Submission of Articles

The Journal welcomes the submission of manuscripts that fulfill the general criteria of significance and reports material with excellence. The whole process from initial submission to publication if accepted, takes around 12-weeks.

The covering letter should include the corresponding author's full address and telephone (cell and landline number) and fax numbers. A letter of undertaking – Author Certification Form (download from website www.jsp.org.pk) must be signed by all authors with their academic qualifications, designations, e mail addresses and cell phone numbers. Contribution of each author to the manuscript must be mentioned according to ICMJE criteria. All authors will be responsible for the reported material.

For electronic submission of manuscripts used OJS portal after getting registration. All material including text, and tables can be send in a single Microsoft Word file (preferably in Times New Roman font size 12). The figures should be in JPEG format and of high resolution. These should be uploaded (sent) as separate file. Those who find it difficult to make submission through OJS portal may submit manuscripts as e-mail attachment to the Editorial Office at “ jsurgpakistan@yahoo.com “. An acknowledgement shall be made automatically on receiving the required material when submission is made through OJS portal. 

Types of Articles

Types of manuscripts that may be submitted include:

Original Articles: These should describe new and carefully confirmed findings. The experimental procedures should be given in sufficient detail for others to re produce the work.

Short Communications: A short communication is suitable for recording the results of small investigations or giving details of new models or hypothesis, innovative methods, techniques or apparatus. The style of this category conforms to that of original article.

Review Articles: Submissions of review articles are welcomed and encouraged. These should be concise up to 3000 words. The number of references may be according to the requirement. Systematic reviews are preferred.

Case Reports: A clinically observed rare finding, a new aspect or phenomenon can be reported under this category.

Letter to the Editor: Letter can be written on some important aspect to be shared with readers or a comment on published manuscript. The word count limit is 400 with 3 references.

Other Categories: The journal offers many other categories depending upon the subject of research and quality of evidence brought forward. Such categories include Short Articles, Clinical Practice Articles, Evidence Based Reports, Surveys, KAP studies, Audits etc.

Manuscript Review Process

All manuscripts are assessed initially in an in-house review by one of the members of editorial board. This is for the conformity with the journal style and importance of subject in relation to latest information available in literature. Following initial assessment, the manuscript if judged suitable, is checked for similarity with published literature. As per Higher Education Commission of Pakistan guidelines, overall similarity index of manuscript must not exceed 19% and from single source not more than 5%. It is authors’ responsibility to run the similarity check before submission. The journal has zero tolerance for plagiarism. After initial editorial triage the manuscript is sent for external review to at least two reviewers. JSP follows double blind review process. Two weeks are given for the review. Authors are given two weeks to send the revised version after addressing reviewers’ observations and point-wise explanation where they agree or have their own view point with reference to literature, against the comments. The final decision is then taken by editorial board. Editors may send the revised version for re review either to same or a new reviewer if there is controversy. The accepted manuscripts then undergo copy editing according to format of the journal. Final draft is then send to the authors for approval before publication.

General Format

All sections of the manuscript must be typed double-spaced and all pages numbered starting from the title page.

Original Article

The length of the paper should not cross 2000 words (excluding abstract and references).

The Title should be a brief phrase describing the content of the paper.

The Title Page should include authors' full names and affiliations, the name of the corresponding author along with phone number and e mail address. Present address of the authors should appear as a footnote. The word count of the manuscript has to be mentioned and a brief running title provided in title page.

Complete sentences, active verbs, and the third person language should be used. It should be written in the past tense. Standard nomenclature should be used and abbreviations should be avoided. Each abbreviation should be spelled out and introduced in parentheses the first time it is used in the text. Only recommended SI units should be used.

Abstract section should be informative and reflect the study conducted. It must be structured for original article including Objective, Study design, Place and duration of study, Methodology, Conclusion and Keywords (3 -5). No background is needed. For original article About 250 word abstract is recommended.

Introduction section should provide a clear statement of the problem, the relevant literature on the subject, gaps in the knowledge and rationale of the study. Usually three to four paragraphs are expected. No more than 10 references are suggested for this section. References must be in numerical order, and preferably less than five years old. References must be written as superscript.

Methods section should be in sufficient detail to allow the experiments to be reproduced by other scientists. Only new procedures should be described in detail. Previously published procedures should be cited, and important modifications of published procedures should be mentioned briefly. Capitalize trade names and include the manufacturer's name and address. Methods in general use need not be described in detail.

Study design, place and duration of study, ethical considerations (IRB approval letter with number and informed consent information) inclusion and exclusion criteria, sample size estimation, study protocol including variables analyzed, statistical analysis of the data must be described in detail under separate headings. All statistical tests applied must be mentioned. Significant level and confidence interval, where applicable, be defined. Actual values must be mentioned. All numbers must be accompanied with percentages.

Results section should be presented with clarity and precision. The results should be written in the past tense. Results should be explained but not discussed and without referring to the literature. Statistical values calculated must be written. The sentence mentioning p value as less than 0.05 is not acceptable. Provide actual p values calculated for all variables. The data described in text must not be put in table and vice versa. Use tables where appropriate. 

Discussion section should describe detailed interpretation of data and must not repeat what is already written in result part. Pertinent literature support is needed for any statement and no assumption is allowed. Use appropriate references in numerical order, and if repeated should carry the same number. Compare and contrast the study findings with the reported literature rather than merely citing. 

Limitations of the study must be described and future directions mentioned in the form of recommendations at the end of this section.  

Conclusion section must relate to the outcome of the study and no recommendations be put in it.

Disclosure Source of grant and funding must be mentioned. If study is based upon a thesis or dissertation, then its details must be provided. Authors must provide a detail if part of the data related to the study is presented previously in any scientific conference or other educational platform. 

Competing Interest: Any potential or actual competing interest must be declared.

Ethics Statement: All studies must be conducted after getting Institution Review Board permission. Submit scanned copy of approval letter and its number with date. Informed consent statement is also required.

Tables should be kept to a minimum. Tables should be typed double-spaced throughout, including headings and footnotes. Each table should be on a separate page, numbered consecutively in Roman numerals and supplied with a heading and a legend. Tables should be self-explanatory without reference to the text. The data should not be presented in both table and graphs or repeated in the text. Tables should be prepared in Microsoft Word.

Figure legends should be typed in numerical order on a separate sheet. Graphics should be prepared using applications capable of generating high resolution JPEG.  Use Roman numerals to designate figures and upper case letters for their parts. Begin each legend with a title and include sufficient description so that the figure is understandable without reading the text of the manuscript. Information given in legends should not be repeated in the text.

References: In the text, a reference identified by means of a number in superscript style that shall remain constant throughout the manuscript. References should be listed at the end of the paper in numerical order.  Articles in preparation or articles submitted for publication, unpublished observations, personal communications, etc. should not be included in the reference list. For articles with more than 6 authors add et al after sixth names. Journal names are abbreviated according to Vancouver style. The number of references must be between 15 – 25. Most of the references must be from the last five years. It is preferable to add DOI of reference if available.

Short Communications They should present a complete study that is more limited in scope than is found in full-length papers. The items of manuscript preparation listed for original article apply to the Short Communications with the following differences: (1) Abstract (unstructured) limited to 150 words; (2) Word count of 1200 words (3) Maximum of 10 references (4) One table.

Case Reports:  An unstructured abstract of 100 words including salient features with key words and main body of text including introduction, report and discussion sections are required. The word limit is 1000. The number of references must not exceed 10. Up to three figures are allowed. Permission from the patient to use the picture is mandatory. All efforts must be made so that identity of the patient is not disclosed. 

Proofs and Reprints: Electronic proofs will be sent to the corresponding author as a PDF file. Page proofs are considered to be the final version of the manuscript. With the exception of typographical or minor clerical errors, no changes will be made in the manuscript at the proof stage.

Article Processing Charges: Authors are required to pay APC at submission. If article is accepted for publication then publication charges shall be levied.

Copyright: Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, or thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY)

The license permits any use, share, copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, adapt,  remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, as long as the authors and the original source are properly cited.

Reporting Guidelines

A well reported research conveys the message clearly without any ambiguity. The standard pattern of reporting helps in understanding how research is conducted and if someone plans to replicate the same, it is done without any difficulty. Methodology part is the most important part of the manuscript. A checklist helps in preparing and writing the manuscript.

“The EQUATOR (Enhancing the Quality and Transparency Of health Research) Network is an international initiative that aims to improve the quality of research publications. It provides a comprehensive list of reporting guidelines and other material to help improve reporting” These guidelines are available on the network.

Following are few reporting guidelines for common study designs:

• Randomized controlled trials – CONSORT
• Systematic reviews – PRISMA
• Observational studies – STROBE
• Diagnostic/prognostic studies – STARD / TRIPOD
• Case reports – CARE
• Qualitative research – COREQ

• Article may be submitted via e mail at  jsurgpakistan@yahoo.com