Policy Document

JOURNAL OF LAHORE MEDICAL & DENTAL COLLEGE (JLMDC)

FREQUENCY OF PUBLICATION:
JLMDC is published biannually.
1st issue – in June
2nd issue – in December

Policy of Screening Plagiarism:  JLMDC follows the standard definition and description of plagiarism and we endorse The COPE, ICMJE, & Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan policies regarding plagiarism. JLMDC is equipped with Turnitin (text-matching/anti-plagiarism software provided by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan). This is used to check for plagiarism and redundancy in submitted manuscripts. All submitted manuscripts are first checked for similarity index on Turnitin. 

A manuscript derived from an author's M.Phil. or Ph.D. thesis must explicitly state the "title of the thesis," "Supervisor name," Department and University name, and "year of submission" on the title page as part of the submission process.

Note: Authors must not check plagiarism through unreliable or unauthentic websites or softwares.

• Allegation of Misconduct: Individuals found guilty or implicated in publication misconduct may face blacklisting. It is imperative to explicitly state the source of funding for the study. Authors engaged in scientific misconduct may be subject to blacklisting and could be prohibited from making further submissions.

Processing and Publication Charges:  All manuscripts from Pakistan should be accompanied with a payment of Rs. 7,000/- FOR overseas (US$ 55)/- (Non-refundable). APC charges, once submitted, are non-refundable. Once the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors are required to pay publication charges of Rs.18,000/- For Overseas US$ 200/- in the name of (Journal of Lahore Medical and Dental College), Lahore; send us on the address given below. 

Prof Dr. Zaima Ali

Editor in Chief, JLMDC

Lahore Medical & Dental College, Lahore, Pakistan.

Email:   editorjlmdc@lmdc.edu.pk .
Website:  https://jlmdc.lmdc.edu.pk/index.php/lmdc

Note: The Journal has adopted a full fee waiver policy to support authors and encourage submissions (until recognition by any of the two regulatory bodies i.e. PMDC and HEC).

Processing and Publication charges from authors are taken to ensure their Open Access availability for the readers.

Account Title: Lahore Medical and Dental College
Account Number: 0000324640
IBAN Number: PK03JSBL9503000000324640

Editing Charges (Optional) Rs. 7000/-  For overseas (US$ 100)

It will cover the following aspects of the manuscript

• Focus on the logic and flow of the manuscript's content
• Manuscript formatting meets the requirements
• Check for consistency, completeness, and structure
• Language Check

Printed Copy: One printed copy will be supplied to the correspondence author. Authors can order additional copies at the rate of Rs. 1000/- per copy which includes courier charges and US$ 20/- per copy for overseas. Payment for additional copies should be added in the publication charges.

Annual Subscription Rates for Print Copy

Fast Track Processing of Manuscript: The duration of the fast-track processing is approximately 40 days. If the author wants to get his/her manuscript through fast-track, He/she should clearly mention it on the cover letter. Rs. 10,000 additional fee will be charged (other than the processing fee of Rs. 7000/- US$ 50 for overseas) at the time of submission (Due to the increasing cost of publication, the management has imposed a fast-track fee of Rs. 10,000/- US$ 200 for overseas). The fast-track charges are non-refundable. The rest of the terms and conditions will remain constant. There is no guarantee of acceptance or publication in fast-track. Authors are requested not to opt for fast-track processing unless it is extremely essential. 

Waiver Policy:

Eligibility criteria to apply for waiver:

• The waiver policy will not be applicable if the research is funded.
• Applicable for Undergraduate students.

Editorial Processing:

Peer Review Policy:

Once a manuscript clears the initial screening, it is sent for peer review.

• Double-blind: We use a review process in which, the names of reviewers and authors are not revealed to each other. Generally, we send the article to 3-4 reviewers.

The peer review is completed once all the reviewers send a detailed report to the journal with their comments on the manuscript and their recommendations. We request the reviewers to complete their reviews within 3-4 weeks.

Final decision: The journal editor or editorial board considers the feedback provided by the peer reviewers and arrives at a decision. The following are the most common decisions that are made:

• Accept without any changes (acceptance): the journal will publish the paper in its original form.
• Accept with minor revisions (acceptance): the journal will publish the paper and asks the author to make small corrections.
• Accept after major revisions (conditional acceptance ): the journal will publish the paper provided the authors make the changes suggested by the reviewers /or editors.
• Revise and resubmit (conditional rejection): the journal is willing to reconsider the paper in another round of decision making after the authors make major changes.
• Reject the paper (outright rejection): the journal will not publish the paper or reconsider it even if the authors make major revisions.
• The first option (accept without any changes) is rare. The second decision (accept with minor revisions) is typically the best outcome authors should hope for. Once a journal rejects a paper outright, authors are well-advised not to resubmit to the same journal. If the journal wanted to reconsider the paper, they would have issued a conditional rejection. An outright rejection means the journal thinks the paper will not meet its publication standards or interests even after heavy revisions.

Deadline of Process 

Publishing Schedule:

• Open Access Statement: Journal of Lahore Medical & Dental College, JLMDC, is the official peer-reviewed Journal of Lahore Medical & Dental College. JLMDC is an open-access journal being published biannually.

Original research articles, review articles, practical updates, case reports, and letters to the editor of medical and allied health sciences are being evaluated by the editorial board and peer reviewers before publication in the journal. Under the following terms:

• Attribution: — you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
• No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  
  This work is licensed under Creative Commons License

Journal of Lahore Medical & Dental College is an open-access journal being published since February 2024. The journal only publishes open access content and legacy. These articles are published in open-access under CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License). The CC BY license allows for maximum dissemination and re-use of open access materials and is preferred by many research funding bodies. Under this license users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit) and remix (adapt) the contribution, including for commercial purposes, providing they attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
Under Creative Commons, authors retain copyright in their articles.
Visit our open research site for more information about Creative Commons licensing.

Benefits of open access:

Open access publications lead to:

• Increased citation 
• Prompt community involvement
• Enhanced influence
• Expanded partnership
• Augmented interdisciplinary interaction

Ethical Approval of the Research: Ethical approval from the organization overseeing the study participants is mandatory. 

Examples of research which has implications requiring ethical approval include in particular:

• Any form of data collection involving individuals, including surveys, interviews, clinical trials, or direct observation.
• Investigations encompassing the following areas, incorporating questionnaires and surveys: minors (individuals under 18), those incapable of providing informed consent, minority populations, vulnerable demographics, expectant mothers or mothers in labor, and individuals with physical or mental disabilities.
• Any study that entails gathering personal data, whether directly from individuals or through individual records.
• Studies concerning human tissue or entailing direct physical interventions.
• Research on animals.

Strict compliance to ethical standards should be observed while dealing with subjects. Studies on human subjects must indicate explicitly that the procedures followed were in line with the revised “Helsinki Declaration” of 1983. Detailed guidelines are available from the following link: https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/doh-oct1983/. Manuscripts of animal studies should clearly indicate that National Research Council guidelines on the care & use of laboratory animals were followed. The guidelines on animal research ethics are available from; https://veteditors.org/ethicsconsensusguideline.html to safeguard the rights and welfare of human subjects participating in biomedical research, ethical approval must be obtained for all manuscripts from the Hospital/ Institutional Ethical Committee(s) of the concerned organization(s). All the ethical approval(s), in the case of multicenter studies, should accompany the manuscript in writing. Conflict of interest any conflict of interest should be declared. It may include honorarium, funding, credits, and promotion which are not unethical but should be declared.

Appeal Process: JLMDC depends on a proficient editorial board to render editorial decisions and offer feedback to authors. Should you wish to contest the rejection of a submitted article to JLMDC, kindly reach out to the Editor-in-Chief of the journal.

Self-Archiving Policy of JLMDC:

 a: Preprint: A preprint is described as the author’s version of the manuscript before peer-review. Journal of Lahore Medical & Dental College neither accepts nor publishes pre-prints.

 b: Author’s Accepted Manuscript before Publication (AAM):  There is an embargo period on all submitted   manuscripts till the time of publication on JLMDC website. This embargo period does not apply on abstracts.

 C: Published Article (Version of Record): The version of the manuscript that is published (online/print) in a journal following peer review, copyediting and typesetting.

• As soon as your article publishes online, we’ll let you know. It will comprise of the publication date and DOI. Start sharing your article under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Complaint Process: The Journal of Lahore Medical & Dental College prioritizes transparency at all stages. Authors retain the right to raise concerns and seek clarification regarding any perceived ethical misconduct or policy breaches. JLMDC will promptly acknowledge receipt of any email correspondence sent to complaintjlmdc@lmdc.edu.pk with in 2 weeks. The decision is taken in and the same is forwarded to the concerned scholar through his submitted email ID. If the author wishes to pursue their complaint further, they may contact COPE directly. Information can be found on the COPE website: Facilitation and Integrity Subcommittee | COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics. 

Complaints may pertain to undisclosed conflicts of interest, plagiarism, multiple or duplicate publications, simultaneous submissions, unethical research practices, falsification of results, breaches of research standards, reviewer bias, or any contributions to JLMDC that infringe upon copyright or other intellectual property rights.

Advertisement Policy: We accept advertisements from pharmaceutical companies for our print editions. The decision to accept these advertisements lies with the Editor-in-Chief. They are displayed randomly throughout the publication. For advertising inquiries, please contact: editorjlmdc@lmdc.edu.pk .

Withdrawal Policies: According to JLMDC’s copyright policy, the copyright belongs to JLMDC submission. Furthermore, it is considered unethical to submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time. Withdrawal of the manuscript during its editorial workflow has been divided into parts.

• Manuscript Withdrawal (Before Acceptance): Authors are permitted to request the withdrawal of their manuscript after submission but before its acceptance, provided they provide a compelling reason. Withdrawal requests received before the initiation of the peer-review process (typically within three days of submission) will be promptly considered without requiring justification. However, once the review process has commenced, authors must send an email indicating their intention to withdraw, accompanied by a compelling ethical rationale. If any unethical reasons for manuscript withdrawal are detected (even after complete withdrawal), appropriate ethical actions may be taken. A manuscript is considered officially withdrawn only upon receipt of a formal withdrawal letter; failure to provide such a letter renders the manuscript not withdrawn, and any subsequent use of the article elsewhere will be deemed unethical misconduct. Please note that processing charges are non-refundable. For details regarding processing charges, please visit the following link processing charges
• Manuscript Withdrawal (After Acceptance):  Once an article has been accepted and publication charges have been submitted (regardless of whether it has been published in galley/early version or not), it cannot be withdrawn. For details regarding publication charges, please visit the following link: https://jlmdc.lmdc.edu.pk/index.php/lmdc/guidelines Publication charges. In cases where manuscripts accepted for publication contain scientific errors, accidental duplications of other published articles, or violate our publishing ethics guidelines (such as multiple submissions, false claims of authorship, plagiarism, reviewer bias, fraudulent use of data, or research misconduct), appropriate actions will be taken according to the COPE guidelines

Refund Policy: The author bears the responsibility for payment, and refunds will not be provided. Once the payment for APC/Fast Track is confirmed and processed, no refunds will be issued. Should you encounter any difficulties with online payment, we advise reaching out to us for assistance. It's important to note that the APC for each paper is applicable only once and is non-refundable. In the event of paper withdrawal from the journal, APC will not be reimbursed to the author.

Data Sharing Policy

• Digital Archiving Policy
• Revenue Soucres
• Direct Marketing Method

Journal of Lahore Medical & Dental College (JLMDC) ENCOURAGES authors to share and make data.  Authors can choose an appropriate statement regarding the availability of the data, from the templates given below. Extract from Wiley.

Digital Archiving Policy:

Revenue Sources:

Copyright Policy