The International Journal of Medical Students (IJMS) is an international peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal that publishes research on health sciences and medicine in the form of Original Articles, Short Communications, Reviews, Case Reports, Interviews, Experiences, and Letters. These publications must have at least one medical student or one recently graduated physician enrolled in any medical school in the world as an author. The Journal thrives to be the primary diffusion platform for early-career medical scientists.
We follow the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, issued by the International Committee for Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) code of conduct for editors.
Every submission should include as supplementary material a filled checklist from the EQUATOR's Network, specific to the study design (Observational: STROBE, Case report: CARE, Experimental CONSORT, Narrative review: SANRA, Meta-analysis: PRISMA) and indicating where in the manuscript the item is fulfilled.
The IJMS is committed to improving transparency in authorship. Every author must create and link their Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID) with their metadata before submission.
Original, short communication or review articles must include at least one senior researcher as part of the authorship team. This individual should possess substantial experience in the relevant research area and, ideally, hold formal research qualifications, such as a graduate degree.
Research Studies Accepted for Publication
The IJMS accepts clinical trials, survey research, reports of diagnostic tests, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and observational and analytical studies. These studies must be adherent to their specific guidelines posted in the EQUATOR Network and must be registered in their specific platforms (i.e., clinicaltrials.gov, PROSPERO, etc.). Observational studies of interventions should be registered in clinicaltrials.gov as per Zarin DA (https://nam.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/CERIC-07.25.13-Deborah-A.-Zarin.pdf).
Five types of manuscripts may be submitted:
Every article submitted to the IJMS should use the Article template to fulfill the metadata requirements.
The IJMS prioritizes manuscripts of original research in which there was active participation of at least one medical student or recently graduated physician. This includes papers of clinical, translational, and basic science research. The document should be about 3500 words with around 30 references.
An exception applies when the article is a systematic reviews and meta-analysis; the manuscript should contain around 4500 words (without including the Abstract and References), with up to 100 references and adherent to the PRISMA guideliness.
The Abstract should be structured into four sections (Background, Methods, Results, Conclusion), not exceeding 250 words.
Introduction: The Introduction should provide a clear statement of the problem, the relevant literature on the subject, and the proposed approach or solution. It should also include the study’s objective and hypothesis
Methods: Include the design of the study, setting, type of participants or materials involved as well as a description of all interventions and comparisons. The authors should also provide a description of the type of statistical analysis used, including a power calculation when appropriate. Well-established methodologies should simply be mentioned and referenced. For new methods, the protocols should be included. The authors should provide enough detail to enable the reproduction of the findings.
Results: The results should be presented with clarity and precision. The results should be written in the past tense. Results should be explained, but largely without referring to the literature. Discussion, speculation, and detailed interpretation of data should not be included in the Results but should be put into the Discussion section. The data should be presented in a logical order and according to the sequence of tables and figures (e.g., firstly, the description of the population, then follow a logical order according to the study).
Discussion: The discussion should interpret the findings in view of the results obtained in this and in past studies. Do not repeat the results in the Discussion section. The first paragraph is usually a summary of the Results section. Then the discussion is presented in a logical order. Limitations of the presented study should be included in this section. State the conclusions in a few sentences at the end of the Discussion section, typically as the final paragraph of this section.
References: The references should be around 30. Authors are encouraged to keep the number of references limited to those that are important for the understanding of the manuscript and of scientific relevance.
Short Communications should present a complete study that is more limited in scope than a full-length paper. This indicates that all the requirements specified for Original Articles mentioned above are also required upon submitting a Short Communication to the IJMS, with the following exceptions:
Case reports are intended to inform, entertain, and inspire. Present a diagnostic conundrum, and explain how it was solved. The main aspects that should be presented are: presentation, history, examination, investigations, management, and outcome. In the Discussion, educate the reader about the reported case. Case reports should enlighten readers about a condition or presentation that they find interesting. Rarity and overspecialization are not necessary.
The following specific criteria should be considered for Case Report Manuscripts:
An Informed Consent Form is available for authors. Authors should not upload the consent to the Journal but they should seek consent from the patient or a representative for publication.
The suggested outline of reviews of medical disorders includes an Introduction, Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, Management, and Prevention.
The IJMS encourages authors to adhere to the SANRA guidelines before submitting a Narrative Review. All Reviews should include a brief section entitled “Search strategy and selection criteria” section. This section should detail the sources (databases, keywords, search terms, filters, reference lists) and criteria for study selection. Reviews must include the following databases to be considered for publication in IJMS: Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Google Scholar at minimum. When relevant, include PsycINFO or CINAHL. Updates in reviews should incorporate the Cochrane Library (Bramer et al, Syst Rev. 2017)
Citations to papers published in non-peer-reviewed supplements are discouraged.
The following specific criteria should be considered for Review Manuscripts:
Meta-analysis are considered Original Articles in the IJMS
This section includes Letters, Experiences, Interviews, and other types of publications of interest to IJMS readers. We welcome correspondence on content published in the Journal or on other topics of interest to our readers —medical students, recently graduated physicians, and early career scientists, through a Letter to the Editor. These can be up to 1000 words long and include up to 10 references.
Letter to the Editor
Correspondence letters are not usually peer-reviewed (we do not publish original research or case reports in this section), but the journal might invite replies from the authors of the original publication or pass on letters to these authors. Only one table or figure is permitted, and there should be no more than five (5) references and five (5) authors. All accepted letters are edited, and proofs will be sent out to authors before publication.
Experiences
In Experiences, medical students can send their medical experiences in the areas of academic, social outreach, student exchanges, research, and others. This manuscript should have a maximum of 1000 words and at least 1 figure, with a maximum of up to 5 pictures. In case that you do not have pictures, a mandatory diagram describing the idea (conceptual framework, examples, steps, etc.) is required.
Interviews
Interviews and other sections will be called for by the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Medical Students. This section will also include short communications from our Partners about their national or international meetings and outcomes.
In brief, IJMS uses Vancouver style but the numbered references within the text must be in superscript. Journal articles even if they are online, are classified as journal articles, and must be cited as follow:
Websites should be cited as follow:
Simple website addresses should be included in the references section. It should follow this format: [Organization]. [Title]. Available from: [URL]. Last updated [Month day, year]; cited [Month day, year].
Where updated is the date the website was updated and cited the last date the authors visited the website. Please make sure to remove the brackets ([]) when replacing the information. It should read:
Further information about references, tables, and figures, can be found in the Appendix of these norms for authors.
Authors must submit the manuscript using the Articles Template. The editorial process of a submitted manuscript will not start if the manuscript is not in this format.
General instructions for articles:
For Tables and Figures (See Appendix B):
The IJMS encourages the submission of separate supporting information files, all appendices, detailed protocols, or details of the algorithms pertaining to new protocols or less well-established methods. These are published as Supplementary Material.
Generic drug names should generally be used and in cases where proprietary brands have been used, the brand names must be included in parenthesis. Where available, the accession numbers of any nucleic acid sequences and protein sequences cited in the manuscript and the corresponding database name should be provided.
The criteria that a manuscript needs to meet to be published in the IJMS include: originality, transparency, readability, factual accuracy, clear authorship roles and involvement, and conflict of interest disclosure.
At least one author of the manuscript must be:
Additionally, at least one of the authors of any original article, short communication or review article submitted for consideration for publication needs to be a senior researcher, someone who has experience in the area of research and who preferably has formal research training (i.e. graduate degree).
Each author must have contributed directly to the intellectual content of the manuscript, the genesis, and the analysis of their data. All authors are required to identify their contributions to the work in the manuscript. The IJMS has adopted the CRediT Taxonomy to describe each author’s individual contributions to the work. When submitting, make sure to build the author's contribution statement using the app found at https://www.scisco.co/author-signature-form-copy/ or fill the PDF and get the statement at: https://www.scisco.co/authorform/. Using the statement from this webapp, fill out the author signature statement found on the 1st page of the template for submissions.
The corresponding author takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer-review, and pre-post publication process.
Those whose contributions do not justify authorship may be acknowledged individually or together as a group under a single heading (e.g. “Clinical Investigators” or “Participating Investigators”), and their contributions should be specified (e.g., “served as scientific advisors,” “critically reviewed the study proposal,” “collected data,” “provided and cared for study patients”, “participated in writing or technical editing of the manuscript”).
Because acknowledgment may imply endorsement by acknowledged individuals of a study’s data and conclusions, the corresponding author must obtain written permission to be acknowledged from all acknowledged individuals.
A conflict of interest may exist when an author (or the author’s institution or employer) has financial or personal relationships or affiliations that could influence or bias the author’s decisions, work, or manuscript. Each author’s disclosure of conflicts of interests should be accurate, up-to-date, and consistent with what is reported in the “Conflicts of Interest statement” and “Financing” sections on the first page of the manuscript based on the ICMJE Form.
The policy requiring disclosure of conflicts of interest applies for all manuscript submissions, including letters to the editor. If an author’s disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is determined to be inaccurate or incomplete after publication, a correction will be published to rectify the originally published disclosure statement, and additional action may be taken as necessary.
For all manuscripts reporting data from studies involving human participants or animals, formal review and approval, or formal review and waiver, by an appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee is required and should be described in the Methods section. For those investigators who do not have formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki as revised in 2008 should be followed. For investigations of humans, state in the Methods section the manner in which informed consent was obtained from the study participants (i.e., oral or written).
For case reports, authors should obtain informed consent from the patient or their legal representative in agreement with the COPE specific guidelines for informed consent in case reports. The journal has a consent form for case reports in case the authors require one.
IJMS is adherent to the Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare for Editors of the International Association of Veterinary Editors (IAVE). All material published in IJMS must adhere to high ethical standards concerning animal welfare.
There is a zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism (including self-plagiarism) in the IJMS. Manuscripts are screened for plagiarism before, during, and after publication, and if found they will be rejected at any stage of processing. In case that a paper is already published in the Journal, but plagiarism is still detected, it will be retracted and the authors' institutions and department heads will be notified to take action.
If you take notice of any unethical irregularities in IJMS content, please let us know at contact@ijms.info/ or ethics@ijmsinfo/.
Submission to the IJMS is through our website. At least the Corresponding Author should be registered on the website as Author. From User Home, choose “New Submission” to start the five-step submission process. Here are some notes on each step:
Table 1. Documents, Formats, and File Extensions to be Submitted as Supplementary Files.
|
Nº |
Document |
Format |
Extensions |
|
|
1 |
Photos, if any. |
JPG or PNG format |
.jpg or .npg |
|
|
2 |
Graphs: charts, histograms, diagrams, Box-Plots, schemes, etc; if any. |
Excel©, SPSS© Output Navigator or Stata© Graph |
.xls/x, .spo or .gph |
|
After submission, the Corresponding Author can keep track of the progress of the editorial process by logging into the IJMS website and choosing the manuscript submitted.
The IJMS aims to provide all authors with an efficient, unbiased, fair, and consistent editorial process. Submitted manuscripts will be evaluated by the Scientific Editor for fulfilling the IJMS requirements. Then they will be assigned to a member of the Editorial Team (usually an Associate Editor). The Associate Editor with his team of Student Editors will assess the manuscript to determine whether it is within the scope of the Journal, the quality of the data presented, and the standard of presentation before sending it for peer-review. If the article is suitable for the Journal, Two Student Editors will carry out an independent review of the manuscript based on the Web of Science Academy review form. The Associate Editor will review the Student Editors' responses and send a response by email to the author with the required editions standardizing the responses and checking their accuracy. After this first step and receiving the response from the authors, the manuscript is sent to Peer-Reviewers.
The author could suggest or be asked to suggest reviewers and they will be considered alongside other potential reviewers identified by their publication record or recommended by Editorial Board members. However, the final decision on the choice of reviewers rests with the Editorial Team without any obligation to contact any of the authors' recommended peer reviewers.
Manuscripts will be sent to at least two Peer-Reviewers who will independently assess if the manuscript is technically and scientifically sound and coherent. The final editorial decision is made based on the recommendations of the Peer-Reviewers and that the provided observations are in accord without any strong dissenting opinions. Once all reviews have been received and considered by the Editors, a final decision is made and a letter is drafted to the corresponding author. The final decision on acceptance, revisions required, or rejection of manuscripts is under the discretion of the Executive and Editorial Board.
The review process takes twelve weeks on average and the decision is notified by email
Possible final decisions include:
Where there are issues with the standard of presentation or clarity of language, the authors will be informed accordingly and provided with suggestions or assistance for rectification.
The editorial process of IJMS is described in the figure below:
After a manuscript is accepted, a copyeditor communicates the final style and language corrections to the author as an Initial Copyedit. The author should be able to comply with the requested edits accordingly and upload a new version of the manuscript with the suggested changes promptly. The Final Copyedit is then moved to the next step: Layout. In the Layout step, the Layout Editor diagrams the final copy of the to-be-published article.
Electronic proofs will be available on the website to the corresponding author as a PDF file.
Page proofs are considered to be the final version of the manuscript prior to its publication. With the exception of typographical or minor errors, no significant changes will be made to the manuscript at the proof stage. The corresponding author is expected to approve the final PDF copy promptly to avoid unnecessary delays in publication.
Because IJMS will be published freely online, authors will have free electronic access to the full text of the article in HTML, XML and PDF formats. Authors can freely download their article from which they can print unlimited copies.
Ethical Standards
Various authorities have their own definitions of scientific misconduct. At the IJMS, we address these issues on a case-by-case basis while adhering to guidelines produced by regulatory bodies which include the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
The IJMS follows the COPE guidelines for allegations of misconduct. In brief, we follow the 6 steps described by Dr. Wager former Chair of COPE (J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2014 Dec;15(2):146-50) of (1) Assess, (2) Give people an opportunity to explain, (3) Seek an investigation, (4) Protect readers from potentially misleading work, (5) Have clear journal policies and processes, and (6) Educate authors and reviewers.
Scientific misconduct includes these behaviors:
|
Falsification of data |
From fabrication and/or deliberate suppression and/or distortion of data to deceptive selective reporting of findings and omission of conflicting data. |
|
Plagiarism |
The use of others' language, ideas, or thoughts without crediting the original source and presenting them as one's own original work. Plagiarism is evaluated in every submission using an iThenticate. Authors are informed of the findings and if there is clear plagiarism the article is rejected. |
|
Improprieties of authorship |
Improper credit assignment, such as excluding others, misrepresenting the same material as original in multiple publications, including individuals as authors who have not made a significant contribution to the work published, or submitting multi-authored publications without consent of all authors. |
|
Misappropriation of the ideas of others |
The exchange of ideas among colleagues is an essential aspect of scholarly activity. During the process of reviewing grant applications and manuscripts, scholars can pick up new ideas from others. However, if this information is misused, it can result in fraud. Wholesale appropriation of such material constitutes misconduct. |
|
Violation of generally accepted research practices |
Serious deviations from accepted practices in proposing or conducting research, improper manipulation of experiments to obtain biased results, deceptive statistical or analytical manipulations, or improper reporting of results are all examples of serious deviations from accepted practices. |
|
Material failure to comply with legislative and regulatory requirements affecting research: |
For example, serious or substantial, repeated, willful violations of applicable local regulations and law involving the use of funds, animal care, human subjects, investigational drugs, recombinant products, new devices, or radioactive, biological, or chemical materials. |
|
Inappropriate behavior in relation to misconduct |
Unfounded or knowingly false accusations of misconduct, failure to report known or suspected misconduct, withholding or destruction of information relevant to a claim of misconduct, and retaliation against people involved in the allegation or investigation are all examples of this. |
Many journals, including The IJMS, also consider redundant and duplicate publication, lack of declaration of competing interests and of funding/sponsorship, and other failures of transparency, to be forms of misconduct.
If we suspect misconduct
We take seriously all possible misconduct.
If an editor has concerns that a submitted article describes something that might be considered to constitute misconduct in research, publication, or professional behavior, we may discuss the case in confidence with The IJMS's ethics committee.
If the case cannot be resolved by discussion with the author(s), and the editor still has concerns, they may report the case to the appropriate authorities. If during the course of reviewing an article, an editor is alerted to possible problems (for example, plagiarism) in another publication, The IJMS editor may contact the journal in which the previous publication appeared to raise the concern.
The IJMS is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Cases of research or publication misconduct may also be referred to COPE in an anonymized format.
Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions
The IJMS publishes three types of post-publication notice:
As discussed below, we use these notices to address:
In addressing issues raised about IJMS publications, we uphold our journals’ policies, publication criteria, and editorial standards, and we follow ICMJE and COPE guidelines, where applicable. The IJMS Publication Ethics team works in collaboration with journal editors on post-publication cases that involve serious ethics or integrity concerns, including those for which the issues may warrant an Expression of Concern or retraction.
Notifying IJMS of concerns about submitted or published work
Corrections
We publish corrections to address errors in articles published in IJMS if, per our editorial assessment, all of the following criteria have been met:
An error that affects key aspects of the publication's metadata (e.g., misspelling of an author's name, or errors in the competing interests, funding, or data availability statement) may also result in an IJMS correction.
In most cases, a correction notice will appear as a post-publication notice linked to the original IJMS article. In rare cases, the IJMS may choose to republish a corrected version of an article instead of the original online version. When we republish an article, we usually include a correction notice that is linked to the article and documents the changes.
Corrections for typographical errors or other minor issues that have no bearing on the scientific integrity, comprehension, or indexing of the article are not published in the IJMS. Authors are encouraged to post comments on their article's webpage to keep readers informed about these issues. Please contact the journal office if you have any questions about whether a correction or comment should be used to address an error in an IJMS article.
Expressions of Concern
Expressions of Concern (EOCs) are notices published at the discretion of the editors to alert readers to serious concerns about previously published work. We will usually finish the case's follow-up before publishing a notice, but in some cases, we may publish an EOC as an interim notice while IJMS or another entity investigates an issue. If we reach the end of our follow-up process and issues remain unresolved, an EOC may be used as a resolution to a post-publication case.
IJMS staff and/or the journal's Editor(s)-in-Chief or Executive Committee write EOCs. An EOC, like a correction, is posted at the top of the article's IJMS webpage and linked to the article's publication record. The status of the linked research article does not change as a result of an EOC. Following the publication of an EOC, the same article or the EOC itself may be corrected or retracted, depending on the editors' evaluation of information, data, and/or materials received in subsequent discussions.
Before publishing an EOC, IJMS makes an attempt to notify the authors of the affected article, but we do not require their approval or agreement. With an EOC, the editor may seek to publish data or other materials received from the authors as supporting files; in such cases, the authors are consulted and have the option of not having their files/materials published.
Retractions
Retraction is a mechanism for correcting the literature and notifying readers of major concerns about the integrity, validity, or reliability of an article, as discussed in COPE’s Retraction Guidelines. If the editors determine that issues that have not been resolved in our discussions with the authors warrant retraction, the article will be retracted in accordance with COPE guidelines. IJMS may also retract an article if we discover after it has been published that it violates key aspects of the journal's requirements or editorial policies; or if there are image or data concerns for which the original raw data is not provided, not available, or insufficient (in our editorial opinion) to address the issues.
We reserve the right to retract an article even if the problems were caused by honest mistakes or misconduct. IJMS does not adjudicate on intent or individual-level responsibility for issues raised, and we do not issue partial retractions, as per COPE guidelines.
IJMS publishes a notice of retraction when an article is retracted, explaining the reason(s) for the retraction. The notice appears at the top of the IJMS webpage for the affected article and is linked to the article's publication record. The authors or the editors of a journal can retract a manuscript. In both cases, the IJMS editors have the final say over the contents of the retraction notice, but in author-led retractions, the editors work with the authors to prepare the notice.
Before completing a retraction, we try to notify all authors of the retraction decision and the notice text. Other affected third parties, such as the authors' institution(s) or another journal/publisher with an article or submission in the case, may also be notified of a retraction by IJMS.
An article that has been retracted is no longer considered part of the published record. Retracted IJMS articles, on the other hand, remain online and available, with the retraction status clearly indicated, as per COPE guidance. We update the downloadable PDF, HTML, and XML available at the article's IJMS webpage at the time of retraction so that the retracted status is clearly noted on subsequent downloads.
Every author of a contribution must be credited as such. Also, a person should not be named an author when is not an author. The IJMS preference is for authors to resolve complaints and disputes amongst themselves, although that is not always possible. Further information including COPE flowcharts on addition or removal of authors, guest, ghost, or gift authorship, and advice on how to spot authorship problems can be found here.
Author's Conflict of Interest
A competing interest, also known as a ‘conflict of interest’, can occur when you (or your employer or sponsor) have a financial, commercial, legal, or professional relationship with other organizations, or with the people working with them, that could influence your research. IJMS asks its authors to disclose any potential conflict of interest. Please review our policies about conflict of interest.
The IJMS asks its reviewers and editors to disclose any potential conflict of interest when reviewing submitted manuscripts. In case of any conflict, including personal, financial, and non-financial, editors and reviewers are required to disclose those to prevent bias in the editorial process.
In case of submissions from a member of the editorial team, from the same institution of the editor or reviewer, personal relationships with authors, or a previous review in another journal, the manuscript is assigned to a different editor or reviewer.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
The names and email addresses entered in this Journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this Journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
The information published in the International Journal of Medical Students are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the Journal nor its Executive Board. Neither the IJMS and bodies nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein.
New articles published in the International Journal of Medical Students are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Dear future physician-scientists,
We're thrilled to share with you the latest issue of the International Journal of Medical Students (IJMS). This is an issue full of diverse approaches to medical students everyday' questions. We begin with AI and follow through a sum of articles that lead us to an award...
Dear physician-scientists,
We're thrilled to share with you the latest issue of the International Journal of Medical Students (IJMS), a vibrant tapestry weaving together diverse and critical themes in the world of medicine and health education.
This
This journal is published by Pitt Open Library Publishing.
ISSN 2076-6327 (online)
