Clinical Investigators" or "Participating Investigators"), and their contributions should be specified (e.g., "served as scientific advisors," "critically reviewed the study proposal," "collected data," "provided and cared for study patients", "participated in writing or technical editing of the manuscript").

11.14 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) requires the corresponding author to obtain written permission to be acknowledged from all acknowledged individuals as acknowledgment may imply endorsement by acknowledged individuals of a study’s data and conclusions.

12.0 Editorial board

12.1 This policy deals with the constitution of editorial board, assigning their roles and responsibilities, functions and criteria for continuous monitoring. The editorial board is responsible for the process of publication and implementation of policies.

12.2 The Editorial board shall consists of chief editor, editor, associate editor, assistant editors, members national, members international, online assistant editor, editorial assistant, bibliographer, and statisticians. They should be appointed by the board of trustees in consultation with cabinet for certain term and bound to submit their annual performance reports. Their criteria for appointments, responsibilities and functions are as below:

12.2.1 The Editor-in-Chief must have an academic rank of Professor or equivalent along with publications in peer reviewed journals with high impact factor. The editor in chief is directly responsible for the management and publication of Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS).

12.2.2 The Editor must have an academic rank above Associate Professor or equivalent. There must be at least 25 publications in peer reviewed journals. Editor must assist the Editor-in-Chief in judging a manuscript to be accepted or rejected, provide support in taking decisions and communicating with other Board members. The editor, fill the role of both serving as an editorial board member in review process as well as ensuring the publication of high quality papers in the Journal.

12.2.3 The Assistant Editors must have an academic rank above Assistant professor or equivalent. There must be 3-5 publications in peer reviewed journals. The Assistant Editors have to assist both the Senior Editor and the Editor-in-Chief in guaranteeing the quality of content found in Journal and communicating its vision for the journal to authors, Editorial Board members, readers, and publisher. Assistant Editor should be mindful with the policies of the, Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) letter of authorship, disclosure of conflict of interests and funding sources, author’s guidelines, editorial guidelines and reviewer’s guidelines.

12.2.4 Editorial board shall consist of national and international members. The national members shall be the twelve senior professors who are PAPS members. International members shall be from technologically advanced countries and constitute 50% of the editorial board. Members are expected to review around 1-5 manuscripts for each year. If they failed to do so, editors will bring it to the notice of patron according to the Editorial policy. Every member shall contribute research work in the form of editorial or manuscript to the journal regularly on agreed timelines.

12.2.5 The editorial assistant shall maintain record of correspondence, similarity index reports, plagiarism reports, statistical reports, bibliographer reports, financial reports and receipts, consent forms of members of editorial board, consent forms of reviewers, reviewer’s reports, author ship letters, record of corrections, modifications and rejections of research manuscript submitted to Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) for processing. Record related to indexing and archiving services, regulatory authorities and official meetings with timelines shall be maintained. The timelines of publication, inspection of journal and timely dissemination and subscriptions shall be adhered. Record of ethical permissions, trial registration forms, conflict of interest statements, funding sources and confidentiality of official material shall be the responsibility of the editorial assistant.

12.2.6 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) must have statistician(s) with acceptable qualifications and experience in health related biostatistics. The statistician(s) shall be responsible for evaluation of all the statistical analysis submitted to PJPS and may request the provision of datasets from authors through editor for confirmation of results.

12.2.7 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) must have bibliographer(s) with acceptable qualifications and experience in bibliography of various styles. The bibliographer(s) shall be responsible for evaluation of all the references submitted to Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) and may request the provision of hard copies or grey literature or unpublished materials from authors through editor for confirmation of references for possible publication.

12.3 Functions of chief editor include (but not limited to):

12.3.1. Identifying new topics and themes for special editions and advising on direction for the journal by giving feedback on past issues and making suggestions for both subject matter and potential authors.

12.3.2. Provide content by writing editorials and other articles. Every member of Editorial board has the responsibility to contribute editorials in issues of Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS).

12.3.3. Approaching potential contributors for improving quality of publications

12.3.4. Help to identify peer reviewers and provide second opinions on papers (i.e. where there is a conflict between reviewers)

12.3.5. Identify appropriate conferences for editors to attend and present Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) at various forums.

12.3.6. Endorse the journal to authors, readers and subscribers and encourage colleagues to submit their best work.

12.3.7 The Editor-in-Chief should put consistent efforts to enhance quality and elevate the significance of published articles to the corresponding community.

12.3.8 Editor-in-Chief should take the whole responsibility of the Journal and should be familiar with the subject literature, research design, statistics, publication ethics and standards. Should also possess extensive Editorial and interpersonal skills and supervise for the Budget and Financial records.

12.3.9 Should strive for the development of the Journal and suggest the publisher for further improvisations with additional policies.

12.3.10 Should be responsible in selection and rotation of Editorial Board members, maintenance and development of Journal, participation in review process and look for appropriateness.

12.3.11 Should conduct regular meetings and educate the Editorial Board members with updated information and new policies of the Journal.

12.3.12 Set annual objectives and assign responsibilities to the Board members for peer review process and ensure their timely completion.

12.3.12 Sets annual objectives on peer review process and timely publication, evaluate the performance of Board members and encourage promotions appropriately. Should act accordingly in taking action to improve the objectives that are not achieved timely.

12.3.14 Should recommend Editorial office promptly when approached on the account of rejection or acceptance of a manuscript in relation to the scope, manuscript transfer or re-submission requests while ensuring the readers interest, significance of the study, readability and wide accessibility.

12.3.15 The final decision to accept or reject of an article will be held with Editor-in-Chief and should cross check the content quality, writing style and construction, grammar, spellings, data presentation and organization prior to take the final decision.

12.3.16 Should ensure that the manuscript is neither plagiarized nor published elsewhere. If the paper found plagiarized or infringed, the Editor-in-Chief has the right to reject the article straight away.

12.3.17 Should supervise and support the editorial team in handling complaints and appeals, responding genuinely to ethical problems regarding publication of any duplicate or fraudulent work.

12.4 Functions of editor include (but not limited to):

12.4.1 Editor should assist the Editor-in-Chief and also involve in the peer review process.

12.4.2 Should be responsible for the quality of Journal content and the published articles.

12.4.3 Encourage submission of high quality papers.

12.4.4 Provide fair and constructive feedback to the contributors, editors and reviewers.

12.4.5 Provide editorials on latest health issues, cutting edge technologies and promoting new policies when introduced.

12.4.6 Assist Editor-in-Chief in conducting regular meetings and educate the Editorial Board members with updated information and new policies of the Journal.

12.4.7 Assist Editor-in-Chief in setting annual objectives and assign responsibilities to the Board members for peer review process and ensure their timely completion.

12.4.8 Should ensure that the manuscript is neither plagiarized nor published elsewhere and similarity report from plagiarism software is acceptable.

12.5.9 Should support Editor-in-Chief in handling ethical issues, complaints and appeals regarding the publication standards.

12.5.10 Suggest publisher with new policies and for the development of the Journal

12.5.11 Contribute to Journal development and management through generous relationship with other board members and arrange training workshops for plagiarism, medical writing and publications.

12.5.12 Update reviewers and authors with new policies and guidelines

12.5.12 Ensure steady communication with the editorial office

12.5.14 Assure the integrity in the published work

12.5.15 Editors should ensure the protection of individual data and maintain confidentiality

12.5.16 Editor should ensure that every editorial board member must submit at least one editorial or manuscript in a year

12.5.17 Ensure constructive, fair and timely feedback to the authors for their contribution

12.5.16 Elevate Journal's reputation among their affiliated academic community

12.5.17 Represent and promote the journal at academic meetings and conferences.

12.5.16 Submit the annual performance report regarding objectives achieved, successful completion and progress of assigned tasks.

12.6 Functions of assistant editor(s) include (but not limited to):

12.6.1 Assistant Editor should guide the Authors, Editors and Reviewers with the guidelines available from the website.

12.6.2 Encourage submission of high quality articles in the Journal and assist Senior Editor in monitoring the content quality.

12.6.3 Participate in conducting regular meetings and educate the Editorial Board members with updated information and new policies of the Journal.

12.6.4 Monitor the manuscripts for writing style, language, presentation according to the Journal's policy and instructions.

12.6.5 Should ensure effective peer review process and timely publication.

12.6.6 Should ensure the integrity of the Journal content and quality in the published articles.

12.6.7 Should ensure that the manuscript is neither plagiarized nor published and should be trained to use software for similarity reports and plagiarism.

12.6.8 Suggest new policies and for the development of the Journal to the editor.

12.6.9 Should suggest eminent reviewers during the peer review process to the editor.

12.6.10 Submit the annual performance report regarding objectives achieved, successful completion and progress of assigned tasks to editor for further reporting.

13.0 Advisory Board

This Policy describes the establishment of Advisory board that consists of professors and eminent scholars from broad array of medical specialties. They should be nominated by Editorial board and approved by the Board of Trustees & cabinet of PAPS. They are independent advisors and should be working outside the University. They should help the editorial board to establish and maintain editorial policy and should be nominated for three years term. Editorial board seeks input from advisory board especially on controversial issues raised during publications and invites them in meetings.

14.0 Editorial Freedom

14.1 The Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) adopts the World Association of Medical Editors’ definition of editorial freedom, which holds that editors-in-chief have full authority over the entire editorial content of their journal and the timing of publication of that content. Journal owners should not interfere in the evaluation, selection, scheduling, or editing of individual articles either directly or by creating an environment that strongly influences decisions.

14.2 Editors should base editorial decisions on the validity of the work and its importance to the journal’s readers, not on the commercial implications for the journal, and editors should be free to express critical but responsible views about all aspects of medicine without fear of retribution, even if these views conflict with the goals of the publisher or administration.

14.3 Editors-in-chief should also have the final say in decisions about which advertisements or sponsored content, including supplements, the journal will and will not carry, and they should have final say in use of the journal brand and in overall policy regarding commercial use of journal content.

14.4 Editors are encouraged to establish an independent editorial advisory board to help the editor-in-chief establish and maintain editorial policy. Editors should seek input as needed from a broad array of advisers, such as reviewers, editorial staff, an editorial board, and readers, to support editorial decisions and potentially controversial expressions of opinion, and administration should ensure that appropriate insurance is obtained in the event of legal action against the editors, and should ensure that legal advice is available when necessary.

14.5 Editors should defend the confidentiality of authors and peer-reviewers (names and reviewer comments). Editors should take all reasonable steps to check the facts in journal commentary, including that in various sections and social media postings, and should ensure that staff working for the journal adheres to best journalistic practices including contemporaneous note-taking and seeking a response from all parties when possible before publication. Such practices in support of truth and public interest may be particularly relevant in defense against legal allegations of libel.

14.6 To secure editorial freedom in practice, the editor should have direct access to the highest level of the University, not to a delegated manager or administrative officer.

14.7 Editors and editorial board must support the concept of editorial freedom and to draw major transgressions of such freedom to the attention of the international medical, and academic communities.

15.0 Types of Manuscripts and subsections

15.1 This Policy is uniformly applicable to all manuscripts including Editorial, Original Research Article, case reports, case series, short communications, clinical practice articles, systematic reviews, critical reviews, Medical Humanities and letters to Editor. Between 3 to 10 key words should be given for all the category of manuscripts under the abstracts as per mesh [medical subject heading].

15.2 This policy includes all subsections including Editorial, Breast, hand Peripheral nerve, cosmetic, paediatric, craniofacial, reconstruction of head & neck, trunk and lower extremity Medicine and Allied Surgery and Allied, Basic and Biomedical Sciences, and Medical Humanities. Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) has adopted ICMJE criteria for types of manuscripts in subsections.

15.3 The material submitted for publication may be in the form of an Original research (Randomized controlled trial - RCT, Meta-analysis of RCT, Quasi experimental study, Case Control study, Cohort study, Observational Study with statistical support etc), a Review Article, Commentary, a Case Report, Recent Advances, New techniques, Debates, Adverse Drug Reports, Current Practices, Clinical Practice Article, Short Article, KAP (Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices) study, An Audit Report, Evidence Based Report, Short Communication or a Letter to the Editor. Ideas and Innovations can be reported as changes made by the authors to an existing technique or development of a new technique or instrument.

15.4 A mere description of a technique without any practical experience or innovation will be considered as an update and not an original article. Any study ending three years prior to date of submission is judged by Editorial Board for its suitability as many changes take place over the period of time, subject to area of the study.

15.5 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) also does not accept multiple studies/multiple end publications gathered/derived from a single research project or data (wholly or in part) known as 'salami slices'.

15.6 Original articles should normally report original research of relevance to clinical medicine. The original paper should be of about 2000-2500 words excluding abstract and references. It should contain a structured abstract of about 250 words. Three to 10 keywords should be given for an original article as per MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). There should be no more than three tables or illustrations. The data should be supported with 20 to 25 references, which should include local up to 10 years as well as international references up to 5 years. Most of the references should be from last five years from the date of submission.

15.7 Clinical Practice Article is a category under which all simple observational case series are entertained. The length of such article should be around 1500 - 1600 words with 15 - 20 references. The rest of the format should be that of an original article. KAP studies, Audit reports, Current Practices, Survey reports and Short Articles are also written on the format of Clinical Practice Article.

15.8 Evidence based reports must have at least 10 cases and word count of 1000 - 1200 words with 10 - 12 references and not more than 2 tables or illustrations. It should contain a non-structured abstract of about 150 words.

15.9 Short communications should be of about 1000 - 1200 words, having a non-structured abstract of about 150 words with two tables or illustrations and not more than 10 references.

15.10 Clinical case reports must be of academic and educational value and provide relevance of the disease being reported as unusual. Brief or negative research findings may appear in this section. The word count of case report should be 800 words with a minimum of 3 key words. It should have a non-structured abstract of about 100 - 150 words (case specific) with maximum of 5 - 6 references. Not more than 2 figures shall be accepted.

15.11 Systematic Review article should consist of critical overview/analysis of some relatively narrow topic providing background and the recent development with the reference of original literature. It should incorporate author's original work on the same subject. The length of the review article should be of 2500 to 3000 words with minimum of 40 and maximum of 60 references. It should have non-structured abstract of 150 words with minimum 3 key words.

15.12 Letters should normally not exceed 400 words, with not more than 5 references and be signed by all the authors-maximum 3 are allowed. Preference is given to those that take up points made in contributions published recently in the journal. Letters may be published with a response from the author of the article being discussed. Discussions beyond the initial letter and response will not be entertained for publication. Letters to the editor may be sent for peer review if they report a scientific data.

15.13 Guest Editorials will be written upon invitations.

16.0 Publication policy and special issues

16.1 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) requires specific publication standards and scientific merit for publications. Scientific merit of a journal's content is based on validity, importance, originality of research submitted to Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS), and contribution to the coverage of the field of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery.

16.2 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) requires following steps for publication;

Manuscript received by the editor, then checking plagiarism through “Turnitin”, after acceptability limit of plagiarism according to similarity report, manuscript forwarded to in-house editors, statistician, bibliographers and section reviewers, then final review by the blind peer reviewers including internal reviewers and external reviewers, explicit process of external peer reviews, based on the review reports by the peer reviewers, the manuscripts are either approved or rejected or returned to authors for improvement/ revision. All approved are accepted for publication in Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS).

16.2 Authors should include full information on the statistical methods and measures used in their research, including justification of the appropriateness of the statistical test used.

16.3 Reviewers will be asked to check the statistical methods, and the manuscript may be sent for specialist statistical review if considered necessary.

16.4 To enable effective tracking of the key resources used to produce the scientific findings reported in the biomedical literature, authors are expected to include a full description of all resources with enough information to allow them to be uniquely identified. Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) encourages authors to use unique Digital Object Identifier (ODI) within their manuscript to identify their model organisms, antibodies, or tools.

16.5 If human cell lines are used, authors are strongly encouraged to include the following information in their manuscript:

16.5.1 The source of the cell line, including when and from where it was obtained

16.5.2 Whether the cell line has recently been authenticated and by what method

16.5.3 Whether the cell line has recently been tested for mycoplasma contamination

Further information is available from the International Cell Line Authentication Committee (ICLAC).

16.6 Standardized gene nomenclature should be used throughout. Human gene symbols and names can be found in the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC) database. Alternative gene aliases that are commonly used may also be reported, but should not be used alone in place of the HGNC symbol.

16.7 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) endorse the recommendations of the Human Variome Project Consortium for describing sequence variants (Human Genome Variation Society) and phenotypes (Human Phenotype Ontology).

16.8 The database URL and the unique identifier should be reported in the manuscript.

16.7 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) expects authors to drive the maximum re-use and utility of published research and comply with available field-specific standards for the preparation and recording of data. The Bio-Sharing website for information on field-specific data standards must be visited. Authors must comply with best practice in their field for sharing of data, with particular attention to maintaining patient confidentiality.

16.8 Authors using unpublished genomic data are expected to abide by the guidelines and based on broadly accepted scientific community standards, the key requirement of third parties using genomic data is to contact the owners of unpublished data (i.e. the principal investigator and sequencing center) prior to undertaking their research, to advise them about their planned analyses.

16.9 Pakistan Journals of Plastic Surgery (PJPS) will only publish those manuscripts that strongly adhere with the format as prescribed from time to time in guidelines. Few important points are as below:

16.9.1 The title page should carry the following information:

16.9.11 The title of the article. Concise titles are easier to read than long, convoluted ones. Authors should include all information in the title that will make electronic retrieval of the article both sensitive and specific.

16.9.12 Authors’ names and Title of the artical. The names and other relevant information should be on title page only to ensure blind peer review of research article.

16.9.13 The name of the department(s) and institution(s) to which t