​​

General Information

MGM Journal of Medical Sciences is an official publication of MGM Institute of Health Sciences, Navi Mumbai, is published by the Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications, Mumbai, India, quarterly in January, April, July, and October each year. The URL of the journal website is https://www.mgmjms.com. The e-mail ID is [email protected]; [email protected]. 

Scope

MGM Journal of Medical Sciences accepts, in English, original research articles (full length and short communications), review articles, case reports, case series Editorial, Guest Editorial, Commentary, and Opinion are solicited by the editorial board. Articles concerning all aspects of Health Sciences and Biomedical Research will be considered. Articles of medical education are also welcome.

The Editorial Process

A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to MGM Journal of Medical Sciences alone at that point in time and has not been published anywhere, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere. The journal expects that authors would authorize one of them to correspond with the Journal for all matters related to the manuscript. All manuscripts received are duly acknowledged. On submission, editors review all submitted manuscripts initially for suitability for formal review. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws or lack of a significant message are rejected before proceeding for formal peer-review. Manuscripts that are unlikely to be of interest to the MGM Journal of Medical Sciences readers are also liable to be rejected at this stage itself.

Manuscripts received from Editorial Board members will be screened by the Editor in Chief and sent to external peer reviewers. The editorial board members (including Editor in Chief) who are authors will be excluded from publication decisions. Manuscripts received from the sponsoring university are subjected to the journal's usual procedures, including peer review handled by reviewers not affiliated with the same university. In addition, Editorial Board members from the sponsoring institutions are excluded from all publication processes and decisions of such manuscripts.

Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication in MGM Journal of Medical Sciences are sent to two or more expert reviewers. During submission, the contributor is requested to provide names of two or three qualified reviewers who have had experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but this is not mandatory. The reviewers should not be affiliated with the same institutes as the contributor/s. However, the selection of these reviewers is at the sole discretion of the editor. The journal follows a double-blind review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other's identity. Every manuscript is also assigned to a member of the editorial team, who based on the comments from the reviewers takes a final decision on the manuscript. The comments and suggestions (acceptance/ rejection/ amendments in manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author. If required, the author is requested to provide a point-by-point response to reviewers' comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated till reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript. Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy edited for 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 three days. It may not be possible to incorporate corrections received after that period. The whole process of submission of the manuscript to the final decision and sending and receiving proofs is completed online. To achieve faster and greater dissemination of knowledge and information, the journal publishes articles online as 'Ahead of Print' immediately on acceptance.

Processes for appeals

The authors do have the right to appeal if they have a genuine cause to believe that the editorial board has wrongly rejected the paper. If the authors wish to appeal the decision, they should email the editorial office (email: [email protected]) explaining in detail the reason for the appeal. The appeals will be acknowledged by the editorial office and will be investigated in an unbiased manner. The processing of appeals will be done within 6 – 8 weeks. While under appeal, the said manuscript should not be submitted to other journals. The final decision rests with the Editor in Chief of the journal. Second appeals are not considered.

Anti-plagiarism policy

Plagiarism includes duplicate publication of the author's work, in whole or in part without proper citation or mispresenting other's ideas, words, and another creative expression as one's own. The journal follows a strict anti-plagiarism policy. All manuscripts submitted to MGM Journal of Medical Sciences undergo plagiarism check with commercially available software URKUND.

Authors should note that:

• copying verbatim text, tables, or illustrations from any source (journal article, book, monographs, thesis, Internet/any electronic media or any other published or unpublished material) and passing it as one's own is considered plagiarism whether or not a reference to the copied portion is given.
• listing the source of copied material under 'References' does not absolve the authors of plagiarism.
• if a few lines of text are to be reproduced from any source, 'the author' and 'the source' must be indicated in the text. The reproduced lines must be in italics and given within quotes. If it is a paragraph it must be slightly indented also. To reproduce large portions of text, permission from the copyright owner(s) must be obtained and submitted to the MGM Journal of Medical Sciences.
• to reproduce tables or illustrations, permission from the copyright owner(s) must be obtained and a copy of the permission letter must be submitted to the journal. The source must be acknowledged below the table or illustration as required by the copyright owner(s).
• According to UGC guidelines, the plagiarism or similarity index should be less than 10%.

To report plagiarism, contact the journal office (email: [email protected])

Clinical trial registry

MGM Journal of Medical Sciences favors registration of clinical trials and is a signatory to the Statement on publishing clinical trials in Indian biomedical journals. MGM Journal of Medical Sciences would publish clinical trials that have been registered with a clinical trial registry that allows free online access to the public. Registration in the following trial registers is acceptable: https://ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials/login.php; http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/; http://isrctn.org/; and http://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr. ​This applies to clinical trials that have begun enrolment of subjects in or after June 2018. Clinical trials that have commenced enrolment of subjects before June 2018 would be considered for publication in MGM Journal of Medical Sciences only if they have been registered retrospectively with the clinical trial registry that allows unhindered online access to the public without charging any fees.

Authorship Criteria

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

1.      Concept and design of study or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data

2.      Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and

3.      Final approval of the version to be published.

Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content of the manuscript. The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and writing the manuscript. Once submitted the order cannot be changed without the written consent of all the contributors. The journal prescribes a maximum number of authors for manuscripts depending upon the type of manuscript, its scope, and the number of institutions involved (vide infra). The authors should justify if the number of authors exceeds these limits.

Contribution Details

Contributors should describe contributions made by each of them towards the manuscript. The description should be divided into the following categories, as applicable: concept, design, the definition of intellectual content, literature search, clinical studies, experimental studies, data acquisition, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing, and manuscript review. Authors' contributions will be printed along with the article. One or more authors should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole from inception to published article and should be designated as 'guarantor'.

Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests

All authors of articles must disclose any conflicts of interest they may have with the 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 conflicts of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript. If the articles are authored by the editorial board, the conflict of interest must be clearly stated.

Undertaking

The manuscript must be submitted with a statement, signed by all the authors, regarding the originality, authorship, and transfer of copyright as per the format given at the bottom of the page.

Mailing address

Dr. Sushil Kumar

Chief Editor, MGM Journal of Medical Sciences,

Professor and Head

Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology,

MGM Medical College, Kamothe,

Navi Mumbai, 410209, India.

Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

Websites: https://www.mgmjms.com/ (for submission of manuscripts)

Submission of Manuscripts

MGM Journal of Medical Sciences uses the Manuscript Management System (MMS) for the submission of manuscripts. All manuscripts must be submitted online through the website https://review.jow.medknow.com/MGMJ. First-time users will have to register at this site. Registration is free but mandatory. Log on to the website, https://www.mgmjms.com/, and click 'Manuscript submission" and follow the instructions. Registered authors can keep track of their articles after logging into the site using their usernames and password.

The submitted manuscripts that are not as per the “Instructions to Authors" would be returned to the authors for technical correction before they undergo editorial/ peer-review. Generally, the manuscript should be submitted in the form of two separate files:

[1] Title Page/First Page File/covering letter

This file should provide

1.      The type of manuscript (original article, case report, review article, Letter to the 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. All information that can reveal your institute affiliation should be here. Use text/rtf/doc files. Do not zip the files;

2.      The total number of pages, total number of photographs, and word counts separately for abstract and for the text (excluding the references, tables, and abstract), word counts for introduction + discussion in case of an original article;

3.      If the manuscript was presented as part of a meeting, the organization, place, and exact date on which it was read. A full statement to the editor about all submissions and previous reports that might be regarded as redundant publication of the same or very similar work. Any such work should be referred to specifically and referenced in the new paper. Copies of such material should be included with the submitted paper, to help the editor decide how to handle the matter.

4.      Registration number in case of a clinical trial and where it is registered (name of the registry and its URL)

5.      A statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, that the requirements for authorship as stated earlier in this document have been met, and that each author believes that the manuscript represents honest work if that information is not provided in another form (see below); and

6.      The name, address, e-mail, and telephone number of the corresponding author, who is responsible for communicating with the other authors about revisions and final approval of the proofs, if that information is not included on the manuscript itself.

[2] Blinded Article file: The main text of the article, beginning from Abstract till References (including tables) should be in this file. The file must not contain any mention of the authors' names or initials or the institution at which the study was done or acknowledgments. Page headers/running titles can include the title but not the authors' names. Manuscripts not in compliance with the Journal's blinding policy will be returned to the corresponding author. Use rtf/doc files. Do not zip the files. Limit the file size to 1 MB. Do not incorporate images in the file. If the file size is large, graphs can be submitted as images separately without incorporating them in the article file to reduce the size of the file. The pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the first page of the blinded article file.

[3] Images: Submit good quality color images. Each image should be less than 2 MB in size. The size of the image can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images (keep up to 1600 x 1200 pixels or 5-6 inches). Images can be submitted as jpeg files. Do not zip the files. Legends for the figures/images should be included at the end of the article file. 

[4] The contributors' / copyright transfer form (template provided below) has to be submitted in original with the signatures of all the contributors within two weeks of submission via courier, fax, or email as a scanned image.

Contributors' form/copyright transfer form can be submitted online from the authors' area on http://www.journalonweb.com/

Preparation of Manuscripts

Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with "Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (October 2008). The uniform requirements and specific requirements of MGM Journal of Medical Sciences are summarized below. Before submitting a manuscript, contributors are requested to check for the latest instructions available. Instructions are also available from the website of the journal (https://www.mgmjms.com/) and the manuscript submission site http://www.journalonweb.com/).

MGM Journal of Medical Sciences accepts manuscripts written in American English. 

Copies of any permission(s)

It is the responsibility of authors/ contributors to obtain permission for reproducing any copyrighted material. A copy of the permission obtained must accompany the manuscript. Copies of any published articles or other manuscripts in preparation or submitted elsewhere that are related to the manuscript must also accompany the manuscript.

Types of Manuscripts

The authors are required to use the downloadable word document templates provided at the end of this page to prepare the manuscripts. The reporting guidelines checklist is provided in these templates which must be duly followed. The authors can also choose the reporting guidelines for the specific study design from the web links provided in the table below and upload it along with the manuscript.

Original articles:

These include randomized controlled trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, outcome studies, cost-effectiveness analyses, case-control series, and surveys with high response rates. The text of original articles amounting to up to 3000 words (excluding Abstract, references, and Tables) should be divided into sections with the headings Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Tables, and Figure legends.

Introduction: State the purpose and summarize the rationale for the study or observation. 

Materials and Methods: It should include and describe the following aspects:

Ethics: When reporting studies on human beings, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as amended in 2013 (available at https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/). For prospective studies involving human participants, authors are expected to mention about approval of (regional/ national/ institutional or independent Ethics Committee or Review Board, obtaining informed consent from adult research participants and obtaining assent for children aged over 7 years participating in the trial. The age beyond which assent would be required could vary as per regional and/ or national guidelines. Ensure confidentiality of subjects by desisting from mentioning participants' names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution's or a national research council's guide for or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. Evidence for approval by a local Ethics Committee (for both human as well as animal studies) must be supplied by the authors on demand. Animal experimental procedures should be as humane as possible, and the details of anesthetics and analgesics used should be clearly stated. The ethical standards of experiments must be in accordance with the guidelines provided by the CPCSEA and World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki on Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Humans for studies involving experimental animals and human beings, respectively). The journal will not consider any paper which is ethically unacceptable. A statement on ethics committee permission and ethical practices must be included in all research articles under the 'Materials and Methods section.

Study design:

Selection and Description of Participants: Describe your selection of the observational or experimental participants (patients or laboratory animals, including controls) clearly, including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population. Technical information: Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer's name and address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Give references to established methods, including statistical methods (see below); provide references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration. The details about the methods of sample size calculation should be included.

Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol, assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding), based on the CONSORT Statement (http://www.consort-statement.org).

The authors are required to use the downloadable word document templates provided at the end of this page to prepare the manuscripts. The reporting guidelines checklist is provided in these templates which must be duly followed. The authors can also choose the reporting guidelines for the specific study design from the web links provided in the table below and upload it along with the manuscript. Manuscripts with the incomplete checklist will be sent back to the authors.

Reporting Guidelines for Specific Study Designs

The reporting guidelines for another type of study can be found at https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/.

Statistics: Whenever possible quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Authors should report losses to observation (such as dropouts from a clinical trial). When data are summarized in the Results section, specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Avoid non-technical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as 'random' (which implies a randomizing device), 'normal, 'significant', 'correlations', and 'sample'. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Specify the computer software used. Use upper italics (P 0.048). For all P values include the exact value and not less than 0.05 or 0.001. Mean differences in continuous variables, proportions in categorical variables and relative risks including odds ratios and hazard ratios should be accompanied by their confidence intervals.

Results: Present your results in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations. Extra- or supplementary materials and technical detail can be placed in an appendix where they will be accessible but will not interrupt the flow of the text; alternatively, it can be published only in the electronic version of the journal.

When data are summarized in the Results section, give numeric results not only as derivatives (for example, percentages) but also as the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated, and specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Where scientifically appropriate, analyses of the data by variables such as age and sex should be included.

Discussion: Include a summary of key findings (primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, results as they relate to a prior hypothesis); Strengths and limitations of the study (study question, study design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation); Interpretation and implications in the context of the totality of evidence (is there a systematic review to refer to, if not, could one be reasonably done here and now?, what this study adds to the available evidence, effects on patient care and health policy, possible mechanisms); Controversies raised by this study; and Future research directions (for this particular research collaboration, underlying mechanisms, clinical research). 

Do not repeat in detail data or other material given in the Introduction or the Results section. In particular, contributors should avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless their manuscript includes economic data and analyses. Avoid claiming priority and alluding to work that has not been completed. New hypotheses may be stated if needed, however, they should be clearly labeled as such. About 30 references can be included. These articles generally should not have more than six authors.

Review Articles:

It is expected that these articles would be written by individuals who have done substantial work on the subject or are considered experts in the field. A summary of the work done by the contributor(s) in the field of review should accompany the manuscript.

The prescribed word count is up to 3000 words excluding tables, references, and abstract. The manuscript may have about 90 references. The manuscript should have an unstructured Abstract (250 words) representing an accurate summary of the article. The section titles would depend upon the topic reviewed. Authors submitting review articles should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data. These methods should also be summarized in the abstract.

The journal expects the contributors to give post-publication updates on the subject of review. The update should be brief, covering the advances in the field after the publication of the article, and should be sent as a letter to the editor, as and when major development occurs in the field.

The Journal prefers systematic reviews that have been registered in PROSPERO https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/. The PROSPERO registry number should be provided in the review article under the “methodology" section.

Case reports:

New, interesting, and rare cases can be reported. They should be unique, describing a great diagnostic or therapeutic challenge and providing a learning point for the readers. Cases with clinical significance or implications will be given priority. These communications could be of up to 1000 words (excluding Abstract and references) and should have the following headings: Abstract (unstructured), Keywords, Introduction, Case report, Discussion, Reference, Tables, and Legends in that order.

The manuscript could be of up to 1000 words (excluding references and abstract) and could be supported with up to 10 references. Case Reports could be authored by up to four authors.

Letter to the Editor:

These should be short and decisive observations. They should preferably be related to articles previously published in the Journal or views expressed in the journal. They should not be preliminary observations that need a later paper for validation. The letter could have up to 500 words and 5 references. It could be generally authored by not more than four authors.

Other:

Editorial, Guest Editorial, Commentary, and Opinion are solicited by the editorial board.

References
References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text (not in alphabetic order). Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in superscript with square bracket after the punctuation marks. References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure. Use the style of the examples below, which are based on the formats used by the NLM in Index Medicus. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. Use the complete name of the journal for non-indexed journals. Avoid using abstracts as references. Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as "unpublished observations" with written permission from the source. Avoid citing a "personal communication" unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text. 
The commonly cited types of references are shown here, for other types of references such as newspaper items please refer to ICMJE Guidelines (http://www.icmje.org or http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).

Articles in Journals

1.      Standard journal article (for up to six authors): Parija S C, Ravinder PT, Shariff M. Detection of hydatid antigen in the fluid samples from hydatid cysts by co-agglutination. Trans. R.Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg.1996; 90:255–256.

2.      Standard journal article (for more than six authors): List the first six contributors followed by et al.  

Roddy P, Goiri J, Flevaud L, Palma PP, Morote S, Lima N. et al., Field Evaluation of a Rapid Immunochromatographic Assay for Detection of Trypanosoma cruzi Infection by Use of Whole Blood. J. Clin. Microbiol. 2008; 46: 2022-2027.

1.      Volume with supplement: Otranto D, Capelli G, Genchi C: Changing distribution patterns of canine vector-borne diseases in Italy: leishmaniosis vs. dirofilariosis.Parasites & Vectors 2009; Suppl 1:S2.  

Books and Other Monographs

1.      Personal author(s): Parija SC. Textbook of Medical Parasitology. 3rd ed. All India Publishers and Distributors. 2008.

2.      Editor(s), compiler(s) as author: Garcia LS, Filarial Nematodes In: Garcia LS (editor) Diagnostic Medical Parasitology ASM press Washington DC 2007: pp 319-356.

3.      Chapter in a book: Nesheim M C. Ascariasis and human nutrition. In Ascariasis and its prevention and control, D. W. T. Crompton, M. C. Nesbemi, and Z. S. Pawlowski (eds.). Taylor and Francis, London, U.K.1989, pp. 87–100.

Electronic Sources as reference

Journal article on the Internet: Parija SC, Khairnar K. Detection of excretory Entamoeba histolytica DNA in the urine, and detection of E. histolytica DNA and lectin antigen in the liver abscess pus for the diagnosis of amoebic liver abscess BMC Microbiology 2007, 7:41.doi:10.1186/1471-2180-7-41. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2180/7/41

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 footnotes, not in the heading.
• Explain in 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

Illustrations (Figures)

• Upload the images in JPEG format. The file size should be within 1024 kb 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, scattergrams, 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 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 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.
• The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size. 

List of Abbreviations: Include a list of abbreviations along with their description used in the manuscript.

Acknowledgments: For non-author contributions, one or more statements should specify 1) contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, such as general support by a departmental chair; 2) acknowledgments of technical help; and 3) acknowledgments of financial and material support, which should specify the nature of the support. Details of the non-author contributors can be cited individually or collectively, and their precise contributions should be specified. The corresponding author is required to obtain written permission to be acknowledged by all acknowledged individuals.

Financial disclosure: Manuscripts should include details about the funding agency/ sponsors, grant number, and the role of funders. If the funders have no role to play or the study did not receive funding, a statement declaring the same should be mentioned. 

Conflict of interest: All manuscripts for articles, original research reports, editorials, comments, reviews, book reviews, and letters submitted to the journal must include a conflict of the interest disclosure statement or a declaration by the authors that they do not have any conflicts of interest to declare. If the articles are authored by the editorial board, the conflict of interest must be clearly stated.

Data Availability Statement: All manuscripts should include a statement about where data supporting the results reported in a published article can be found or the authors' willingness to share the data on request.

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 or guardian, wherever applicable) gives informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients' names from figures even if they have obtained informed consent from the patients to protect patient privacy. The journal abides by ICMJE guidelines:

1.      Authors, not the journals nor the publisher, need to obtain the patient consent form before the publication and have the form properly archived. The consent forms are not to be uploaded with the cover letter or sent through email to editorial or publisher offices.

2.      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.

3.      To protect the patient's identity, the recognizable facial features not related to the study should be digitally blurred

4.      Written informed consent is the preferred method for obtaining consent. If verbal consent is obtained, the authors must ensure that the verbal consent is recorded in the medical case record of the patient and duly signed by a witness. 

Sending a revised manuscript 

The revised version of the manuscript should be submitted online in a manner similar to that used for the submission of the manuscript for the first time. However, there is no need to submit the “First Page" or “Covering Letter" file while submitting a revised version. When submitting a revised manuscript, contributors are requested to include, the 'referees' remarks along with point-to-point clarification at the beginning of the revised file itself. In addition, they are expected to mark the changes as underlined or colored text in the article.

Reprints and proofs 

Journal provides no free printed reprints. Authors can purchase reprints, payment for which should be done at the time of submitting the proofs.

Publication schedule

The journal publishes articles on its website with a quarterly frequency.

Manuscript submission, processing, and publication charges 

Journal does not charge the authors or authors' institutions for the submission, processing, and/or publications of manuscripts.

Copyrights  

The entire contents of the MGM Journal of Medical Sciences are protected under Indian and international copyrights. The Journal, however, 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. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International Public License.

Checklist  

Covering letter

• Signed by all contributors
• Previous publication / presentations mentioned
• Source of funding mentioned
• Conflicts of interest disclosed

Authors

• Last name and given name provided along with Middle name initials (where applicable)
• Author for correspondence, with the e-mail address provided
• Number of contributors restricted as per the instructions
• Identity not revealed in the paper except the title page (e.g. name of the institute in Methods, citing the previous study as 'our study', names on figure labels, name of the institute in photographs, etc.)

Presentation and format

• Double spacing
• Margins 2.5 cm from all four sides
• Page numbers included at the bottom
• The title page contains all the desired information
• Running title provided (not more than 50 characters)
• The abstract page contains the full title of the manuscript
• Abstract provided (structured abstract of 250 words for original articles, unstructured abstracts of 250 words for review articles, and unstructured abstracts of about 150 words for all other manuscripts excluding letters to the Editor)
• Keywords provided (three or more)
• Introduction of 75-100 words
• Headings in title case (not ALL CAPITALS)
• The references cited in the text should be after punctuation marks, in superscript with a square bracket.
• References according to the journal's instructions, punctuation marks checked
• Send the article file without 'Track Changes'

Language and grammar

• American English
• Write the full term for each abbreviation at its first use in the title, abstract, keywords, and text separately unless it is a standard unit of measure. Numerals from 1 to 10 spelled out
• Numerals at the beginning of the sentence spelled out
• Check the manuscript for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors
• If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer's name and address (city and state/country).
• Species names should be in italics

Tables and figures

• No repetition of data in tables and graphs and text
• Actual numbers from which graphs were drawn, provided
• Figures necessary and of good quality (color)
• Table and figure numbers in Arabic letters (not Roman)
• Labels pasted on the back of the photographs (no names written)
• Figure legends provided (not more than 40 words)
• Patients' privacy maintained (if not permission taken)
• A credit note for borrowed figures/tables provided
• Write the full term for each abbreviation used in the table as a footnote

Contributors' form 

Click here to download instructions 

These ready to use templates are made to help the contributors write as per the requirements of the Journal.

Save the templates on your computer and use them with a word processor program. 
Click open the file and save as the manuscript file.

In the program keep 'Document Map' and 'Comments' on from 'View' menu to navigate through the file. 

View | Download Template for Original Articles/ABSTRACT Reports. (.DOT file)

View | Download Template for Case Reports.  (.DOT file)

View | Download Template for Review Articles.  (.DOT file)

View | Download Template for Letter to the Editor.  (.DOT file)