Guide for Authors

International Journal of Medical Reviews (IJMR) follows ICMJE's Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals and Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), as well as, World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) for manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals. IJMR is a publication of Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences.

Unsolicited manuscripts will be reviewed for publication with the following understanding:

1. The paper neither was published already nor is being under review elsewhere.

2. Upon acceptance, the paper may not be published elsewhere without the permission of International Journal of Medical Reviews (IJMR).

 3. The published paper is the sole property of IJMR and may be edited before publication.

Main considerations

Manuscripts should be electronically submitted through Online Submission System.

A covering letter must be included when submitting a paper and must state the novelty of the paper.

IJMR makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in its publications. However, IJMR makes no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness or suitability for any purpose of the content and disclaim all such representations and warranties whether express or implied to the maximum extent permitted by law. Any views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and are not the IJMR views. IJMR guaranteed 21-day rapid review process.

 

Cover letter order

The corresponding author should indicate the following in a cover letter:

  1. An introduction stating the title of the manuscript and the journal to which you are submitting.
  2. The reason why your study is important and relevant to the journal’s readership or field.
  3. The question your research answers.
  4. The most important conclusions that can be drawn from review.
  5. A statement declaring that the study complies with current ethical considerations.
  6. A statement that the manuscript has not been published and is not under consideration for publication in any other journal
  7. A statement that all authors approved the manuscript and its submission to the journal.
  8. Any other details that will encourage the editor to send your manuscript for review.

 

International Journal of Medical Reviews publication benefits:

  • Free access to all articles
  • Fast and constructive peer review process (21 working days)
  • Easy and quick online submission
  • Rapid publication

Plagiarism

In case, any attempt of plagiarism is brought to our attention accompanied with convincing evidence, following steps would be taken:

 (a)      After consulting the respective Editorial Board Members, authors guilty of plagiarism will be debarred from publishing their papers in IJMR.

(b)     Heads of the Departments/Institutes of the offending authors will be intimated of such incidences of plagiarism.

c)       In case of confirmation of plagiarism on an already published article, the Editor will be obliged to withdraw the article from the journal website.

Structure and Preparation of Manuscripts

Review articles are usually solicited by the editors, but we will also consider unsolicited papers. Although, all submitted articles will get under peer review for potential acceptance in the IJMR, it is highly appreciated that authors send us a pre submission inquiry before preparing a review article. The priority for acceptance would be given to those articles which are comprehensible for the general physician, and not only to the specialist. Nonetheless, papers may include material that might be considered directed to specialists in the field covered. Articles having 3 related (in press or published)-papers cited in their review articles would have a substantial higher chance of getting an acceptance for publication, than other articles; although this is not a mandatory issue to all the authors.

Types of Articles

Manuscripts should be presented as one of the following formats.

Systematic Review or Meta-Analysis:

Authors should report systematic reviews and meta-analyses in accordance with the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement.

Systematic Reviews should contain 4000 - 4500 words, maximum number of references is 100, maximum number of illustrations/Tables is 6. For Systematic Reviews, both abstract and text of the manuscript should be subdivided into the following sequential sections:

1) Context: Provide a sentence or two explaining the importance of the review question.
2) Objective: State the precise primary objective of the review. Indicate whether the review emphasizes factors such as cause, diagnosis, prognosis, therapy, or prevention and include information about the specific population, intervention, exposure, and tests or outcomes that are being reviewed.

3) Data Sources: Succinctly summarize data sources, including years searched. Include in the search the most current information possible, ideally conducting the search several months before the date of manuscript submission. Potential sources include computerized databases and published indexes, registries, abstract booklets, conference proceedings, references identified from bibliographies of pertinent articles and books, experts or research institutions active in the field, and companies or manufacturers of tests or agents being reviewed. If a bibliographic database is used, state the exact indexing terms used for article retrieval, including any constraints (for example, English language or human subjects). If abstract space does not permit this level of detail, summarize sources in the abstract including databases and years searched, and place the remainder of the information in the "Methods" section of the text.

4) Study Selection: Describe inclusion and exclusion criteria used to select studies for detailed review from among studies identified as relevant to the topic. Under details of selection include particular populations, interventions, outcomes, or methodological designs. Specify the method used to apply these criteria (for example, blinded review, consensus, multiple reviewers). State the proportion of initially identified studies that met selection criteria.
5) Data Extraction: Describe guidelines used for abstracting data and assessing data quality and validity (such as criteria for causal inference). State the method by which the guidelines were applied (eg, independent extraction by multiple observers).

6) Results: State the main results of the review, whether qualitative or quantitative, and outline the methods used to obtain these results. For meta-analyses, state the major outcomes that were pooled and include odds ratios or effect sizes and, if possible, sensitivity analyses. Accompany numerical results by confidence intervals, if applicable, and exact levels of statistical significance. For evaluations of screening and diagnostic tests, include sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, receiver operating characteristic curves, and predictive values. For assessments of prognosis, summarize survival characteristics and related variables. State the major identified sources of variation between studies, including differences in treatment protocols, protocols, co-interventions, confounders, outcome measures, length of follow-up, and dropout rates.

7) Conclusions: Clearly state the conclusions and their applications (clinical or otherwise), limiting interpretation to the domain of the review.

Systematic reviews are welcome. They should be critical assessments of current evidence covering a broad range of topics of concern to those working in the specific field of journal. Systematic reviews should be 4000-5000 words (abstracts to be structured as above). N.B. For advice on writing systematic reviews consult: The Cochrane Reviewers' Handbook
Meta-analysis of observational studies: A MOOSE checklist is required for meta-analysis of observational studies

Reviews

A full length critical review (up to ~8000 words, including tables, figures and references) provides an abstract and discussion of the relevant literature about any topic covered within the aims and scope of the journal.

Mini Reviews

Mini Reviews are sharply focused, well-focused, well-documented examinations of timely related issues (up to ~4000 words, including tables, figures and references). The issues may be of a controversial nature, or may address a more narrowly focused area than those typically covered in a review.

Letters to Editor

Letter to Editor presents the author’s opinion (up to ~1000 words limited to one figure/table with limited references). If such a letter criticizes an article already published in the journal, then the authors of the original article will be given a chance to respond in the same issue in which the letter is published.

Editorials

Opinion piece, policy statement, or general commentary, typically written by staff of the publication (up to ~1000 words limited to one figure/table with limited references). (The similar value “article-commentary” is reserved for a commentary on a specific article or articles, which is written by an author with a contrasting position, not an editor or other publication staff.)

Data registries reports are very welcomed and we appreciate any reports, even in the form of an original articles from data registries that review data of a large number of patients in a special disease/health area.

Research protocols and medical perspectives is another type of papers that will be peer reviewed for potential publication in this journal. These type of papers focuses on the priority for future research on particular aspects of medicine that can have substantial impact on the health of the populations, or specific diseases. Moreover, cost-effectiveness of drugs used for different diseases, and proposing priorities for research in individual specialties and subspecialties with defining important aspects of health management in the developing world or special countries based on their financial and economic characteristics.

Medical Progress articles provide comprehensive overviews of important clinical topics, with the primary focus on developments during the past few years or a decade. Each article details how the insight to a disease, health dilemma, and/or diagnostic/therapeutic approaches have evolved through recent years.

Editorials are almost always solicited, although unsolicited editorials may occasionally be considered, if providing a highly interesting and novel principle which is of high interest for the majority of the journal readers.

Health Law and Medical Ethics: if focus on topics of interest are highly appreciated and will be considered for publication after peer review.

Letters to the Editor can be submitted about articles recently published in the Journal, or they can be concise articles, such as reports of novel cases or series.

Conflicts of Interest: Authors MUST NOT have significant financial contributions to a company that produces a product/drug discussed in the article. It should be declared in the article.

Plagiarism: IJMR is highly meticulous on the subject of plagiarism, and articles including plagiarisms either in their literature or content would be rapidly rejected.

General Considerations

  • There are no page charges for publication in IJMR.
  • Manuscript should be written in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these).
  • All manuscripts must be typed double spaced, single column, in size 12 font and adequate margins should be left.
  • No manuscripts submitted to the journal can exceed 8000 words.
  • Submitted manuscripts to the IJMR should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  2. The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
  3. Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  4. The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  5. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
  6. If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.

Copyright Notice

The Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciencesis the copyright owner of the published material. However, according to Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing, all works published in this journal are open access and immediately available to anyone on the web site of the journal without cost. You may not modify, copy, distribute, transmit, display, or publish any materials contained on the Journal without the prior written permission of it or appropriate copyright owner.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Publication Fee

From May 2022, the processing publication charge of articles (including: all kinds of Review (Systematic Review, Mini Review, Narrative Review, ... ) and  Original Article)  in International Journal of Medical Reviews is 4,000,000 Rials. Also, from 2023, the article processing charge for other countries is 200$.

Editorial and Publishing Process