JWMC aims to stick to ICJME guidelines, COPE Authorship and contribution for publication.

 As per ICJME guidelines, an author must have,

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
4. 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.

Corresponding author:

The JWMC will consider corresponding author sole responsible for responding to editorial queries during publication process starting with manuscript submission and peer review. The corresponding author will receive the reviewers’ comments and accordingly will make readjustment before re-submission. His contact details are printed on the article so that readers can request reprints or contact the research group. The corresponding author will be responsible to determine that all individuals named as authors meet all four criteria and to ensure non-author contributors are acknowledged. In case if submitted manuscript is authored by a group, the corresponding author should clearly identify the group name and members as authors. The journal requires submission of a signed Authorship and Contribution Declaration form by the corresponding author, clearly stating each author’s last name against following appropriate categories:

• Study conception and design
• Accusation of data
• Analysis and interpretation of data
• Drafting of manuscript
• Critical revisions

The journal will not accept any request for the removal or addition of any author after manuscript submission/publication.

Expectation from authors:

Authors are expected to follow all principles of authorship and declaration of conflict of interest in the submission process. Authors will be responsible for any information written/informed/reported in the submitted manuscript. It is author’s responsibility to obtain signed permission from the copyright holder to use and reproduce text, illustrations, tables, etc., published previously in other journals, electronic or print media. Authors are not permitted to post the work on any website/blog/forum/board or at any other place, by any means, from the time such work is submitted to the JWMC until the final decision on the paper has been given to them. In case a manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors may not post the work in its entirety on any website/blog/forum/board or at any other place, by any means, till the paper is published in the JWMC. The authors may, however, post the title, authors’ names, and their affiliations and abstract, with the following statement on the first page of the paper – “The manuscript has been accepted for publication in JWMC”. After publication of the article, it may be posted anywhere with full journal citation included. Before acceptance of a manuscript for publication, a corresponding author and all co-authors of the manuscript will sign and submit a complete undertaking and authorship agreement.

Order of authors: 

The ICMJE guidelines state that the order of authorship, should be ‘a joint decision of the co-authors. Authors should ideally make these decisions before starting to write up the project.

Number of authors: 

There is no limit to this but since we use the Vancouver style of referencing names of only the first six authors will be available whenever anyone cites their article.

Acknowledgements:

The ICMJE guidelines state: ‘All others who contributed to the work who are not authors should be named in the Acknowledgments, and what they did should be described’. All those who are listed in this way should be aware of it. We permit acknowledgement of contributions to a research project that do not merit authorship.

Further Readings:

• Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors
• How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers

JWMC follows transparency and best practice of Directory of Open Access Journal, (DOAJ), the Committee on Publication Ethics, (COPE), and the World Association of Medical Editors, (WAME). No advertisement is entertained by JWMC.

 E-prints will be sent out automatically to the corresponding author of articles published ahead of print and in-print issues. A link will provide to the authors for downloading the article directly from the JWMC website and forwarding the link to their co-authors, peers, or anyone.

All appeals and complaints regarding (but not limited to) misconduct, authorship conflicts or plagiarism in publications at JWMC will be directed to JWMC Complaint and Appeal Scrutiny Committee. Authors whose articles have been rejected have the right to send a letter of appeal giving detailed explanations. This will be reviewed in-house, and a decision will be taken accordingly. Revised articles will not be considered at this stage.

Protecting the rights of Research Participants:  

• JWMC requires submission of an Institutional Review Committee approval for all research involving human data. However, approval by a responsible review committee does not prevent the journal editor from forming his own judgment about the ethical conduct of the research
• When reporting experiments on animals, authors will indicate whether institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals were met.
• JWMC requires a written statement by the authors that they have received and archived written consent from patients.

JWMC recommends our authors to visit DOAJ Copyright licensing series which focuses on the details of copyright and licensing. JWMC permits authors to retain the copyright of their work and publish open access. They can claim copyright and full intellectual property rights, provided the right of first publication stands with JWMC. This does not conflict with the copyright remaining with the authors. When the author publishes using CC-BY-NC, they not only retain their copyright but also reserve the commercial rights exclusively, unless he/she sign an agreement with JWMC that transfers commercial rights (some rights reserved).  
Before acceptance of a manuscript for publication, corresponding author and all co-authors will sign and submit a completed Authors Copyright Agreement

JWMC expects our author(s) to obtain signed permission from the copyright holder to use and reproduce text, illustrations, tables that are published previously in other journals (electronic or print).

Kindly refer to COPE guidelines on Data and reproducibility

Data validity:

During peer review, editors and reviewers have access to methods, results, and discussion provided by the authors in the submitted research articles, including any appendices. However, JWMC do not have access to, nor do they store, raw data related to research studies, and data verification remains the responsibility of the authors who have conducted the original research.
Upon submission, authors are asked to confirm that more than one author has directly accessed and verified the data reported in the research paper, and that all authors had access to the data and accept responsibility for submitting the article for publication. The journal will publish all relevant statements provided by the authors.

Reproducing material from other sources:

It is the author’s responsibility to secure all permissions prior to submission of the manuscript. Any part of the article accessed from another source, should be accompanied by a signed letter of consent from the copyright holder, which may be the author, journal, or the publisher.

Reproducing material published by JWMC:

No part of the Journal may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any other means, electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission, in writing, from JWMC. This includes material previously published by the requesting author.

Data sharing:

JWMC requires that all research papers include a data sharing statement from the authors that details what data will be shared, whether additional documents will be shared, when data will become available, and by what access criteria data will be shared. A data sharing statement will be published in the article.

JWMC will preserve all the published content on digital repositories. In this regard JWMC will submit the metadata of all its manuscripts to LOCKSS. This service is free for the OJS (Open Journal System) users. This is to ensure the availability of the published scholarly content by JWMC to the community despite any accidental loss of data in its personal archival records. JWMC will try to ensure that the metadata of all its open access articles is compatible to all the well-known repository services and their digital crawlers may regularly collect it for record and preservation. JWMC will also try to assign Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) to all its issues and the contents to facilitate reaching their permanent links on the internet.

Role of Publisher / Editor-In-Chief in Editorial

• The JWMC will adopt the World Association of Medical Editors’ definition of editorial freedom which states that:
•  Editors-in-chief have full authority over the entire editorial content of their journal and the timing of its publication. He will also have the final authority in decisions about advertisements and sponsored content.
• It is the responsibility of the Editor in Chief to appoint and dismiss any member of the editorial team.
• Editor in Chief will provide editors at the time of their appointment with a contract that clearly states their rights, duties, authority and the general terms of their conduct.
• The editor’s performance will be assessed using mutually agreed-upon measures, including but not limited to the readership, manuscript submissions, handling times, and various journal affairs.
• Appointments and dismissals will be based on evaluations by a panel of independent experts.
• The editor in chief of the journal has an independent editorial board for establishing and maintaining editorial policy and supporting the editorial team.
• The editor in Chief will ensure that appropriate insurance is obtained in the event of legal action against the editors and will ensure that legal advice is available if and when legal problems arise, the editor will inform their legal adviser.
• The editor will have direct access to the highest level of ownership, not to any other delegated person.

JWMC follows COPE guidelines on Ethical oversight.

 All manuscripts published in JWMC must have been conducted according to international and local guidelines ensuring ethically conducted research.

 Ethics approval for all studies must be obtained before the research is conducted. Authors must be prepared to provide further information to the journal editorial office upon request.

According to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), ethical oversight should include, but is not limited to, policies on consent to publication, publication on vulnerable populations, ethical conduct of research using animals, ethical conduct of research using human subjects, handling confidential data and ethical business/marketing practices.

 JWMC is committed to considering appeals concerning the non-observance of ethical principles by our authors.

For studies involving data relating to human or animal experimental investigations, appropriate institutional review board approval is required and should be described within the article.

 For investigations involving human subjects, authors should explain how informed consent was obtained from the participants involved. Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Identifying information should not be included unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or legal guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. When informed consent has been obtained it should be indicated in the manuscript. In attempting to maintain patient anonymity, identifying details should be omitted where they are not essential. However, patient data should never be amended or falsified. Informed consent should be obtained whenever there is any doubt that anonymity can be assured.

JWMC deals with allegations of scientific misconduct on a case to case basis following guidance provided by Committee on Publication Ethics, (COPE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). WAME provides an overview of misconduct, using an amended version of the US Office of Research Integrity definition of scientific misconduct including:

If an editor has concerns that a submitted article describes something that might be considered to constitute misconduct in research, publication, we may discuss the case in confidence with JWMC Ethics Committee. The case will be process based upon the deliberations of the JWMC Ethics Committee. The committee may decide to contact author for clarification, if the case cannot be resolved by discussion with the author(s), and the committee still has concerns, he/she may report the case to the appropriate authorities.

JWMC contents will be published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0) license. By submitting research article(s) to JWMC, authors agree to freely allow sharing (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format), adapting (remix, transform and build upon the material for any purpose), under the following terms:

• Attribution: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
• No additional restrictions: You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. The copyright holder of the published article is JWMC.

We recommend our authors to visit DOAJ Copyright licensing series which focusses on the details of copyright and licensing. Before acceptance of a manuscript for publication, corresponding author and all co-authors of the manuscript will sign and submit a completed Authors Licensing Agreement.

JWMC is a biannual and peer reviewed journal which follow an open-access publishing policy and full text of all published articles is available free. The journal does not charge any fee for full text and reuse is permitted in accordance with the terms of the Creative Common Attribution 4.0 International (CC- BY 4.0) license

• Plagiarism,as defined in Concise Oxford Dictionary, is “taking and using the thoughts, writing, and invention of another person as one’s own”.
  Plagiarism, as defined in HEC Plagiarism Policy “taking and using the thoughts, writings, and inventions of another person as one’s own”.  

• The manuscripts submitted to JWMC will be screened for plagiarism using “Turnitin Software” as per the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) policy and NUMS Plagiarism policy.
• Similarity Index by Turnitin must be <19%, and from a single source, it must be <5%.
• If the similarity index is greater than 19% then the manuscript will be sent back to the author to revise manuscript and make it down to an acceptable limit.
• Permissible limit. Limit of Plagiarism As per HEC Guidelines (Annex-I), similarity index <=18%
• If an author fails to submit the manuscript with the permissible limit of plagiarism after two revisions, then the manuscript will be rejected, and further processing will be stopped.
• If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, we may publish a correction or retract it.
• Plagiarism, data fabrication, and image manipulation are not entertained.
• Plagiarism includes copying text, ideas, images, or data from another source, even from the author’s own publications, without giving any credit to the original source.
• Use of the text, copied from another source should be between quotes along with mention of the original source. In case a previous study’s design or the manuscript’s structure or language has been inspiring, these activities should also be mentioned.
• Image files must not be manipulated or adjusted in any way that could lead to misinterpretation of the information provided by the original image.
• Irregular manipulation includes: 1) introduction, enhancement, moving, or removing features from the original image; 2) grouping of images that should be presented separately (e.g., from different parts of the same image, or a different image); or 3) modifying the contrast, brightness, or color balance to obscure, eliminate or enhance some information.
• If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed during the peer review process, we may reject the manuscript. If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed after publication, we may correct or retract the paper.
• Any allegations of publication misconduct will be investigated by JWMC Editorial Staff who may contact the authors’ institutions, funders, and appropriate bodies if necessary. If evidence of misconduct is found, appropriate action will be taken to correct or retract the publication.

Reference

1. HEC Guidelines for plagiarism policy
2. https://www.springer.com/gp/authors-editors/editors/publishing-ethics-for-journals/4176#c4188

Duplicate submission:

Submission of the same manuscript in same or different languages simultaneously to more than one journal will be considered as duplicate submission.
The JWMC will not accept any duplicate submission. Authors will require a signed declaration stating that the manuscript has not been submitted elsewhere. All submitted manuscripts without such signed declaration will be rejected.

Duplicate and prior publication:

JWMC does not accept any duplicate publication. A publication of a paper that overlaps substantially with one already published, but without clear, visible reference to the previous publication will be considered as a duplicate publication by JWMC. The JWMC does not consider following as duplicate / prior publication:

• A complete report that follows publication of a preliminary report, such as a letter to the editor, a preprint, or an abstract or poster displayed at a scientific
• Any paper that has been presented at a scientific meeting but was not published in full
• In the event of a public health emergency, information with immediate implications for public health should be disseminated without concern that this will preclude subsequent consideration for publication in a journal

Acceptable secondary publication:

The materials published in other journals or online justifiable and beneficial, especially when intended to disseminate important information to the widest possible audience (e.g., guidelines produced by government agencies and professional organizations in the same or a different language) will be considered as secondary publication by JWMC. The journal will consider secondary publications for all other reasons if the following ICMJE conditions are met:

• The authors have received approval from the editors of both journals (the editor concerned with secondary publication must have access to the primary version)
• The priority of the primary publication is respected by a publication interval negotiated by both editors with the authors
• The paper for secondary publication is intended for a different group of readers; an abbreviated version could be
• The secondary version faithfully reflects the data and interpretations of the primary version.
• The secondary version informs readers, peers, and documenting agencies that the paper has been published in whole or in part elsewhere—for example, with a note that might read, “This article is based on a study first reported in the [journal title, with full reference]”—and the secondary version cites the primary
• The title of the secondary publication should indicate that it is a secondary publication (complete or abridged republication or translation) of a primary publication.

Manuscript based on the same data base:

The JWMC considers all those manuscripts as independent submissions which are received from either separate research groups or from the same group analysing the same data set (for example, from a public database, or systematic reviews or meta-analyses of the same evidence) because they may differ in their analytic methods, conclusions, or both. The JWMC will give preference to the manuscript submitted first if the data interpretation and conclusions are similar.

Secondary analyses of clinical trial data should cite any primary publication and should clearly state that it contains secondary analyses/results and use the same identifying trial registration number as the primary trial.

Correspondence:

The journal has a mechanism for submitting comments, questions,  or  criticisms  about published articles through a correspondence section or online forum. Correspondence may be edited for length, grammatical correctness, and journal style and screen discourteous, inaccurate comments. Editors will have the prerogative to reject correspondence

Supplements:

 The JWMC considers supplements as collections of papers that deal with related issues or topics, published as a separate issue of the journal or as part of a regular issue.
The JWMC may publish supplements, theme issues, and special series from time to time. The same principles of authorship, conflict of interest, confidentiality, timeliness, peer-review, integrity, scientific misconduct and secondary publication, as discussed under relevant sections will also be applicable to supplements.

Clinical trial registration:

The JWMC requires registration of clinical trials in a public trials’ registry at or before the time of first patient en-rollment as a condition of consideration for publication.

JWMC follows guidelines and policies of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in letter and spirit and operates according to HEC Ethical Guide Lines
Editors and Reviewers:

JWMC editors and reviewers are required to declare any conflicts of interest related to the manuscript they are requested to evaluate. To ensure transparent double-blind peer-review, the identities of authors are not disclosed to referees, and vice versa. Manuscripts submission by the editor/associate editor or by any member of the editorial board is not allowed as per HEC policy guidelines for the research journals.

Authors:
Authors are expected to adopt the general ethical standards in their research and writing, ensuring that:

• The submitted work or any of its essential content has not been previously published in a refereed journal and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. To ensure this, the editors screen out the submissions using the anti-plagiarism software, i.e. Turnitin.com.
• Published relevant material/work referred by the authors in their research must be properly cited as per APA formatting guidelines.
• Mentioning and acknowledging the sources of funding and significant help is the ethical obligation of the authors. It must be explicitly mentioned under the heading of ‘Compliance with the Ethical Standards’ at the end of the manuscript.
• Obtaining consent from the parties with vested interests is the ethical responsibility of the authors.

If a published paper or its essential content is found to have been published before or if any other unethical conduct by the authors is verified, the journal will take one or more of the following actions:

• Publishing a notice
• Retracting the paper
• Preventing the corresponding author from publishing in Multidisciplinary Journals
• Reporting the impropriety to the corresponding authors, co-authors, employer, head of the department (HOD), funding body, and HEC.

Authors do not pay Processing Charge and Publication Fee to cover the costs of peer review, administration and management, professional production of articles in PDF and other formats, and dissemination of published papers in various venues, in addition to other publishing functions. All the expenses are borne by Wah Medical College. There are no charges for rejected articles submissions, and no surcharges based on the length of an article, figures, or supplementary data. All the items (Editorials, Articles, Case Reports, Corrections, Addendums, Retractions, Comments, etc.) are published free of charge. All articles published in JWMC are open access and freely available online, immediately upon publication.

JWMC will publish corrections only when significant errors arise from author errors (Corrigenda) or editorial mistakes (Errata). If there is a serious complaint about a journal’s own procedures, the managing editor will confer with the corresponding author and any relevant members of the editorial board to resolve the problem. The advisory board of JWMC will be consulted if further guidance is required.

1. Correction and Retractions / Republications and Version control:

JWMC discusses matters of debate as letters to the editor or as print/electronic correspondence, or as posts in a journal-sponsored online forum. JWMC considers all updates of previous publications (e.g., an updated systematic review or clinical guideline) as new publications rather than a version of a previously published article. A correction will be published in the journal if an honest scientific error of fact is made. JWMC will follow ICMJE standards for publication of correction:

• The journal will publish a correction notice as soon as possible detailing changes from and citing the original publication; the correction will be on the electronic or numbered print page that is included in an electronic or a print Table of Contents to ensure proper indexing.
• The journal will also post a new article version with details of the changes from the original version and the date(s) on which the changes were made.
• The journal will archive all prior versions of the article. This archive will be made available to the reader on request.
• Previous electronic versions will prominently note that there are more recent versions of the article.
• The citation will be to the most recent version.
• The journal will have the right to retract any published article if the scientific errors invalidate results, interpretations and conclusion.
• Retraction with republication by the journal will only be considered when the errors are judged to be unintentional but have led to a major change in the direction or significance of the results, interpretations, and in this case, if the changed version of the paper survives further review and editorial scrutiny, only then retraction with the republication of the changed paper will be considered, with an explanation to allow full correction of the scientific literature.

2. Scientific misconduct, expressions of concern, and retraction:

The JWMC will encourage reviewers/readers to comment on ethical issues, the validity of the submitted research paper, and to identify subtle and/or blatant types of plagiarism, research, and publication misconduct (e.g. inappropriate research design, incomplete detail on participant’s consent, data manipulation). Scientific misconduct includes data fabrication and falsification. Data falsification includes deceptive manipulation of images and plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined by HEC Plagiarism Policy as “taking and using the thoughts, writings, and inventions of another person as one’s own”. These include but are not limited to the following:

• Verbatim copying, near-verbatim copying, or purposely paraphrasing portions of another author’s paper or unpublished report without citing the exact.
• Copying elements of another author’s paper, such as equations or illustrations that are not common knowledge, or copying or purposely paraphrasing sentences without citing the original source.
  
• Verbatim copying portions of another author’s paper or from reports by citing but not clearly differentiating what text has been copied (e.g. not applying quotation marks correctly) and /or not citing the source.
• The unacknowledged use of computer programs, mathematical / computer models/algorithms, computer software in all forms, macros, spreadsheets, web pages, databases, mathematical deviations and calculations, designs/models/displays of any sort, diagrams, graphs, tables, drawings, works of art of any sort, fine art pieces or artifacts, digital images, computer-aided design drawings, GIS files, photographs, maps, music/composition of any sort, posters, presentations and tracing.

• Self-plagiarism that is, the verbatim or near-verbatim re-use of significant portions of one’s own copyrighted work without citing the original.

The JWMC will carry objective checks through Turnitin and/or search for similar titles to the submitted research paper. The JWMC will carry out individual assessments of each case of alleged scientific misconduct. An investigation committee headed by the editor will contact the corresponding author with his enclosed signed authorship statement and documentary evidence of misconduct, for an explanatory response. If the investigation proves scientific misconduct, then the journal will publish a retraction of the article. The journal will prominently label the retraction, on the electronic or numbered print page or a print table of contents.

JWMC allows authors to deposit the accepted and published versions of their manuscripts in an institutional or other repository of their choice.

JWMC considers conflict of interest when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as patients’ welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain). JWMC requires that all participants in the peer-review and publication process including authors, peer reviewers, editors, and editorial board members must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as potential conflicts of interest. Submission of a signed disclosure of Conflicts of Interest certificate by all authors is mandatory at the time of submission. The manuscript will be published with the disclosure and sources of funding. Conflict of interest statements must be provided at the end of the article. If no conflict of interest is mentioned by the authors, the following statement will be used by the publisher by default: “The authors declare no conflict of interest.” Authors are required to disclose any sponsorship or funding received from any institution relating to their research. The editor(s) will determine what disclosures, if any, should be available to the readers. Upon identification of any conflict of interest, the editors may require more information from the author that may include the following:

• Acknowledgement of financial support/sponsorship in their contribution.
• Any financial involvements that might present an appearance of a conflict of interest related to the contribution are disclosed in a covering letter accompanying the contribution and all such potential conflicts of interest will be discussed with the Editor as to whether disclosure of this information with the published contribution is to be made in the journal.
• If they have signed an agreement with any sponsor of the research reported in the contribution that prevents you from publishing both positive and negative results or that forbids you from publishing this research without a prior approval of the sponsor.

• When authors submit a manuscript of any type or format, they are responsible for disclosing all relationship and activities that might bias or be seen to bias their work.

• Reviewers at the time they are asked to critique a manuscript, are asked, if they have relationships or activities that could complicate their review. They are advised to recuse themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if the potential for bias exists, by informing the editor.

• Editors who make final decisions about manuscripts are also advised to recuse themselves from editorial decisions if they have relationships or activities that pose potential conflicts related articles under consideration. All editorial staff members who participate in editorial decisions are required to provide the editors with a current description of their relationship and activities and are recused from any decisions in which an interest that poses a potential conflict exists. Editorial staff is prohibited to use any information for financial gain.

• Articles are published with statements or supporting documents, such as

   – Authors’ relationships and activities; and

  – Sources of support for the work, including sponsor names along with explanations of the role of those sources if any in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the report; any restrictions regarding the submission of the report for publication; or a statement declaring that the supporting source had no such involvement or restrictions regarding publication.

– Whether the authors had access to the study data, with an explanation of the nature and extent of access, including whether access is ongoing.

1. JWMC will follow double-blind peer review process.
2. Initial editorial screening will be done for scope and quality.
3. It will be followed by peer review from the two subject specialists independently.
4. The reviewer’s recommendation process is time bound (four -six weeks).
5. At least two reviews are required before the handling Editor decide as to whether to accept, reject, or ask for a ‘revise and resubmit’ of the submitted paper.
6. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles and his decision is final.