Editorial Policy

Authorship

PKLI Journal of Health Science has agreed to receive and publish manuscripts in accordance with the instructions of International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Details of ICMJE and COPE are available at www.icmje.org and http://publicationethics.org/

The ICMJE recommends that authorship should be based on the following four criteria:

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  4. 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.

All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship.

  1. Alterations in the List of Authors
    PKLI-JHS does not prescribe to change in the authors list with respect to additions and deletions after the initial submission.
  2. Contributions Statement
    Statements describing detailed contributions made by each author are required at the time of submission of the manuscript. This has to be outlined in the LETTER OF UNDERTAKING. Incomplete form can lead to processing delays in the manuscript.

iii. Corresponding Author
The corresponding author is the individual who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal. The corresponding author should be available throughout the submission and peer review process to respond to editorial queries in a timely way and should be available after publication to respond to critiques of the work and cooperate with any requests from the journal for data or additional information should questions about the paper arise after publication.

  1. Author’s Address and affiliation
    Present addresses for individual authors that differ from the address(es) at which the work was done should be given in a Present Addresses note to be placed at the bottom of the first page.
  2. Deceased Authors
    Deceased authors should be included with a death dagger (†) next to the author's name, and a footnote stating that the author is deceased and giving the date of their death e.g., †Deceased 1 January 2024.

Privacy Statement

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.

Acknowledgement Criteria:

Contributors not meeting all authorship criteria may be acknowledged. Examples include those aiding in funding acquisition, research supervision, administrative support, study design, manuscript review, statistical analysis, laboratory assistance, and questionnaire responses. Additionally, those providing micrographs, x-rays, or slides, and support from pharmaceutical companies or organizations may be acknowledged.

Clinical Trial Registration:

Publication of randomized controlled trial (RCT) results follows ICMJE recommendations. Manuscripts must include a trial registration number, placed after the abstract. Only prospectively registered trials are accepted; retrospective registration is not considered. Unregistered trials will not be processed. Pilot studies of clinical trials are not categorized as RCTs or original articles.

ICMJE defines a clinical trial as research that assigns people to interventions to study cause-and-effect relationships. Health-related interventions include drugs, surgeries, devices, behavioral treatments, and more. Health outcomes include biomedical or health-related measures.

ICMJE endorses primary WHO ICTRP registers, ClinicalTrials.gov, and approval from Pakistan's Drug Regulatory Authority (DRAP). Other trial registries are acceptable.

Reference: ICMJE recommendations (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf)

Conflict of Interest

WAME defines conflict of interest as any competing interest that could unduly influence responsibilities in the publication process. Authors must declare all conflicts, including grants, honoraria, relationships, and data ownership rights. Such conflicts, though not unethical, may influence or deny credit to the study site. Authors should clearly state conflicts in the LETTER OF UNDERTAKING and before references. If none exist, authors should state, “none to declare.

Plagiarism Policy

All submitted manuscripts undergo a thorough review for originality. Utilizing the iThenticate service, manuscripts with a similarity index should be below 19% and not more than 5% from a single source. If similarity index is 19% or higher are returned for clarification or correction. For plagiarized articles (multiple submissions), identification results in immediate exclusion from further processing. The corresponding author must provide an explanation upon request. Failure to provide a satisfactory response prompts referral to the disciplinary committee for appropriate action.

 

Published plagiarized articles are temporarily retracted with a notice in PKLI-JHS. The author is notified and required to respond satisfactorily within the stipulated time. Failure to do so leads to permanent retraction and author blacklisting, with notifications to HEC, PMC, and the author's institute. Other editors are also informed of multiple submissions. Claims of intellectual or data theft require documentary proof for consideration.

Open Access

PKLI-JHS provides unrestricted access to all published articles for rapid dissemination and easy accessibility. Users are permitted to use the content for scholarly or commercial purposes, citing PKLI-JHS as the original source. Authors grant PKLI-JHS the right to reproduce, publish, and communicate their work. Authors retain moral rights and agree to publish under CC BY 4.0, allowing broader dissemination and reuse of their work.

Copyright Notice

By submitting a manuscript to PKLI-JHS, the author (or Principal author in a multi-authored paper) confirms the following:

  • The work is original and plagiarism-free.
  • Proper referencing for materials taken from other sources.
  • Written consent obtained for tables or figures from external sources.
  • No prior publication, except in informal publications like theses.
  • Exclusivity of submission to PKLI-JHS.
  • Compliance with intellectual property laws and ethical standards.
  • Agreement of all authors for submission.
  • Acknowledgement of contributors not meeting authorship criteria.
  • Compliance with patient information criteria.

Authors retain moral rights and grant PKLI-JHS rights under CC BY 4.0. This license allows for broader dissemination and reuse of the work while ensuring proper attribution.

Ethical Approval of Research

Authors must adhere to ethical standards when reporting experiments involving human subjects, aligning with the latest Helsinki Declaration. Patient anonymity is crucial, avoiding the use of names or identifiers. All submissions to PKLI-JHS should include ethical approval from the responsible committee, preferably an ERC or IRB, on official letterhead with appropriate signatures. Approval must be prospective. Studies not directly involving human subjects require an exemption letter from the ERC/IRB. These measures ensure research integrity and uphold ethical standards, safeguarding human participants' rights and welfare.

Funding Disclosure Article

All sources of grants received, and its spending should be disclosed. Such statements should be declared on the LETTER OF UNDERTAKING and at the end of the manuscript before the references. If there are no funding sources, the authors should state “none to declare”.

Peer Review

All manuscripts submitted to PKLI-JHS initially undergo internal / desk review. A manuscript not found suitable for publication as regards to the topic or poor writing, breach of ethical principles, or conflict of interest issues, is likely to be rejected on the initial internal editorial review stage.

After the internal / desk review, the manuscript is sent for external peer reviews. This is a double-blind process. Research articles are reviewed by two reviewers.

Original articles authored by the editorial board are also externally peer reviewed.

Editorials and obituaries authored by the editor-in-chief will not be subjected to an external peer review.

Rejected Articles - Appeals

Authors whose articles have been rejected have the right to send a letter of appeal giving detailed explanations. This will be reviewed in-house, and a decision will be taken accordingly.

Revised articles will not be reconsidered after declared as rejected or Articles rejected at this stage will not be reconsidered under any condition.

Reproduction of full or in part of a previously published article will not be accepted.

Reproducing material from other sources will not be acceptable.

It is the author's responsibility to secure permissions from all required sources, prior to submission of the manuscript. Any part of the article accessed from another source, should be accompanied by a signed letter of consent from the copyright holder, which may be the author, journal or the publisher.

Responses to Published Work

Comments on previously published articles in PKLI-JHS will be reviewed by the editor-in-chief and forwarded to the authors of the published manuscript for a reply. Appropriate time will be given for the response. Both will be published simultaneously in one of the forthcoming issues. In case the author of the published article does not reply, the comments will be published on their own.

This process will only be undertaken if the comments are appropriate.

Please submit comments to published work via email: (will be decided by IT) Please see the Guidelines to Authors for details regarding the submission.

Scientific Misconduct

PKLI-JHS strictly adheres to guidelines from COPE, WAME, ICMJE, and HEC for handling scientific misconduct. Examples include data falsification, plagiarism, improper authorship, misappropriation of ideas, deviation from research standards, and failure to comply with regulations. Allegations of misconduct prompt immediate investigation, halting manuscript processing. Redundant or duplicate publications, undisclosed conflicts of interest, and lack of transparency are also considered misconduct. Responses to allegations involve thorough fact-finding in line with established guidelines.

Supplements:

PKLI-JHS accepts supplement requests from external organizations on various topics, abstracts, or meetings.

Published supplement articles represent authors' opinions, not official journal policy.

For supplement inquiries, contact (will be decided by IT)

Withdrawal Policy

Upon submission, copyright belongs to PKLI-JHS, and simultaneous submission to multiple journals is unethical. To withdraw a manuscript, authors must email their intent, complete and sign the withdrawal form, and return it via scan. A formal withdrawal letter from the editorial office will follow. Manuscripts are only considered withdrawn upon receipt of this letter; using the manuscript elsewhere without withdrawal is deemed unethical. Electronic signatures are not accepted for withdrawal.

Retraction of a published article

PKLI-JHS follows the Retraction Guidelines by COPE.

https://publicationethics.org/files/retraction-guidelines-cope.pdf

Retraction of a published article is considered on the following grounds:

  • i. If an article has gross errors in the results or the experimental miscalculations are detected after publication.
  • ii. Plagiarism detected after publication
  • iii. Redundant or Duplicate publication
  • iv. Unethical Research results
  • v. Major Conflict of Interest

THERE IS NO TEMPORAL CONSTRAINT FOR RETRACTION REQUESTS.

 

 

 

License to Publish

PKLI-JHS adopts the CC BY 4.0 license (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License). For specifics, please refer to the full license legal code. The journal utilizes a non-exclusive licensing agreement for open access publishing, allowing authors to retain copyright and primary scholarly usage rights while granting the journal publication and distribution rights.

Expression of Concern

PKLI-JHS adheres to COPE guidelines for Expression of Concern, aiming to highlight potential issues in published articles.

https://publicationethics.org/case/publication-expression-concern

Conditions warranting an Expression of Concern include authors' conflicts of interest emerging post-publication, unreliable research findings, authorship disputes, potentially misleading publication of a small portion of results, and use of unreliable or substandard methodology.

Animal-based studies

At this stage, PKLI-JHS does not accepts animal-based studies, or research articles.

From submission to publication: approximate time duration

Workflow

Duration

Duration of paper submission.

includes article with all necessary supporting documents, similarity Index report

07 working days

Phase 1; Editorial review

1st formatted draft, completed initial requirements

14 working  days

Phase 2; Peer Review

Acknowledgment

07 working  days

Review

21 working  days

Reminder 1

7 working  days

Reminder 2

7 working  days

Corrections by author

14 working  days

Technical review

14 working  days

Corrections by authors

07 working  days

Final Acceptance to publication:

07 working  days

AVERAGE DURATION OF ALL PROCESSES

4-6 months

Pre-Print Policy

Authors may submit articles, excluding case reports and editorials, as preprints, under the following conditions:

  1. The original manuscript version (pre-peer review) may be posted at any time, with disclosure at submission.
  2. Human research must have Ethics Review Committee or IRB approval.
  3. Research must adhere to ICMJE and COPE guidelines.
  4. All authors must agree and hold ORCID registration.
  5. Manuscripts must be removed from the preprint site upon acceptance or rejection by PKLI-JHS.
  6. Upon publication, add: "This article has been published in [citation] and can be viewed at [DOI]."