The LMJ asks authors and reviewers to follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMGE), to create and distribute accurate, clear, reproducible, unbiased medical journal articles.
The Lebanese Medical Journal (LMJ) publishes open-access free of charges peer-reviewed articles on all aspects of medicine and related fields. Authors are invited to submit original research articles (either clinical or experimental), review articles, case reports, medical ethics, history, and letters to the editor.
As the official journal of the Scientific Committee of the Order of Physicians in Lebanon, LMJ may publish (proceedings of) abstracts of reports presented at annual scientific sessions of Scientific Societies and may, from time to time, publish expanded abstracts as short papers comprising the proceedings of annual meetings upon invitation.
All manuscripts will be sent for peer evaluation through a double-blind review process. However, the decision regarding acceptance for publication will be made by the editorial board, within a mean-time of 2 to 3 months. If a manuscript is accepted for publication, it will be necessary for the authors to transfer copyright (copyright.pdf). The assignment of copyright must accompany each accepted manuscript, submitted to the Lebanese Medical Journal. No part of the published material may be reproduced elsewhere without written permission from the publisher or the Lebanese Order of Physicians (LOP).
AUTHORSHIP
All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the contents. Partial contribution to the work and/or performing the statistics are not accepted for authorship but may be recognized separately in the “Acknowledgments.” Editors may require authors to justify the assignment of authorship.
The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 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.
The cover letter includes (A) a statement on authorship responsibility and (B) a Statement on financial disclosure and (C) a statement on copyright transfer. Each of those three statements must be signed by the corresponding author on behalf of all the authors.
The corresponding author is the one individual who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process. 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.
A–Authorship responsibility
“I certify that I have participated in the conception and design of this work and the analysis of the data (when applicable), as well as the writing of the manuscript, to take public responsibility for it. I believe the manuscript represents valid work. I have reviewed the final version of the submitted manuscript and approve it for publication. Neither this manuscript nor one with substantially similar contents under my authorship has been published or is being considered for publication elsewhere, except as described in an attachment. If requested, I shall produce the data upon which the manuscript is based for examination by the editors or their assignees.”
B – Financial disclosure
“I certify that any affiliation with or involvement in any organization or entity with a direct financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript (e.g., employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, expert testimony) are declared below.” When the paper is accepted, all co-authors must fill and sign the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest (coi-disclosure.pdf).
C – Copyright transfer
“The author(s) undersigned hereby transfer(s), assign(s) or otherwise convey(s) all copyright ownership to the Order of Physicians in Lebanon in the event that such work is published by the Order of Physicians in Lebanon.”
MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
Authors should seek approval to conduct research from an independent local, regional, or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, institutional review board). This must be stated in the cover letter and in the Methods section.
All investigators should ensure that the planning conduct and reporting of human research are in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration as revised in 2013 (www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinkiethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-humansubjects/).
When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. Further guidance on animal research ethics is available from the International Association of Veterinary Editors’ Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare (http://www.veteditors.org/consensus-author-guidelines-on-animal-ethics-and-welfare-for-editors).`
Authors must follow reporting guidelines for different study designs: CONSORT (www.consort-statement.org) for randomized trials, STROBE for observational studies (http://strobe-statement.org/), PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (http://prisma-statement.org/), and STARD for studies of diagnostic accuracy (http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/stard/).
LMJ requires registration of clinical trials in a public trials’ registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. Authors must publish the trial registration number at the end of the abstract.
MANUSCRIPTS
Manuscripts should be submitted here:http://www.lebanesemedicaljournal.org/lmj/how-to-submit/. LMJ encourages authors to provide an ORCID when submitting a manuscript. This takes around 2 minutes to complete. Please see resources on ORCID (https://orcid.org/)
Manuscripts should be typed single-spaced with margins of at least 2.5 cm. They are received with the understanding that they have not been previously published and are not currently under consideration for publication in any other journal. Manuscripts will be acknowledged upon receipt. Manuscript pages should be numbered including all pages of references, tables, and figure legends.
PAGE LIMITATIONS
Full manuscripts (original articles, reviews, medical ethics, and history) should be limited to 5000 words plus abstracts, a maximum of 60 references, and a maximum of eight figures and/or tables. Case reports should be limited to 2500 words and should include an introduction, case description, discussion, a limit of 15 references, and one (1) table or figure. Letters to the editor should be limited to 1500 words, 5 references, and one (1) table or figure. Each section should be typed on a separate page.
TITLE PAGE
In addition to the title, the full names, degrees, and hospital or university affiliation of each author should be included. If an author’s present affiliation is different from that under which the work was done, both should be given. A short title of no more than 50 characters for use as a running head should also be given. At the bottom of the title page, include the exact postal address and the telephone number of the corresponding author to whom communications, proofs, and requests for reprints should be sent. Authors should include a fax number (if available) and an e-mail address where they can be reached.
The title page should include sources of support, word count, and several tables and figures.
ABSTRACT AND KEYWORDS
An abstract in English of a maximum of 250 words for articles (including reviews) or expanded abstracts, should be presented as a separate Word document. It should cover the main factual points, including statements of the problem and aim of the study, methods, results, and conclusions. The abstract should be accompanied by a list of three to six keywords for indexing purposes.
TEXT
The text of articles reporting original research is usually divided into Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections. Appropriate headings and subheadings should be provided in the methods, results, and discussion sections. The text should be clear and concise. Since the readership of LMJ spans many disciplines, jargon should be avoided, as it may not be familiar to some readers. Likewise, acronyms such as ECG, LVH, can be used if they are spelled out in full when first cited. Only measurements are abbreviated without expansion and should follow the form recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Suppliers of specific instruments or drugs should be noted, citing both the company name and city. Generic names should be given in parentheses following any trademark drug names.
REFERENCES
References should be limited to articles mentioned in the text and indicated by numbers; the latter should follow the order of appearance of articles in the text. Abstracts should be identified as such in the reference list. References should follow the norms established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
For Journals:
- Names and initials of first names (capital letters). Names of all authors when six or fewer should be cited. More than six, only names of the first three authors should be reported followed by the term “et al.”
- Title of the article in its original language
- Name of the Journal according to its abbreviation in the Index Medicus; if it is not present in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors or Index Medicus, the name should be mentioned in full.
- Year – Semi colon (;) – Volume – Colon (:) – First and last page of the article
Example: You CH, Lee KY, Chey RY, Menguy R. Electrogastrographic study of patients with unexplained nausea, bloating and vomiting. Gastroenterology 1980 ; 79 : 311-4.
For books:
- Chapter in a book:
- Last name and initials of first names (capital letters) of the chapter’s authors
- Chaptertitle
- Followed by:In: “Last name and initials of first names of the book authors” (editors)
- Book title in the original language
- Edition number (if there is one)
- Publication city – Colon (:) – Name of publishers – Comma (,) – Year of publication – Colon (:) – Inclusive pages
Example:Silen W. Acute Appendicitis. In: Wilson, Braunwald, Isselbacher, editors. Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, 12th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991: 1298-9.
- A book:
- Last name and initials of first names of authors (editors) – Colon (:)
- Book title in original language
- Edition number (if there is one)
- Publication city – Colon (:) – Name of publishers – Comma (,) – Year of publication
Example: Rourke MF, Kelly R, AvioloA: The Arterial Pulse, Philadelphia: Lea &Febiger, 1992.
TABLES
Tables should be presented as text after the references. Each table must have a title.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Each illustration or graph, numbered as in the text, should be accompanied by a title and a legend. Figures caption must be presented at the end of the manuscript document. Illustrations should be professional, in black and white for the print version of the journal. Slides and radiologic films should be converted to photographic pictures. For color illustrations, printing fees are paid for by the authors for the printed version of the journal. Any illustration from previous works should be accompanied by the written permission of both the author and editor and this should be mentioned in the legend.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Names of individuals or institutions who have partly contributed to the work may be mentioned in this section. Pharmaceutical companies should be acknowledged only if they provided experimental drugs or drugs do not present in the country where the work was done. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from all individuals or institutions who participated in the work and who are named in an acknowledgment, if applicable, since readers may infer their endorsement of data and conclusions. The corresponding author must include the following statement in the cover letter: “I have obtained written permission from all persons named in the Acknowledgments.” Funding and support for research projects should be included in the acknowledgments section. Acknowledgment should be placed at the end of the text just before the references section.
CASE DESCRIPTION AND PHOTOGRAPHS
In case reports, a written statement of consent from patients (parents or legal guardians for minors) should be obtained whenever the patients are identified or photographs are published.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters to the Editor are considered for publication (subject to editing and abridgment) provided they do not contain material that has been submitted or published elsewhere. They should not be signed by more than three authors.
MANUSCRIPT CHECKLIST
- Include manuscript as a word document, including text, acknowledgment section, references, tables, and figures caption in this order, numbered consecutively in the upper-righthand corner.
- Include in the cover letter statements – signed by the corresponding author on behalf of all authors – on (A) authorship responsibility, (B) financial disclosure, and (C) copyright transfer.
- Include the title page as a separate document.
- Check all references for accuracy and completeness. Put references in a proper format in numerical order, making sure each is cited in the text.
- Illustrations must be submitted in good resolution, as JPEG or TIFF. If the article is accepted, high-resolution illustrations may be asked for.
- Provide and label an abstract as a separate word document.
- Include complete consent forms for identifiable patient descriptions and photographs.
- Include research or project support and funding in an acknowledgment.
- Include written permission from publishers and authors to reproduce or adapt previously published illustrations and tables.
- Designate a corresponding author and provide a complete address and telephone or fax numbers or e-mail, in the title page.
All manuscripts will be returned to the authors if they do not comply with these instructions.
