Clinical Trial Policy

The Journal of Medical and Scientific Research (JMSR) supports the principles of transparency, ethical conduct, and responsible reporting of clinical research. Manuscripts reporting clinical trials will be considered for publication only if the study has been conducted in accordance with internationally accepted ethical standards and applicable national regulations.

Prospective clinical trials involving human participants must be registered in a publicly accessible clinical trial registry before the enrollment of the first participant. Acceptable registries include the Clinical Trials Registry–India (CTRI), ClinicalTrials.gov, or any primary registry recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP). The trial registration number and registry name must be included in the manuscript.

Authors are required to report clinical trials in accordance with the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) guidelines. Where applicable, authors should submit a completed CONSORT checklist and participant flow diagram along with the manuscript to facilitate transparent and complete reporting.

All clinical research involving human participants must have received prior approval from a duly constituted Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) or Institutional Review Board (IRB). The manuscript must clearly state the name of the approving ethics committee, approval/reference number, and date of approval. Authors must also confirm that written informed consent was obtained from all participants or their legally authorized representatives before enrollment in the study.

The journal reserves the right to request copies of ethics approval documents, clinical trial registration records, CONSORT checklist, or other supporting documentation during the editorial or peer-review process. Failure to comply with these requirements may result in rejection of the manuscript.

The Editorial Board may decline manuscripts describing unregistered clinical trials, retrospective trial registration without adequate justification, or studies that fail to meet accepted ethical and reporting standards.

Research Involving Vulnerable Populations Policy

The Journal of Medical and Scientific Research (JMSR) is committed to ensuring that research involving vulnerable populations is conducted in accordance with internationally accepted ethical principles and applicable national regulations. Vulnerable populations include, but are not limited to, children, pregnant or breastfeeding women, elderly individuals, persons with cognitive or mental impairments, prisoners, economically or socially disadvantaged individuals, and others who may have limited capacity or freedom to provide voluntary informed consent.

Authors submitting manuscripts involving vulnerable populations must confirm that the study received prior approval from a duly constituted Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) or Institutional Review Board (IRB). The manuscript must clearly state the name of the approving ethics committee, approval/reference number, and date of approval.

Authors must ensure that informed consent was obtained from all participants or, where applicable, from legally authorized representatives or guardians. For studies involving children, parental or guardian consent and, whenever appropriate, the child's assent should be obtained in accordance with applicable ethical guidelines and regulations.

Research involving vulnerable populations must demonstrate that participation was voluntary, the rights, dignity, privacy, and welfare of participants were adequately protected, and that the potential benefits of the research outweigh any foreseeable risks. Authors should describe any additional safeguards implemented to protect vulnerable participants during the conduct of the study.

The Journal reserves the right to request copies of ethics approval documents, informed consent forms, or additional supporting information during the editorial or peer-review process. Manuscripts that fail to comply with accepted ethical standards or provide adequate protection for vulnerable populations may be rejected.

The Editorial Board follows the ethical principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki, the International Council for Harmonisation Good Clinical Practice (ICH-GCP) guidelines, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations, and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance when evaluating manuscripts involving vulnerable populations.

Cover Letter

With your manuscript, you should include a cover letter that will indicate the name of the author(s), correspondence details (e-mail address, postal address include current telephone and fax numbers), title of the paper, an explanation of why the manuscript is of interest to the journal and what is novel about it. Author names and institutional affiliations are mandatory. Academic or professional designations may be included at the authors’ discretion, provided they are factual, non-promotional, and uniformly applied.

Authorship

To qualify as an author, one should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, 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 submitted. Note that all authors should qualify for authorship and all that qualify should be authors.

Copyright

All works published by Journal of Medical and Scientific Research (JMSR) are under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This permits anyone to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the work provided the original work and source is appropriately cited.

The journal allow the author(s) to hold the copyright without restrictions. The journal allow the author(s) to retain publishing rights without restrictions.

Structure of manuscripts

Manuscript title: Should be precise and relevant to the content of the manuscript and having not more than 25 words.

Author names: Authors names and institutional affiliations, the name of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed.

Contact information for corresponding authors: The name of corresponding author, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address of the author, responsible for correspondence of the manuscript.

Abstract: The page following the front page should contain a structured abstract that accurately and concisely describes the purpose, the methods/ patients, the results and conclusions of the study in the paper. Abstract should be in a single paragraph and not exceed 250 words.

Keywords: Provide up to 12 key words. Words from the title of the article may be included in the key words. Each key word should be useful as an entry point for a literature search

Introduction: State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Material/Patients and methods: Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described. The patient's presenting symptoms, Examination findings (MRI, neuroconductive studies, specialized studies, etc.), treatment rendered, results of treatment and follow-up studies may be included.

Results: Results should be clear and concise.

Discussion: This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

Conclusions: The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.

Appendices: If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on.

Acknowledgements: All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined above should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. Financial support like grants should also be mentioned in the acknowledgements section.

Conflict of interest: All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations. Also relations other than of financial and personal nature can be a potential conflict of interest, for example in an evaluation study where the evaluators are also the developers of the system tested. Such potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed as well.

Tables and figures: Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

References: Each bibliographic reference should be identified in the text by a number in brackets (e.g. [3]) in order of appearance and be listed in numerical order at the end of the typescript. The references are to be submitted in the vancouver style.

Examples:

Published papers

One author: Deitel M. Nutritional management of external gastrointestinal fistulas. Can J Surg. 1976; 19:505–509.

Two or more authors (up to five authors): Tsuei BJ, Skinner JC, Bernard AC, Kearney PA, Boulanger BR. The open peritoneal cavity: etiology correlates with the likelihood of fascial closure. Am Surg. 2004; 70:652–665.

Above five authors: Brown BJ, Heaston DK, Poulson AM, Gabert HA, Mineau DE, et al. Uncontrollable postpartum bleeding: a new approach to hemostasis through angiographic arterial embolization. Obstet Gynecol. 1979; 54:361–365.

Electronic publications: De Palma G, Kamanova J, Cinova J, Olivares M, Drasarova H, et al. Modulation of phenotypic and functional maturation of dendritic cells by intestinal bacteria and gliadin: relevance for celiac disease. J Leukoc Biol. 2012; 92:1043–1054. 

Books: Fauci AS, Braunwald E, Kasper DL, Hauser SL, Longo DL, et al., editors. Harrison’s principles of internal medicine. 17th ed. New York: McGraw Hill; 2008.

Books chapters: Alexander RG. Considerations in creating a beautiful smile. In: Romano R, editor. The art of the smile. London: Quintessence Publishing; 2005. pp. 187–210.

Electronic books: Irfan A. Protocols for predictable aesthetic dental restorations [Internet]. Oxford: Blackwell Munksgaard; 2006 [cited on 21 May 2009]. Available from Netlibrary: http://cclsw2.vcc.ca:2048/login?url=http://www.netLibrary.com/urlapi.asp?action=summary&v=1&bookid=181691http://cclsw2.vcc.ca:2048/login?url=http://www.netLibrary.com/urlapi.asp?action=summary&v=1&bookid=181691.

Guidelines & Recommendations for Review article – Maximum Word Count: 4,000 

The Review section should provide a comprehensive overview of a specific topic, focusing on recent research (typically from the past 1–3 years). Authors are encouraged to discuss the current state of the field, analyze key developments, and propose potential future directions, supported by relevant references. 

Each review article submission must include:

• Unstructured Abstract (Maximum 200 words): A brief summary outlining the key topics discussed and the main conclusions of the article.
• Keywords: Subject related keywords (Minimum 3, Maximum 10).
• Relevant terms that enhance the article's visibility and relevance.
• May include Tables and Figures: A maximum of 12 figures and 5 tables to illustrate key points and findings.
• Authors may include supplementary material in a separate document, which should be appropriately cited within the main text.
• The maximum word count for review articles is 3,500 words, including references.

Format of submissions

• Manuscripts must be word-processed (preferably in Microsoft Word format), written in English and double spaced with about 1 cm margins all around. All pages should be numbered.
• All figures and tables, including charts, graphs, photographs and the like must be included in the manuscript at their appropriate place. Each figure and table should be accompanied by a legend that provides sufficient details to understand the figure or table. Any abbreviations in the figure or table should be explained in the legend. 
• Manuscripts should be submitted to the editorial office at journaljmsr@gmail.com.

Peer Review Process 

The Journal of Medical and Scientific Research (JMSR) follows a rigorous double-blind peer review process to ensure the quality, reliability, and integrity of all published articles. In this system, both authors and external reviewers remain anonymous to each other, helping to maintain objectivity and eliminate potential bias.

All external reviewers are required to follow the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers, and JMSR conducts plagiarism checks at multiple stages of the editorial workflow. Authors are strongly advised to verify the originality of their manuscripts using standard plagiarism-detection tools before submission.

To illustrate the workflow clearly, the peer review steps are shown in the image below.

The typical stages are as follows:

1. Submission

The author submits the manuscript through the JMSR submission system. 

2. Editorial Screening

The JMSR editor conducts an initial check to confirm that the manuscript meets basic scientific, ethical, and formatting requirements. The journal may reject submissions without review if they contain only an abstract, lack essential sections, or do not meet minimum quality standards.  

3. Editor Assignment

If the manuscript passes initial screening, it is assigned to an appropriate Editor, who oversees the external peer-review process.  

4. Initial Editorial Assessment

The assigned Editor evaluates the manuscript for relevance, novelty, and suitability for the journal’s scope before initiating formal peer review.

5. Peer Review

·  The Editor invites two to three independent external reviewers with expertise in the relevant subject area.

· External reviewers assess the manuscript’s scientific validity, methodology, originality, ethical compliance, and clarity.

·  They provide detailed comments and recommendations (Accept, Minor Revision, Major Revision, or Reject).

·  If an external reviewer identifies a conflict of interest such as personal, academic, or professional relationships with the authors they must immediately notify the Editor. 

6. Editor Assessment of Reviews

The Editor evaluates the external reviewers’ comments and the quality of the critiques, then makes a preliminary decision: Revise, Reject, or Accept.

7. Revision by the Author

If revisions are required, the author submits a revised manuscript and a point-by-point response. Revised manuscripts may be returned to the external reviewers for re-evaluation when necessary.

8. Final Decision

Based on external reviewer input and editorial judgment, the Editor renders a final decision:

• Accepted – no further revisions needed
• Accepted – after satisfactory revision
• Rejected  

9. Publication

Accepted manuscripts proceed to copyediting, layout, and publication in the upcoming journal issue.