Submissions

General: Iraqi National Journal of Medicine (IqNJM) is peer-reviewed, open access, a biannual publication with a single volume, and two issues. The journal is published by the Iraqi Association for Medical Research and Studies (IAMRS).

Aim: IqNJM aims are to support the research community and promote conducting high-standard scientific research in Iraq and the region, facilitating the development of medical research, education and health services and providing an opportunity to authors to their work widely spread and increase the visibility of it by open access policy,  to make Iraqi and regional scientific work available to the widest possible global audience so Researchers all over the world can evaluate it and use that data to have a more global scientific view. IqNJM tries to achieve its goal by the following measures:

 

1. Authors support and Author friendly policy.

• Free of charge submission, reviewing, biostatistical evaluation, plagiarism scanning, proofreading, publication, and printing
• Author-friendly submission policy makes it easy for the Author to communicate with us by email, WhatsApp, or other.
• Peer review, acceptance, and publication time range from 3-6months

 

2. implementing the Research and Publication ethics by creating an Ethical committee in the Iraqi Association for Medical research and studies (IAMRS) & IqNJM that is reviewing the Author’s Documents and papers Provided by institutional Ethical committees and manuscripts for errors in these fields and ensuring that the paper is the fulfilment of the highest world  Research Ethic’s standards  According to Helsinki declaration, ARRIVE (Animals in Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments) statement, rules of the National Institution of Health (NIH) in the care and use of animal in medical research, and the core practice Guidelines of COPE for publication Ethics.

 

3. The journal is working hard to be indexed in the widest indexing sites in the world. After it has been indexed in the official Iraqi indexing site the Iraqi Academic Scientific journals IASJ and international indexing in EBSCO it is also Archived and receiving DOI from Crossref, the journal is working to be included in DOAJ, PubMed, and Scopus.
4. IqNJM has the Open Journal System to facilitate the transparency of its work.

 

Scope: The IqNJM covers all fields of medicine with a special interest in publications with clinical relevance. Basic sciences/ experimental studies are also welcomed, the journal is accepting a wide range of scientific work like original articles (including randomized controlled trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, outcome studies, cost-effectiveness analyses, case-control series and surveys with high response rate), review of literature and meta-analysis, Cohort studies, Clinical trials, case series and case reports, ideas and innovations, letters to the editor, Discussions. IqNJM targets national, regional, and international research and is directed to the worldwide Audience.

 

Open Access: This is an open-access journal, published as an online and paper version is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

 

Ethics of publication: The journal follows the international standards of publication according to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Office of Research Integrity (ORI), International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

 

Submission:

First-time users will have to register at this site. Registration is FREE but mandatory. Registered authors can keep track of their articles after logging into the site using their username and password.

https://www.iqnjm.com/index.php/homepage/about/submissions

Authors can use Email ([email protected]) or WhatsApp ( 009647801336393 or 009647721669983) or other social media to communicate with the journal office.

 

Preparation of manuscript

The language of the manuscript should be English (United States of America)

1- Covering letter: This should include the corresponding author and all the contributing authors with their scientific degrees, places of work, and contact information. All authors need to sign the acceptance of the right of publication by the IqNJM. To download the Covering letter click here.

 

2- Title Page: The type of manuscript (original article, case report, review article, Letter to editor, Images, etc.) title of the manuscript, running title, names of all authors/ contributors (with their highest academic degrees, designation and affiliations) and name(s) of the department(s) and/ or institution(s) to which the work should be credited.

 

3- Blinded Article file: The manuscript/text must not contain any mention of the authors' names or initials or the institution at which the study was done or acknowledgements. Manuscripts not in compliance with The Journal's blinding policy will be returned to the corresponding author. The main text of the article, beginning from the Abstract to References (including tables and images) should be in this file. The abstract  must be structured including background, objectives, methods, results, conclusions, and Keywords

 

 

Structure of the Manuscript

1. Introduction and aim of the study
2. Materials and Methods
3. Results
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
6. Acknowledgements
7. Conflict of interest
8. Authors contribution
9. References

 

Text format

• The text should be in American English format, in 12-point Times New Roman font, and double-spaced.
• The style of the main titles like Introduction, material and methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Recommendations, and References; should be written in all caps format, 12 point Times New Roman font, bold, black.
• The subtitles should be in the 12-point Times New Roman font, bold, black.

Tables

• Tables should be self-explanatory and should not duplicate textual material. Tables with more than 10 columns and 25 rows are not acceptable.
• Number tables, in Arabic numerals, consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each.
• Place explanatory matter in the footnotes, not in the heading.
• Explain in the footnotes all non-standard abbreviations that are used in each table.
• Obtain permission for all fully borrowed, adapted, and modified tables and provide a credit line in the footnote.
• For footnotes use the following symbols, in this sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ||,¶, **, ††, ‡‡
• Tables with their legends should be provided at the end of the text after the references. The tables along with their number should be cited at the relevant place in the text.
• When referred to in the text should have the following format Eg. (Table 6)

Figures

• Upload the images in JPEG format. The file size should be within 4 MB in size while uploading. Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text.
• Labels, numbers, and symbols should be clear and of uniform size. The lettering for figures should be large enough to be legible after reduction to fit the width of a printed column.
• Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background and should be marked neatly with transfer type or by tissue overlay and not by pen.
• Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends for illustrations not on the illustrations themselves.
• When graphs, scatter-grams or histograms are submitted the numerical data on which they are based should also be supplied.
• The photographs and figures should be trimmed to remove all the unwanted areas.
• If photographs of individuals are used, their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph.
• If a figure has been published elsewhere, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. A credit line should appear in the legend for such figures.
• Legends for illustrations: Type or print out legends (maximum 40 words, excluding the credit line) for illustrations using double spacing, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations.
• When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one in the legend. Explain the internal scale (magnification) and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.
• Final figures for print production: If uploaded images are not printable quality, the publisher's office may request higher resolution images which can be sent at the time of acceptance of the manuscript. Send sharp, glossy, un-mounted, color photographic prints, with a height of 4 inches and width of 6 inches at the time of submitting the revised manuscript.
• The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size.
• When referred to in the text should have the following format E.g. (Fig. 6)

 

References

The Journal uses the Vancouver Style of referencing

In-text citations: Indicate references by number(s) in square brackets in line with the text. The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given.

Reference list: Number the references (numbers in square brackets) in the list in the order in which they appear in the

text.

 

Article example

[1] Paivio A, Jansen B, Becker LJ. Comparisons through the mind’s eye. Cognition 1975;37(2):635–47.

Book example

• Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996

Chapter in a book

• Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995. p. 465-78.

Conference paper

• Bengtsson S, Solheim BG. Enforcement of data protection, privacy and security in medical informatics. In: Lun KC, Degoulet P, Piemme TE, Rienhoff O, editors. MEDINFO 92. Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Medical Informatics; 1992 Sep 6-10; Geneva, Switzerland. Amsterdam: North-Holland; 1992. p. 1561-5.

 

Note shortened form for the last page number. e.g., 51–9, and that for more than 6 authors, the first 6 should be listed followed by ‘et al.’ For further details, you are referred to ‘Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals’(J Am Med Assoc 1997;277:927–34), see also http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html

 

 

Editorial Process: A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to IqNJM alone at that point in time and has not been published anywhere or simultaneously submitted/accepted for publication elsewhere. All submitted manuscripts are checked for plagiarism. Manuscripts are then sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers for assessing the scientific quality of the manuscript. The Journal follows a double-blind review process. The comments and suggestions (i.e., acceptance or rejection of or revisions in the manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author. If a manuscript is requested to be revised, the author(s) is requested to provide a point-by-point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. Manuscripts accepted for publication are copyedited for language, grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within one week.

 

Peer Reviewers: Manuscripts submitted to journals are privileged communications that are authors’ private, confidential property, Reviewers therefore should keep manuscripts and the information they contain strictly confidential. Reviewers must not publicly discuss authors’ work and must not appropriate authors’ ideas before the manuscript is published. Reviewers must not retain the manuscript for their personal use and should destroy copies of manuscripts after submitting their reviews.

Reviewers are expected to respond promptly to requests to review and to submit reviews within the time agreed. Reviewers’ comments should be constructive, honest, and polite. Reviewers should declare their relationships and activities that might bias their evaluation of a manuscript and recuse themselves from the peer-review process if a conflict exists.

 

Authorship and Acknowledgement: Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to each of the four components mentioned below:

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.

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 suitable acknowledgements may include people who assisted with technical analysis, manuscript preparation, study design, or data collection. Other entities may include funders, in-kind contributors, clinician investigators, or interviewers. Additional guidance on authorship and acknowledgements is provided by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors ICMJE, Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors   

Conflict of Interest/Competing Interests: All authors must disclose all conflicts of interest they may have with publication of the manuscript or an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented. Authors should also disclose conflict of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.

If IqNJM receives a manuscript for publication consideration from its Editorial Board members, IqNJM ensures that the entire editorial process is carried out in an unbiased manner and that members who may have a conflict of interest with the manuscript do not take part in any editorial decision of the manuscript. The peer review of such a manuscript is completed by reviewers with no conflict of interest.

 

Ethical Approval of Studies/Informed Consent: Authors of manuscripts describing experimental studies on either humans or animals must supply to the Editor a statement that the study was approved by an institutional review committee or ethics committee and that the subjects gave informed consent. Such approval should be described in the Methods section of the manuscript. Additionally, for studies conducted with human subjects, the method by which informed consent was obtained from the participants (i.e., verbal or written) also needs to be stated in the Methods section.

In those situations where a formal institutional review board process is not available, the authors must indicate that the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki have been followed. More information regarding the Declaration of Helsinki can be found at (https://www.wma.net/policy/)

 

For experiments involving animals, investigators must state the care of animals and licensing guidelines under which the study was performed and report these in accordance with the ARRIVE (Animals in Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments) statement and rules of the National Institution of Health (NIH) in the care and use of animal in medical research.

All of these documents will be reviewed by the Join committee of IAMRS & IqNJM for research and publication Ethics.

 

Registering Clinical Trials: IqNJM requires all articles reporting results of clinical trials to be registered in a public trials registry that conforms with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). All clinical trials, regardless of when they were completed, and secondary analyses of original clinical trials must be registered before submission of a manuscript based on the trial. Phase I trials designed to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity are exempt.

Manuscripts reporting on clinical trials (as defined above) should indicate that the trial is registered and include the registry information on a separate page, immediately following the author’s financial disclosure information. Required registry information includes the trial registry name, registration identification number, and the URL for the registry.

 

Protection of Patients' Rights to Privacy: Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent/guardian, wherever applicable) provides informed consent for publication. The authors should remove patients' names from figures unless they have obtained informed consent from the patients. The journal abides by the ICMJE guidelines:

• Authors, and not the Journal or its Publisher, need to obtain the patient consent form before submitting their work for publication consideration to IqNJM. The authors should ensure that this patient consent form(s) are properly archived. The consent forms are not to be uploaded with the cover letter or sent through email to the Editorial or Publisher offices.
• If the manuscript contains patient images that preclude anonymity or a description that has an obvious indication of the identity of the patient, a statement about obtaining informed patient consent should be indicated in the manuscript.

The policy of Allegation of misconduct:

Publication of a manuscript in a journal shows the relation of trust between an author and publisher. It is expected from the authors that they would be aware of research misconduct. IqNJM uses this definition of misconduct in its dealing with the issue and follows strictly the COPE flowcharts in dealing with research misconduct. Falsification, fabrication, and plagiarism are the primary concerns in avoiding research misconduct. Any divergence from these norms undermines the integrity of research.

Falsification and Fabrication of data

Fabrication is defined as making up data without actually collecting or synthesizing scientific data. Falsification is defined as the manipulation of research material to reach a favourable result. Fabrication and falsification could happen at any stage of research (in the field) up to the publication of a manuscript where misuse of citation can occur (referencing a citation when the citation does not support the argument). IqNJM tries to identify any kind of fabrication or falsification in all levels of manuscript processing, from initial screening to comprehensive evaluation of a revised manuscript and even after a manuscript has been published. Report of any fabrication and falsification is an ethical duty of our authors, co-authors, reviewers, editors, and readers. In any event of falsification or fabrication, IqNJM keeps its right to retract or withdraw the fabricated or falsified article.

Fabricated Data - COPE flowchart

 

Plagiarism

All manuscripts are checked for plagiarism. As a matter of quality assurance, a similarity of more than 20% in the text of a manuscript will be returned to the author to remove the similarities and reduce the chance of plagiarism.  IqNJM strictly follows the COPE in dealing with plagiarized articles. 

Plagiarism of submitted manuscript COPE flowchart

 

If the Editor or a reviewer is concerned that some aspect of a submitted article may constitute misconduct in research, publication, or professional behaviour, the Journal communicates the same to the author(s) and seeks clarification. However, if the concerns are not satisfactorily resolved by discussion with the author(s), the Journal may report the same to appropriate authorities such as their institutions and, for duplicate publication, the journal in which the previous publication had appeared.

The Journal also encourages its readers to report any published article in which they suspect misconduct through e-mail or letter. The anonymity of the complainant would always be maintained.

 

We disapprove of such unethical practices as plagiarism, fabrication, duplication, data manipulation/falsification, and efforts to influence the review process with such practices as gifting authorship, inappropriate acknowledgements, and references in line with the COPE flowcharts.

 

 

Copyrights: In respect to the Iraqi Copyright Protection Law No. (3) of 1971 we are declaring our copyrights policy

For Authors

As soon as an article is accepted for publication, authors will be requested to assign copyright of the article or manuscript to the journal and publisher. This will ensure the widest possible protection and dissemination of information under copyright laws. Also, the Authors should notice that the journal is publishing its contents on the web as an open-access journal and making numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use according to the creative commons attribution – non-commercial 4.0 International (CCBY-NC) license.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

More information about Iraqi copyright law can be found in the link below http://iraqld.hjc.iq:8080/LoadLawBook.aspx?SC=031220056443402

For Readers

While the advice and information in this journal are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors, the editor nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher makes no warranty concerning the material contained herein. The entire contents of the Iraqi National Journal of Medicine are protected under Iraqi and international copyrights. However, the Journal grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy use distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights.

 

Policies of Complain and Appeals: This procedure applies to complaints about the publishing policies, procedures, and/or actions of the Iraqi National Journal of Medicine editorial staff. This complaint must relate to content or a procedure that was the responsibility of the IqNJM or its Editor.

 

How to register a complaint

Complaints can be registered by phone, e-mail, or letter to the address provided in the Contacts section. The Journal prefers communication through e-mail because it allows for a reliable trail. All complaints are acknowledged at the earliest. The complaint would be followed-up in an unbiased manner and be handled by the person to whom they are made, if possible. The Journal aims to resolve any complaint raised within 2–4 weeks; however, if that is not possible, an interim response would be provided until the complaint is resolved.

 

External body

If a complainant remains unsatisfied with the final decision of the Editor, the complainant may complain to an external body such as Committee on Publication Ethics, when that body has relevant oversight.

 

Policies of post-publication Discussions and corrections: Corrections are needed for errors of fact. Matters of the debate are best handled as letters to the editor, like print or electronic correspondence. Updates of previous publications (e.g., an updated systematic review or clinical guideline) are considered a new publication rather than a version of a previously published article.

 

If a correction is needed, journals are following these standards: The journal will publish a correction notice as soon as possible detailing changes from and citing the original publication; the correction should be on an electronic or numbered print page that is included in an electronic or a print Table of Contents to ensure proper indexing.

• The journal also will 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 can be either directly accessible to readers or can 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.

 

 

Policies for intellectual properties:

 

Duplicate Submission

Authors should not submit the same manuscript, in the same or different languages, simultaneously to more than one journal. The rationale for this standard is the potential for disagreement when two (or more) journals claim the right to publish a manuscript that has been submitted simultaneously to more than one journal, and the possibility that two or more journals will unknowingly and unnecessarily undertake the work of peer review, edit the same manuscript, and publish the same article.

 

Duplicate and Prior Publication

A duplicate publication is a publication of a paper that overlaps substantially with one already published, without clear, visible reference to the previous publication. Prior publication may include the release of information in the public domain. In the event of a public health emergency (as defined by public health officials), information with immediate implications for public health should be disseminated without concern that this will preclude subsequent consideration for publication in a journal. We encourage editors to give priority to authors who have made crucial data publicly available (e.g., in a gene bank) without delay. The ICMJE will not consider as prior publication the posting of trial results in any registry that meets the criteria noted in Section III.L. If results are limited to a brief (500 words) structured abstract or tables (to include participants enrolled, key outcomes, and adverse events). The ICMJE encourages authors to include a statement with the registration that indicates that the results have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, and to update the results registry with the full journal citation when the results are published.

Authors who attempt duplicate publication without such notification should expect at least prompt rejection of the submitted manuscript. If the editor was not aware of the violations and the article has already been published, then the article might warrant retraction with or without the author’s explanation or approval.

 

Acceptable Secondary Publication

Secondary publication of material published in other journals or online may be 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). Secondary publication for various other reasons may also be justifiable provided the following conditions are met:

1. The authors have received approval from the editors of both journals (the editor concerned with secondary publication must have access to the primary version).

2. The priority of the primary publication is respected by a publication interval negotiated by both editors and the authors.

3. The paper for secondary publication is intended for a different group of readers; an abbreviated version could be sufficient.

4. The secondary version faithfully reflects the authors, data, and interpretations of the primary version.

5. 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 reference.

6. The title of the secondary publication should indicate that it is a secondary publication (complete or abridged republication or translation) of a primary publication.

 

Funding policies: the IqNJM is depending on its funding from the owner of the journal IAMRS and donations. It depends on its work on voluntary workers with no salary paid to any one of its staff.

 

Advertisement: for the time being IqNJM accepts no advertisement neither on its website nor in the print version but this policy is applicable to change according to future circumstances.

 

Marketing Activities: the IqNJM in its print version is distributed to the Authors and universities in Iraq and scientific Institutions that have a collaboration with IAMRS and to Iraqi scientists free of charge.