SQUMJ Guide for Authors

SQUMJ is a nationally and internationally peer-reviewed journal that publishes original articles in a wide
variety of biomedical disciplines. SQUMJ is published quarterly in print and online with free access to full
text articles.

All SQUMJ issues and this Guide for Authors are freely available online at
web.squ.edu.om/squmj/index.asp and www.squmj.org.

Manuscripts should be submitted online via the Editorial Manager system at www.edmgr.com/squmj/

Key Issues
UNIFORM REQUIREMENTS OF ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors)
Before submitting manuscripts, authors should check that they conform to the Uniform Requirements of the
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.ICMJE.org) to which SQUMJ conforms.

TYPES OF MANUSCRIPTS PUBLISHED

Manuscripts submitted must be based on original work and not have been published, submitted or accepted
for publication elsewhere. The Journal accepts the following kinds of manuscripts:
1. Editorials (by invitation from the Editorial Board, or papers received of exceptional merit)
2. Comments
3. Reviews
4. Special Contributions
5. Medical History articles
6. Sounding Board articles
7. Original Studies
8. Brief Communications
9. Technical Notes
10. Case Series and Case Reports
11. Continuing Medical Education articles
12. Interesting Medical Images
13. Letters to the Editor
14. Conference Abstracts

CONFIDENTIALITY
SQUMJ editors and publication staff keep all information about a submitted manuscript confidential and
limited to those involved in the evaluation, review and publication process. Only the Editor-in-Chief, the
Editor, the Managing and Assistant Editors and the two allocated Associate Editors are aware of the names
of manuscript authors and their affiliations. SQUMJ has a double-blind review process so that authors’
names and affiliations are not revealed to reviewers nor are reviewers’ names revealed to authors. Only
information on accepted articles is archived (in hard copy and on CD) for future reference. Paper files of
withdrawn or rejected articles are destroyed periodically.

AUTHORSHIP
Authorship must be based on all of the following four criteria: 1) Substantial contributions to conception and
design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) Drafting the article or revising it
critically; 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 contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should
be listed in an acknowledgements section at the end of the article.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Trust in the peer review process and the credibility of published articles depends partly on the handling of
conflict of interest issues in the writing, peer review and editorial decision-making process. Conflict of
interest exists when an author (or the author’s institution), reviewer or editor has financial or personal
relationships that inappropriately influence his/her actions. These people must disclose all relationships that
could be viewed as potential conflicts of interest. Authors need to complete the Conflict of Interest section in
the standard SQUMJ Covering Letter. The editors may use this information as a basis for editorial decisions
and may publish it in the Journal. Peer-reviewers are requested to declare any conflict of interest. SQUMJ
Subject Editors have to declare any conflict of interest before taking responsibility for a manuscript.

INFORMED CONSENT
Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. SQUMJ does not
publish identifying information in written descriptions or images unless the information is essential for
scientific purposes and the patient (or guardian) has given written informed consent for publication. This
requires that a patient who is identifiable be shown the manuscript before publication. If identifying
characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide
assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should note this. When informed
consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the manuscript.

ETHICAL PERMISSION - Human and Animal Rights

All studies on human or animal subjects must contain a statement about ethical permission for the study
including the date it was granted and the name of the committee and organization which granted it.

Such studies must be in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human
experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. If
doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors
must explain the rationale for their approach, and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly
approved the doubtful aspects of the study.

When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national
guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.

COPYRIGHT
Copyright of the accepted manuscripts will transfer from the authors to the Journal (for full details see the
Copyright Transfer Section in the standard SQUMJ Covering Letter).

Copyright covers all publication forms and media, now or hereafter known, and is effective as soon as a
manuscript is accepted for publication in SQUMJ. The authors retain the following nonexclusive copyrights,
to be exercised only after the manuscript has been published in online format on the SQUMJ website:
a) Reprint the manuscript in print collections of the author’s own writing.
b) Present the manuscript orally in its entirety.
c) Use the manuscript in theses and/or dissertations.
d) Reproduce the manuscript for use in courses the author is teaching. (If the author is employed by an
academic institution, that institution may also reproduce the manuscript for course teaching.)
e) Distribute photocopies of the manuscript to colleagues, but only for non-commercial purposes.
f) Reuse figures and tables created by the author in future manuscripts the author writes.
g) Post a copy of the manuscript on the author’s personal website, departmental website, and/or the
university’s intranet, provided a hyperlink to the manuscript on the SQUMJ website is included.

In all the above instances, the author shall give proper credit to the original publication in SQUMJ as
follows:
This research was originally published in SQUMJ. Author(s). Title. SQU Med J Year;vol:pp-pp. © by Sultan
Qaboos University Medical Journal.

USER RIGHTS
Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles
under the following conditions: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT POLICY

Following the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), SQUMJ defines scientific misconduct as:
1. Falsifying data: Inventing data, selective reporting or the omission, suppression or distortion of data.
2. Plagiarism: Using the published or unpublished language, ideas, or thoughts of another writer without
reference or permission and presenting them as one’s own. Plagiarism includes self-plagiarism (duplication
of portions of your own previously published work), duplicate publication (publication of an article in more
than one journal or in another language) and redundant publication (more than 10% of an article overlapping
with another submission/publication).
3. Authorship issues: Exclusion of involved researchers, or inclusion of researchers who have not
contributed to the work, or publication without permission from all authors.
4. Disregard for generally accepted research practice: Manipulation of experiments/statistics to get biased
results, or improper reporting of results, for example.
5. Failure to follow legal requirements: Violation of local regulations and laws involving the use of funds,
copyright, care of animals, human subjects, investigational drugs, recombinant products, new devices, or
radioactive, biological or chemical materials.
6. Inappropriate behaviour in cases of misconduct: False accusations of misconduct; failure to report
misconduct; not providing information relevant to a misconduct claim; and retaliation against people
claiming or investigating misconduct, for example.

SQUMJ takes all these forms of misconduct extremely seriously. It follows the Committee on Publication
Ethics (COPE) guidelines. The final decision on action is taken by the Editor-in-Chief.

OPEN ACCESS
SQUMJ is an Open Access Journal. This means that all content is freely available without charge to the user
or his/her institution. Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full
texts of articles under the following conditions: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY
4.0). This is also in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access.

ARCHIVING
SQUMJ utilises the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries
and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the online version of Journal issues for the
purposes of preservation and restoration.

Preparing the Manuscript

1. TYPES OF ARTICLES – Length and Subsections
Editorials & Comments: (c. 2,000 words & 20 refs.). These types of articles should refer either to an article
already published or scheduled to be published in an issue of SQUMJ or be a short opinion article on a topic
of recent interest. These should have a sequence of logical sections related to their content and purpose.
Editorials and comments should be submitted via e-mail to the Editorial Office.

Reviews: (c. 5,000 words & max. 100 refs.). These articles should succinctly and holistically summarise
current knowledge of a chosen topic, with a sequence of logical sections related to their content and purpose.

Special Contributions & Sounding Board articles: (c. 5,000 words & 30 refs. and 2,000 words & 20 refs.
respectively). These should have a sequence of logical sections related to their content and purpose.
Sounding Board articles should aim to elicit discussion on potentially controversial topics or present novel
ideas.

Medical History articles: (c. 2,500 words & 20 refs.). These articles should highlight the historical
background of a disease or its discoverer, or any other topic within the history of medicine. These should
have a sequence of logical sections related to their content and purpose. Medical History articles should be
submitted via e-mail to the Editorial Office.

Clinical & Basic Research articles: (c. 3,000 words & 30 refs.). The manuscript should be divided into the
following seven major sections: 1) Advances in Knowledge (how the paper contributes to this, list of max.
100 words); 2) Application to Patient Care (how the paper contributes to this, list of max. 100 words); 3)
Introduction; 4) Methods; 5) Results; 6) Discussion; and 7) Conclusion. The Methods section should include
sufficient details of methods and equipment so that another individual could repeat the work. Clearly
mention the time period of the research and the institution where it was conducted.

Brief Communications: (c. 1,500 words & 15 refs.) The manuscript should be divided into the following
five sections: 1) Introduction; 2) Methods; 3) Results; 4) Discussion; and 5) Conclusion, with similar
instructions as for Clinical and Basic Research articles.

Technical Notes: (c. 1,500 words & 15 refs.) These short articles should describe a new methodology,
technique or piece of equipment. These articles should have a sequence of logical sections related to their
content and purpose.

Case Series & Case Reports: (Series: c. 2,000 words & 15 refs; Reports: 1,500 words & 15 refs, or 2,000
words & 25 refs. if literature review included). These should have the following four sections: 1)
Introduction, 2) Case Report/s; 3) Discussion; and 4) Conclusion. Due to space constraints, these articles
may not appear in the print edition, although their abstracts will. However, full articles will still appear in
the online edition.

Continuing Medical Education articles: (c. 3,000 words & 30 refs.). These articles should seek to test the
knowledge and clinical practices of doctors or medical students. Such articles should have a sequence of
logical sections related to their content and purpose and be followed by a quiz with a key for the answers.

Interesting Medical Images: These short articles highlight an interesting image(s), with a brief Introduction
to the image/s and a detailed caption for each one, followed by a Comment section of maximum 500 words
and c. 5 refs.

Letters to the Editor: (c. 1,000 words & 5 refs.). These are short communications either in response to a
previous SQUMJ article or on a new topic of interest.

2. JOURNAL LANGUAGE & TRANSLATION

The Journal publishes papers in UK English, with the title, author names, abstracts and keywords in Arabic
and UK English. Where none of the authors are Arabic speaking, an abstract translation service is provided.
If you wish to include an Arabic translation of these sections, please upload it on the SQUMJ Editorial
Manager website as a separate file; do not include it within the manuscript itself.

3. STYLE
The modern trend to simplify has also influenced scientific writing. When preparing your manuscript, avoid
long sentences, jargon and clichés. When tempted to use a difficult word or complex sentence, see if it can
be replaced by simpler one. Always write for the generalist, rather than the specialist. The overall essence of
your manuscript should be understandable to someone educated until university level.

4. ABBREVIATIONS & SYSTEM OF UNITS

Since abbreviations tend to make the text difficult to read, avoid them except when essential. In the Abstract
and the article itself, define each abbreviation when first used—e.g. coronary artery disease (CAD)—and
thereafter use the abbreviation alone without further explanation. Avoid beginning sentences with
abbreviations. All abbreviations must be expanded in titles, subtitles and captions. Use standard
abbreviations, rather than words, for units and percentages (e.g. km, mm, kg, L, mL, %, etc.). This Journal
uses the International System (SI) units for most measurements (eg. pmol/L). Alternative corresponding
units may be included in parentheses.
 5. FIGURES & TABLES
All tables and figures should be inserted/placed at the end of the manuscript, rather than within the main
text. Provide a brief but fully self-explanatory caption and title for each figure and cite each figure in the text
and number them consecutively. Number tables consecutively, give concise but self-explanatory titles to
each and cite them in the text. All figures will be printed in colour. Tables will be formatted to fit the
standard shading/layout of the Journal. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission for the
reproduction of previously published figure or table from other sources and the source of the original
figure/table should be clearly cited underneath the reproduction. An explanation of all definitions used, as
well as any other potentially non-intuitive features, should be included in the legend to the figure or table. A
maximum of 6 figures/tables are permitted for Clinical & Basic Research articles. All other article types are
allowed a maximum of 4 figures/tables.

Photographs/Images/Scans - The quality of such figures must be high enough resolution for good print
reproduction and should stand reduction. The Journal uses standard arrows/identifying symbols for figures,
so additional arrows, symbols, words and other identifying/descriptive features should not be placed on the
figure itself, if possible, but into the Microsoft Word document instead. After acceptance, figures should be
provided to the Editorial Office in digital format (300 dpi) and in JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF or other image
format. Sourcing figures directly from a Microsoft Word document may greatly and negatively affect their
quality in print.

Drawings - All line drawings should be planned to fit the Journal’s page size (12 x 18 cm). Lines should be
dark enough and letters should be of professional quality in order to stand reduction. Do not use bold or all-
capital lettering. Do not combine line drawings and photographs into one illustration. For best results, it is
advisable to execute your drawings in a vector application such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw. The
Editorial Office is able to accommodate a wide range of vector and bitmap formats executed on Windows or
Macintosh platforms.

Diagrams/Flow Charts - All diagrams and flow charts should be created in Microsoft Word, if possible, and
be editable so that the font/formatting of the text can be changed by the Editorial Office if necessary.

Tables and Charts - All X and Y axes must be clearly labelled. Charts and tables pasted into Microsoft
Word documents in un-editable “picture” formats are not acceptable and should be provided in Microsoft
Excel or a similar programme. Please ensure that no charts or graphs are displayed in three dimensions. For
tables, please ensure that as few cells as possible are merged and that each column and row is clearly
labelled and outlined using the border function. Within a table, do not insert multiple spaces or tabs within a
single cell.

6. FORMATTING
All manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word. Use 12 point Times New Roman font for the entire
manuscript. Use minimum formatting, restricting formatting to superscripts and subscripts and what is
absolutely essential to reveal various heading levels, since most formatting will be removed before
typesetting. Use true superscripts and subscripts and not “raised/lowered” characters. For symbols, use the
standard symbol fonts on Windows or Macintosh. Using strange symbol fonts may give unpredictable
results in print, even if the fonts are supplied by the author. Put exactly one space between words and after
any punctuation. Put one blank line between paragraphs and do not use indents to indicate new paragraphs.
Ensure that the text of the entire manuscript is in uniform black font colour, unless you need to indicate
changes to your article made during a request for revision. Please do not insert page borders.

Article Sections
1. MANUSCRIPT DETAILS
Please ensure that you remove the author names and affiliation details from the Microsoft Word document
of your manuscript as it will be sent out for blind peer review. In addition, ensure that any potential
identifying information—such as that which might be included in an Acknowledgments/Funding/Conflict of
Interest section—is uploaded as part of the standard SQUMJ Covering Letter on the SQUMJ Editorial
Manager website. This information can subsequently be included in the manuscript after an acceptance
decision has been made.

2. ABSTRACT
As the most widely read part of a paper, the abstract demands careful preparation. Editorials, Letters to the
Editor and Interesting Medical Images do not need an abstract. Abstracts of Clinical & Basic Research
studies and Brief Communications (max. 250 words and 150 words respectively) should be clearly divided
into four sections: 1) Objectives; 2) Methods; 3) Results; and 4) Conclusion. Reviews, Sounding Board
articles, Special Contributions, Technical Notes, Case Series/Reports and CME articles should have a
narrative abstract in a single paragraph (max. 150 words). The abstract is uploaded to the SQUMJ Editorial
Manager website as a separate file.

3. KEYWORDS
Keywords are needed for Reviews, Sounding Board articles, Special Contributions, Clinical & Basic
Research articles, Brief Communications, Technical Notes, Case Series/Reports and CME articles. Provide
max. 8 keywords using terms from the medical subject heading (MeSH) database on the PubMed site
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh). Keywords are uploaded on the SQUMJ Editorial Manager website in
the special section for this purpose.

4. METHODS – Clinical & Basic Research and Brief Communications

In the Methods section, it is vital that enough information is provided as to how your study was conducted
so that the research can be replicated. If applicable, you should clearly state any inclusion/exclusion criteria,
variables and sample size calculations. For studies with human or animal subjects, please include
information as to which organisation granted ethical permission for the study and how the consent of the
subjects/patient consent was obtained, if necessary. For ethical permission, be aware that you will need to
provide the name of the committee which granted approval for the study, as well as the date and number of
approval. Any references to medical equipment must include the official trade name of the equipment and
the full company name and the city and country of the supplier. The time period of the study must be clearly
noted in months and years (e.g. this study was conducted between April 2016 and February 2017).

5. CASE REPORT – Case Series and Case Reports

Include all relevant past medical history for the case as well as the circumstances leading to the
presentation/admission of the patient. The year of presentation should be included, but not the specific
month so as to avoid identification of the patient. Provide a full description of the sequence of events that
followed the patient’s presentation/admission as well as the clinical decision-making process, diagnosis
steps and/or treatment. Clearly mention the final prognosis status of the patient and the results of any follow-
up/further observations. If any further treatment or observation is planned for the future, this should also be
mentioned.

6. DISCUSSION
For studies, your Discussion section should first reiterate briefly the results, then move to a discussion of
your main findings, and finally move to wider topics and comparison of your study with other research. For
individual cases, it is advisable to describe how the case is rare/unusual and the educational/scientific merit
of its publication, followed by an overview of the topic and a comparison of your case with similar cases
described in the literature.

7. REFERENCES
All statements which require support/evidence or cite data from previously published material should be
referenced. Other literature should be referenced sequentially in their order of appearance, for example:
“The Omani Ministry of Health has prioritized eye care in its next 5 year plan”.3 Always try to use primary
rather than secondary sources of data, if available. Avoid references to personal communications,
unpublished data or other manuscripts which have not yet been accepted for publication.
The reference number must be inserted within the text in superscript after a comma or full stop. In the article
itself and the Reference section, list all the references in sequential numerical order. In the Reference
section, list all authors up to a maximum of six. If there are more than six authors then write et al. after the
sixth author. The Journal uses a variation of the Index Medicus style of referencing, which is similar to the
Vancouver style. Please adopt the exact style as shown in the examples below, including punctuation.
Journal names should be abbreviated as per the Journals Database section in PubMed
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals). Please include DOI numbers where available.

Journal Citation
Rose-Nussbaumer J, Prajna NV, Krishnan T, Mascarenhas J, Rajaraman R, Srinivasan M, et al. Risk factors
for low vision related functioning in the Mycotic Ulcer Treatment Trial: A randomised trial comparing
natamycin with voriconazole. Br J Ophthalmol 2016; 7:929–32. doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2015-306828.

Book Chapter
Brown J, Murphy KH. Adult-onset Still’s Disease. In: Maddison PJ, Woo P, Glass DN, Eds. Oxford
Textbook of Rheumatology, 3rd ed. Oxford, UK: Medical Publication, 2010. Pp. 1127–31.

Book
Smith MD. Introduction to Gynaecology, 6th ed. New York, USA: Institutional Press, 2005. P. 15.

Report
World Health Organization. Issues in Health Services Delivery. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health
Organization. WHO/EIP/00I. Pp. 3–4.

Thesis
Rowe L. DNA damage-induced reactive oxygen species: A genotoxic stress response. PhD Thesis, 2012,
Emory University, Georgia, USA. Pp. 315–22.

Website
Smith AD. Pregnancy after 35. From: www.marchof-dimes.com/pregnancy Accessed: Sep 2016.

8. FIGURES/TABLES
Figures and tables should not simply be a repetition of data already included in the text but should be used to
present your data in a concise and more understandable format. They also not contradict results reported
elsewhere within the manuscript. Ensure that the correct type of figure/table is used so that the information
is presented in the most appropriate/interesting manner.

Submission
All manuscripts should submitted online via the Editorial Manager system at: www.edmgr.com/squmj/.
Authors can also track the progress of their manuscript and submit revised manuscripts on this site.
Alternatively, authors can follow the link to the Editorial Manager site from the home page of the SQUMJ
website (web.squ.edu.om/squmj/index.asp?panelno=0) or the Authors page
(web.squ.edu.om/squmj/authors.asp?panelno=0). The latter contains these Guidelines for Authors as well as
other resources for authors and a link to the standard SQUMJ Covering Letter which must be uploaded
along with the manuscript. If there should be any problems during the submission process, authors should
contact the Editorial Office at [email protected] or [email protected].

Substantial delays in the submission process can be avoided if authors comply with these Guidelines for
Authors.

Review Process
The Editorial Office of the Journal and the SQUMJ Subject Editors check each submitted manuscript for
general quality, suitability and whether it conforms to accepted formatting requirements. All manuscripts are
also checked for plagiarism; if discovered, immediate strong action is taken. If found prima facie acceptable,
the manuscript will be sent out for double-blind international review. All reviewers treat the manuscript with
the strictest confidentiality and must declare any conflict of interests. Comments and suggestions from the
reviewers are conveyed to the authors via the online system. Revised manuscripts are subject to further
review by the original reviewers and the responsible Subject Editors. The final decision as to acceptance or
rejection lies with the Editor-in-Chief, with advice from the SQUMJ Editorial Board and Sultan Qaboos
University’s Academic Publications Board.

Editing

Papers selected for publication are edited by the SQUMJ Editorial Office for brevity, clarity, grammar,
spelling and style. British/UK English spelling and punctuation are used. The Editorial Office has final
approval over the version of the manuscript to be published and certain changes/modifications to the
language and style of the text can be made without the authors’ agreement, as long as they do not impact the
intended meaning or scientific content of the text. When the editing is extensive, with the possibility of
altered meaning, queries are sent to the corresponding author by email.

Proofs & Prints

The galley proof of an accepted article is emailed in PDF format to the corresponding author for
typographical checking only. It should be returned within 48 hours of receipt. The corresponding author will
be provided with one print copy of the issue per author of the manuscript. Since high-quality PDF reprints
are downloadable from the SQUMJ web site, physical reprints are not issued. The full text of all articles is
also available online and in PubMed and various other international indexer websites/databases.

Checklist for Authors

• Manuscript conforms to ICJME Uniform Requirements?

• Standard Covering Letter uploaded and all required sections completed?
• Abstract has required length and sections? Keywords provided?
• Arabic translations of title, author-names, abstract and keywords provided (if one author is Arabic-
speaking)?
• Manuscript conforms to SQUMJ’s style, length and formatting requirements?
• Tables, drawings, charts and photographs placed after the article text and in editable format?
• References in the Journal’s exact style?
• All sources acknowledged, ethical permission and patient consent received, any conflict of
interest declared and copyright issues resolved?