It is policy of the Pakistan Armed Forces Medical Journal (PAFMJ) to publish articles with content pertaining to different fields of medical sciences providing sufficient contribution to medical knowledge. The journal is presently being published bimonthly. PAFMJ is nationally recognized by the Pakistan Medical Council (PMC), the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan (CPSP), and the Higher Education Commission, Pakistan (HEC). It is included in the “Y” category of HEC journals. The articles may include new experimental methods of medical importance; new interpretation of existing results or data pertaining to clinical problems and epidemiological work giving substantial scientific information pertaining to medical sciences.
All such articles should aim for development of medical concepts rather than mere recording of facts. Incomplete, descriptive observational studies are discouraged for publication as original articles. Article/material that contradicts the Govt Policy, ORBAT/ ORGS/insignias/statistics/data related to ops/trg should not be submitted in any form/ context to PAFMJ.

Publications shall not contain anything which discloses Army's decision making process, operational training plans and combat readiness. The content should not put Pakistan and army in disrepute or create rift between state organization, Army and civil population of Pakistan.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
1. To publish original, well documented, peer reviewed clinical and basic sciences articles.
2. To inculcate the habit of medical writing.
3. To enable physicians to remain informed in multiple areas of medicine, including developments in fields other than their own.
4. To share the experience and knowledge for benefit of patients.
5. To document medical problems pertinent to military medicine like high altitude medicine, heat stroke, disaster management etc.
6. To achieve the highest level of ethical medical journalism and to produce a publication that is timely, credible, and enjoyable to read.
7. To include original research describing recent advances in health particularly clinical studies, clinical trials, and assessments of pathogens of diagnostic importance, medical genetics and epidemiological studies.
8. To include various issues in the domain of public health, drug research and medical education as review articles.

EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Chief Editor has full authority over the editorial content of the journal. There is no interference in the evaluation; selection or editing of individual articles either directly or by creating an environment that strongly influences decisions.

MANUSCRIPT PROCESSING
Upon the initial submission of the manuscript, the author is acknowledged and allocated a reference member for future correspondence. This process takes place within 2 days. The manuscript is categorized according to the type of article into Original, Review, Short communication, Case Report and so forth. Each type of article has a special format and should comply with the updated PAFMJ Instruction to Authors, which are published in all issues and available on website. Normally an article is reviewed by at least two subject experts and the other member of the editorial committee.
If the reviewer has not sent review within stipulated period, a first and second reminder letters are sent within 2-3 weeks. If after the 2nd reminder the reviewer fails to reply, the article is referred to the new reviewer. The usual delay is in the reviewing process owing to the reviewer's professional and academic commitments. The reviewer's comments are communicated to the author. The revised version of the article is sent back to the reviewers. Due to variable response from authors and reviewers the length of time required for processing of article is also variable. However, it generally takes 4 to 6 months for the acceptance of an article on fast track. The article may be declined at peer review stage in accordance with the reviewers comments.
The author will be given 2 weeks to incorporate the reviewers’ comments in the revised manuscript. First reminder will be given at three weeks if the author does not comply with the time lines. Second reminder will be given at 4th week. The article will be declined if no response is received (after two reminders) from the corresponding author concerned. Accepted manuscript is then handed to statistician for data analysis and verification of references respectively. Finally the acceptance letter is issued.

AUTHORSHIP AND CONTRIBUTORSHIP
An "author" is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a study. Authorship credit should be based on:
1. Substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data.
2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
3. Final approval of the version to be published. Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, and 3.

It is important to note that:
a. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship.
b. All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship, and all those who qualify should be listed.
c. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
d. Once authorship certificate is submitted no further change will be allowed in the sequence and addition of new authors.

EDITORIAL OFFICE
The editorial office has been established at AM College, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
The editorial advisory board will be as per following appointments.

Surgeon General	Chairman
Chief Editor PAFMJ/Principal, AM College	Member
Director General Medicine	Member
Director General Surgery	Member
Commandant AFPGMI, RWP	Member
Deputy Surgeon General	Member
DGMS (Navy)	Member
DGMS (Air)	Member

 

A meeting of editorial advisory board is held as often as required to give approval/decision on matters forwarded by editor pertaining to any change in the existing policy, appointment/deletion of any member of the editorial board and any other point.

THE EDITORIAL BOARD
The members of the editorial board are appointed keeping in view their professional competence (advisors) in different fields of medical sciences. The aim is to have members with wide experience in different fields of medical sciences. In addition to senior specialists from Armed Forces, senior professionals from civil sector as well as from foreign countries are co-opted with approval of the editorial advisory board.

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
An editorial committee consisting of chief editor, editor, joint editor(s), assistant editor(s) and the editorial secretaries meet at least once a month to expedite the business of the journal. The editorial committee follows the guidelines provided by International Committee of medical Journal editors in‖ Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication‖ which can be downloaded from http://www.icmje.org/

PUBLICATION TIMELINES

PAFMJ is a Bi – monthly medical journal. Timelines for print and online publications are as under:-

Issue	Month	Date
1	Jan, Feb	28th Feb
2	Mar, April	30th April
3	May, June	30th June
4	July, Aug	31st Aug
5	Sep, Oct	31st Oct
6	Nov, Dec	31st Dec

 

Supplement Issues

PAFMJ is a Bi – monthly medical journal and has a regular timelines for print and online publications. Supplement issues are collections of articles that deal with related issues or topics, are published as a separate issue of the journal or as part of a regular issue, and may be funded by sources other than the journal’s publisher. Editing by the funding organization is not permitted. The editor retains the authority to send supplement manuscripts for external peer review and to reject manuscripts submitted for the supplement with or without external review. The same principles of authorship and disclosure of relationships and activities are applied to the supplements issues.