Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines	Manuscripts Preparations	Author Undertaking Form:	Ethical Approval of Research:	Who is an Author	Acknowledgement
	Open Access Copyrights

We invite authors to submit their articles for publication. The guidelines are given to endorse smooth submission, review, and publication processes. Content should be unique, and original, also the presentation must be of potential interest to the readers.

Articles that describe original research, short communication, case reports, comments, commentary, reviews, letters to the editor, opinions, and special reports may be submitted for publication. All articles must be submitted through the journal's online system after registration on the Pakistan Journal of Neurological Surgery website (www.pakjns.org).

Manuscripts must be submitted by one of the authors of the manuscript, and should not be submitted by anyone on their behalf. The principal/corresponding author must submit an undertaking along with the MSWrod copy of the manuscript on behalf of all co-authors (please refer to the undertaking form). The author(s) will confirm that the manuscript (or any part thereof) has not previously been published or is being considered for publication elsewhere. In addition, any illustration, structure, figure, or table must be included with permission from a third party. 

In case of any difficulty/ problem through the online submission, the article may be submitted via email to admin@pakjns.org, chiefeditor.pjns@gmail.com 
Hard-copy submissions are not accepted. Properly format your manuscript as per journal format. 
Supporting documents i.e. undertaking/conflict of interest forms can be downloaded from the website.
Manuscripts Preparations ||

Define abbreviations at their first appearance. Use generic names of drugs. Number the references by their first appearance in the text and cite them by that subscripted number. The original article must be under the following heads:

Title: It must be brief and contain no abbreviations.

Structured Abstract: Ensure that the abstract contains a good summarized form of the findings. This section should clear concise and accurate summary of not more than 250 words, containing no abbreviations, citation and should describe the Introduction/Objective, Materials &Methods, Results,  Conclusion, and six Keywords (as per Medical Subject Heading -MeSH). Choose important and relevant keywords.  The abstract should briefly focus on the main objectives and results/conclusions of the research work; it should give the reader a clear idea of what has been achieved.

Introduction: This section should briefly state what was studied and why including its relationship to previous work in the field, especially the previous 10 years of international literature.

Materials and Methods: It should contain the place of the study, study design & setting, sampling technique, sample size calculations, patient population, and the methodology of the study in detail. Neurosurgical techniques, procedures/investigation should be clearly explained. Inclusion /exclusion criteria and statistical methods, data collection procedures should also be clearly explained.

Results: This section should include the results of the study with tables, and illustrations. Images should be of a minimum of 300 dpi. No comparison should be made in this section with other studies. Repetition of data must be avoided and should be well explained. Blurred or unclear photographs and figures not be accepted. Tables should be cited in parenthesis after the punctuation mark e.g. (Table1). Images and Figures may be sent in the form of JPG, or PNG. Images of MRI and CT scans that patient identity like name and date should not be mentioned.

Discussion: It includes the comparison of results with other studies, specifically in the light of relevant literature.
Highlight the unique and key features of your research and put your results in the context of the totality of the significant proof. Do not repeat in detail like data or other information given in other parts of the manuscript, such as in the Introduction or the results section.

Conclusion: It may be included to briefly summarize the net result of your study.

References: All references should be added with DOI numbers. The references should be listed as they appear in the text. It should contain the name of the authors, the title of the article, its volume number, the year of publication, and the page numbers. All references should be enlisted in Vanocur style. The following web addresses can be logged on for various sources that can be used for reference/ citation purposes.

https://guides.library.uq.edu.au/referencing/vancouver/introduction

Scientific Reporting Guidelines
Authors are recommended to consult following scientific reporting guidelines while writing and compiling the research and manuscript. The guidelines developed by EQUATOR Network, are available online for each type of study design. Authors can use the following checklists for each study design:
STROBE (https://www.strobe-statement.org/) for observational studies in epidemiology (cross-sectional, cohort & case-control);
ORION (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17376385/) for infection control intervention studies; REMARK (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29873743/) for tumor marker prognostic studies; STREGA (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19278015/) for genetic association studies;
CONSORT for randomized control trials; (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/consort/)
TREND for non-randomized controlled trials; (https://www.cdc.gov/trendstatement/index.html)
STARD for diagnostic accuracy studies; (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/stard/)
GRRAS for reliability and agreement studies; (https://www.equator-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/GRRAS-checklist-for-reporting-of-studies-of-reliability-and-agreement.pdf)
PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses; (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/prisma/)
SPIRIT for study protocols; (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/spirit-2013-statement-defining-standard-protocol-items-for-clinical-trials/)
MOOSE for meta-analysis of observational Studies; (https://www.elsevier.com/__data/promis_misc/ISSM_MOOSE_Checklist.pdf)
SRQR for qualitative research studies; (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/srqr/)
COREQ for qualitative research; (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/coreq/)
SQUIRE for quality improvement studies and TRIPOD for multivariate prediction models. (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/squire/)

The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) Statement: guidelines for reporting observational studies:
https://www.strobe-statement.org/index.php?id=strobe-home

See link below for more information:
https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/strobe/ 

Case Reports: Studies of more than 5 patients are considered as the original study. If the number of patients is 4 or fewer it is considered a case report. Maximum 3 authors should be added for case-reports.

Review Article should be on any subject reviewing the literature in its past, present, and future aspects.

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs): Authors are required that all randomized trials they will submit should be registered at the International RCT Registry. World Health Organization (WHO) has indicated recognized clinical trial registries.  The International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) was established by WHO (https://www.who.int/clinical-trials-registry-platform/network).

Primary registries in the WHO registry network: Primary Registries in the WHO Registry Network meet specific criteria for content, quality and validity, accessibility, unique identification, technical capacity, and administration. Primary Registries meet the requirements of the ICMJE.

 The registries that currently meet these criteria are indicated here: https://www.who.int/clinical-trials-registry-platform/network/primary-registries

The list is as follows: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR), Brazilian Clinical Trials Registry (ReBec), Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR), Clinical Research Information Service (CRiS), Republic of Korea, Clinical Trials Registry - India (CTRI), Cuban Public Registry of Clinical Trials(RPCEC), EU Clinical Trials Register (EU-CTR), German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS), Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT), ISRCTN, International Traditional Medicine Clinical Trial Registry (ITMCTR), Japan Registry of Clinical Trials (jRCT), Lebanese Clinical Trials Registry (LBCTR) , Thai Clinical Trials Registry (TCTR), Pan African Clinical Trial Registry (PACTR), Peruvian Clinical Trial Registry (REPEC), and Sri Lanka Clinical Trials Registry (SLCTR) 

Editorial may be on any topic and it may or may not be related to scientific research.
Experimental Work includes the work done in the laboratory or on cadavers or animals.
Email: Please send articles online. Articles may be sent by Email to:
admin@pakjns.org
dranwarchaudary@yahoo.com

Author Undertaking Form ||

Pakistan Journal of Neurological Surgery follows the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors 

Authorship Statement & Contributionship:

All authors should declare their contribution to the research and the preparation of the publication. Authors are required to fill out the proforma to indicate the contribution made by each author.  Below is the proforma: 

Conflicts of Interest/Funding Source

All authors must disclose individual or financial conflicts of interest at the time of submission, which might bias or be seen to bias their work. This includes, for example, personal or institutional financial interest in drugs, materials, or devices described in the document. The source of financial support and industry affiliations of all those involved must be stated. All grants relevant to the submission must be documented. Any conflicts should be disclosed in the Author Agreement form AND in the title page file. If there is no conflict(s), it should be clearly expressed. Disclosure statements are published with each article.

Copyright Form
The copyright form is completed by the principal/corresponding author once the manuscript will be sent to the Pakistan Journal of Neurological Science.

Forms can be downloaded from the following link Authors undertaking Conflict of interest

 Ethical Approval of Research ||
If any human or animal studies were carried out during the research work a letter of ethical approval from the institutional ethical review board (IRB) should be attached.
Note: All authors will submit a copy of research approval from the ethical review board/IRB.

Each manuscript must contain information about ethical committee/IRB approval with the reference number and the data of the issue.

-In case of multi-center studies, if data is used from different hospitals, permission to use data for each healthcare facility should be obtained.

-In case of papers from FCPS dissertations, apart from synopsis approval from RTMC of CPSP, ethics committee approval is also needed to take care of the ethical issues.

-Our journal follows, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) latest guidelines regarding authorship. There is no place for gift authorship and intellectual corruption.

Who is an Author||
The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
• Final approval of the version to be published; AND
• 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.
  Other article contributors who do not fit into these four criteria should be acknowledged.For more details download the guidelines from this link: https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf

Acknowledgment: Acknowledged those authors & institutional administrative support who did not qualify for authorship (defined in journal policy and recommended by ICMJE). Acknowledge anyone who provided intellectual writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, data entry, and proofreading. ||

Open Access Copyrights: Authors retain the rights of free downloading/unlimited e-print of full text and sharing/disseminating the article without any restriction, by any means including Twitter, scholarly collaboration networks like Google Scholar, LinkedIn, Academia.edu, ResearchGate, Twitter, Facebook, and any other professional or academic networking site. ||

Policy on Intellectual Property and Copyright

For Authors:

The submitted manuscript's authors have to verify that it is their work and that no third party has obtained copyright. The contributors attest that the work complies with PJNS authorship guidelines and does not contain any instances of plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, or altered citations.

The authors must attest that they have authorization from the owners of any copyrights to reprint any tables, figures, data, text, etc. The author(s) retains ownership of all manuscripts, revisions, drafts, and galleys. The work's original author(s) retains all copyright ownership. The writers pledge to keep all correspondence, remarks, or reports between themselves and editors or reviewers private.

For Editorial Team:

The reviewer or editor retains ownership of all information and comments from reviews. All correspondence, remarks, or reports between authors and reviewers or editors will be kept private, as agreed upon by reviewers and editors. Except for the final published galley(s), reviewers and editors undertake to maintain the confidentiality of all submissions, revisions, and drafts.

Limitation: If there are any limitations (Sample size calculation/ latest References) in the manuscript please mention them at the end of the conclusion.

Guidelines on Changes in Authorship:

Get each author's permission before adding any more authors. The authorship addition/deletion must be approved by each author of the contribution once the reasons have been made plain and concise. Everyone involved must sign a letter outlining the change's rationale and the new author list.