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ICMJE
Guidelines on Uniform Requirements for
Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals:
Some practical problems and possible solutions
Prof. Mansoor Ahmad 1, Shaukat Ali Jawaid 2
A small group of general
medical journal editors first met informally in Vancouver British
Columbia in 1978 with the objective of establishing guidelines for the
format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. Later on this became
known as Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts including
formats for bibliographic references developed by the National Library
of Medicine were first published in 1979. With the passage of time this
group expanded and became known as International Committee of Medical
Journal Editors. It meets annually. International Committee of Medical
Journal Editors (ICMJE) 1 is not an open membership organization. Over
the years the ICMJE has broadened its concerns to include ethical
principles related to publication in biomedical journals.
Since 1978, ICMJE has produced multiple editions of Uniform Requirements
for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals. The entire uniform
requirements were revised in 1997. Then sections were updated in 1999,
and May 2000. In May 2001 the ICMJE revised the sections related to
potential conflict of interest. In 2003 the entire document was again
revised and reorganized by the ICMJE. The latest revision was prepared
by the committee in July 2005.2 These recommendations are based largely
on the shared experience of some editors and authors and are a
collective effort over the past many years. Primarily it was intended to
help authors and editors in their mutual task of creating and
distributing accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical
studies. It can also be helpful to reviewers, publishers, the media,
patients and their families, and general readers with useful insights
into the biomedical authoring and editing processes. Journals which
agree to use these Uniform Requirements are encouraged to state in their
instructions to authors that their requirements are in ccordance with
the Uniform Requirements and to cite this version. The objective of
these uniform requirements was that it will improve the quality and
clarity of reporting in manuscripts submitted for publication to any
journal besides offering ease in editing.
Preparing a Manuscript: These guidelines provide adequate information
for the authors how to prepare the manuscript for submission to
biomedical journals. It covers general principles, details about the
Title Page, Conflict of Interest, Abstract and Key Words, Introduction,
Methodology, Results, Discussion and References. Details are also
provided about Tables, Illustrations, and Legends for Figures or
illustrations, Units of measurement, abbreviation and symbols. While
submitting the manuscript to the biomedical journals, it must be
accompanied by a covering letter and a Letter of Undertaking confirming
its exclusive submission to that particular journal and willingness to
pay publication charges if the respective journal has such a policy. If
the manuscript had been earlier submitted to another journal and was
rejected, it is helpful to include previous editor and reviewer’s
comments along with the author’s response to those comments as it will
help expedite the review process faster.
Authorship: These ICMJE guidelines have clearly laid down the criteria
for authorship. The authorship credit, it says, should be based on the
following:
1. Substantial contributions to conception and design or acquisition of
data, or analysis and interpretation of data.
2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important
intellectual content.
3. Final approval of the version to be published. The authors are
supposed to meet these criteria spelled in conditions 1, 2 and 3.
In case of large, multicenter group has conducted the study, the group
is supposed to identify the individuals who accept the direct
responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet
the criteria for authorship. Other members of the group are usually
listed in acknowledgements. All those who help in acquisition of
funding, collection of data or general supervision of the research group
do not justify authorship. Similarly all those whose contributions do
not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in acknowledgment.
Role of the Editor: The editor of a journal is the person responsible
for its entire contents. Editors must have full authority for
determining the editorial contents of the journal. The editors who make
final decisions about manuscripts must have no personal, professional or
financial involvement in any of the issues they might judge.
Problems faced by Editors: Editing a peer reviewed medical journal
particularly in less developed countries is a very arduous and stressful
job. The editors are faced with numerous problems which includes
substandard quality of submissions, financial constraints,
non-availability of good quality peer reviewers, duplicate submissions
and so on. 3
This 32-page guidelines prepared by the ICMJE is a the most
comprehensive document. If any journal can follow them in totality it
will be ideal but as we know, ideal is not all the time feasible and
practical in less developed countries faced with lot of financial
constraints and lack of other facilities, resources. The ground
realities are absolutely different in this part of the world. Hence
biomedical journals from these countries should strive to follow them as
much as possible.
Medical Writing in most of these less developed countries is not so well
established and majority of the writers do it under compulsion to meet
the requirements of selection or promotion. This too has picked up
during the last ten years when institutions like Pakistan Medical and
Dental Council and more recently Higher Education Commission has made it
compulsory for faculty selection and promotions.
As stated earlier, the main objective of these Uniform Requirements by
the ICMJE is to improve the quality of the manuscripts. Many national
organizations in various countries have similar objectives when it comes
to scientific research and medical writing. For example in Pakistan, the
Pakistan Medical and Dental Council has tried to do that but could not
achieve the desired objective because of half hearted efforts. At
present it has recognized over forty medical and dental journals but a
large number of them are no more published regularly. It also produced
its own guidelines for biomedical journals which is a copy of the ICMJE
guidelines. Even the PM&DC website is not updated regularly as regards
its policy for medical and dental journals. 4,5
On the other hand, Higher Education Commission has a much stricter and
most comprehensive Proforma which is used for recognition of biomedical
journals. HEC website gives the necessary details regarding criteria for
HEC approved journals. The journals are required to fill in this
detailed Proforma and submit it along with list of editorial board, peer
reviewers and latest copies of the journal for the past two years for
scrutiny before the journal is approved. 6 HEC phrased definition of the
HEC recognized journal/journal of international repute is as under:
“A journal published regularly, having diverse editorial/advisory board,
peer reviewed by at least two reviewers (including one international)
and abstracted/index internationally”.
Ground realities and
some solutions
In order to find a possible
solution to some of these problems regarding lack of uniformity in the
light of ICMJE guidelines on Uniform Requirements for Submission of
manuscripts to biomedical journals, one has to know the ground realities
and the practical problems which may be different in different
countries. Based on our experience in Pakistan, we suggest the following
measures which we hope can improve the situation to some extent.
1. Many biomedical journals published by various institutions have its
head listed as the Editor-in-Chief though in practice, he or she may not
be contributing anything. Similarly a critical look at the Editorial
Boards of various journals will reveal that they have many names just as
“Show Pieces.” A journal is only as good as its Editorial Board and
Reviewer’s data base and how committed they all are. This is one of the
main reasons for the not so good standard of many journals. This problem
can be resolved by making the head of the institution as Patron while
the Chief Editor and the Managing Editor should consist of committed
individual with experience in this field. Similarly the membership in
the Editorial Board may be made a tenure post and those who have no time
or do not show any interest, may be replaced after two to three years.
This tenure should be communicated to the members of the Editorial Board
in writing to avoid any misunderstandings later.
2. Publishing and editing a journal is a team work. To ensure successful
timely publication, it is essential that there is some minimum full time
staff. Professional specialty organizations publishing their own
journals after selecting an Editor should not think that their job is
over. Members of these organizations must themselves contribute, help
and assist the Editor in all possible ways to see that the journal is
published on time on regular basis. If they won’t contribute their own
manuscripts to their journal, how they can expect others to submit
manuscripts to such journals.
3. It is not uncommon to receive manuscripts with a long list of authors
although it is not difficult to find out that the name of many such
authors have been added just to oblige colleagues or please the unit,
head of the department or institution. Editors are helpless even though
they know that many among the authors do not qualify authorship
criteria, but there is no way they can ask the authors to limit their
number. This situation can be overcome to some extent. If the editor has
strong suspicion that some of the listed authors in the manuscript do
not meet the authorship criteria, he or she can ask the corresponding
author to provide details of the contribution by each of the listed
authors. It can also be suggested that those who cannot be authors but
have helped and assisted in some ways, should be covered in the
acknowledgement section.
4. Editors of various biomedical journals in respective countries can
meet and formulate their own recommendations to have a uniform policy
within the framework of Uniform Requirements by ICMJE. For example now
it is considered essential to have a structured abstract for all
original manuscripts. But a careful look at various biomedical journals
published from Pakistan will reveal that they lack uniformity. Even in
the structured abstract, different journals have different format. In
view of the shortage of space and brevity, the structured abstract could
consist of just four sections which are now being practiced by most of
the renowned journals in various countries. It can cover objective,
methodology, results and conclusions with appropriate Key Words. They
can also formulate guidelines regarding categorization as well as length
of manuscripts which they will accept for i.e. Original article,
Reviews, Case Reports, Special or Brief Communications, Case Series,
Letters to the Editors etc. At present every journal has its own policy
and there is no uniform agreement. If these and other related issues can
be discussed and resolved with mutual agreement at least among the
leading national medical and dental journals, it will come as a great
help for the authors as well.
5. Every country should have a National Body for recognition of
biomedical journals to ensure quality of manuscripts and standard of the
journals. Its membership should consist of people who themselves have
the experience of medical writing and editing. In case these bodies lack
this expertise, they should not hesitate to seek guidance and assistance
from some medical editors which will be helpful in formulating and
implementing this policy. In Pakistan this job can be entrusted to
Higher Education Commission if the PM&DC fails to overcome its
shortcomings.
6. Some lectures on basic principles of medical writing and how to plan,
conduct study should be included in the undergraduate medical
curriculum. A few private medical institutions and private medical
universities have already started that. Until this is accomplished, a
few lectures on the subject of medical writing to final year medical
students will go a long way in sensitizing them. Some of them may get
interested and become good writers.
7. Government agencies should provide funding and logistic support in
organizing seminars, hands on workshops on medical writing, research
methodology, peer review and training of the editors. Most of the
editors in these less developed countries including Pakistan have had on
the job training over the years. Not many can afford to go overseas to
attend training courses and workshops. Hence, holding such hands on
workshops by utilizing the available local talent will be extremely
helpful not only for the authors but reviewers and editors as well.
Pakistan Medical Journalists Association has been active in this field
and with its limited resources, it did organize seminars on medical
writing in various institutions all over Pakistan besides Workshops on
Peer Review system which were attended by a large number of editors,
reviewers and referees affiliated with various biomedical journals. The
Conference on Medical Editing was an activity, an effort in the same
direction. Such academic activities needs to be further strengthened.7,
8
8. Better cooperation and coordination among the editors helping each
other, learning from each other’s experience through regular regional,
national and international meetings will also be helpful in overcoming
some of these problems.
9. If possible sponsorship for editors to attend training courses
overseas should be arranged. For this financial assistance from various
agencies like WHO, UNICEF, Pharma Industry and different Foundations can
also be looked into. Many experienced editors, organizations and
institutions organize such training courses overseas on regular basis.
International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP)
is one such organization. It has also published a manual for the Hands
on Workshops for the workshop participants which the editors will find
quite informative and useful.9, 10.
10. Once the above are accomplished successfully, it will definitely
improve the quality and standard of biomedical journals published from
these less developed countries besides achieving the objective of having
some local uniform requirements for submission of manuscripts to their
biomedical journals. It will then help in their Indexation with the
reputed Indexing, Abstracting services which is the desire of every
medical journal. This will automatically increase the visibility of
these journals to a much wider international readership.
References
1. International Committee of
Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) http://www.icmje.org
2. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical
Journals; Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publications. Updated
October 2007.(ICMJE)
3. Jawaid SA. Problems faced by the Editors of Peer Reviewed medical
journals. Saudi Med J 2004;25, Suppl 1:447-511.
4. http://www.pmdc.org
5. Essential Guidelines for Authors, Reviewers and Editors of Medical
and Dental Journals. Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, Islamabad.
2002.
6. http://www.hcg.gov.pk
7. Jawaid SA. Proceedings of Workshop on Peer Review System at Karachi
and Lahore organized by PMJA. Pak J Med Sci 2002;18(4):328-33.
8. Workshop on Peer Review System at Pakistan Institute of Medical
Sciences, Islamabad. Pulse International 2005;6(10):1-9.
9. http://www.inasp.info
10. INSAP resource pack for journals. Published by INASP, Oxford, UK.
January 2006
1. Prof. Mansoor Ahmad MRCP
Editor, Pakistan Heart Journal
Prof.of Cardiology
Liaquat National Postgradaute Medical Center,
Karachi. Pakistan.
2. Shaukat Ali Jawaid
Managing Editor
Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences
Karachi. Pakistan.
E mail:
shaukat@pulsepakistan.com |
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