General Guidelines

COPYRIGHT ASSIGNMENT FORM

A completed Copyright Assignment Form duly signed by all authors must be submitted. 

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

All submissions to IIUM Medical Journal Malaysia must include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest. The Editor may use such information as a basis for editorial decisions, and will publish such disclosures if they are believed to be important to readers in judging the manuscript.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Acknowledgements should be included at the end of the text and not in footnotes. Personal acknowledgements should precede those of institutions or agencies. Acknowledge those people who contributed towards the study but do not qualify to be authors (including technical assistance, manuscript reading etc). Any other information concerning research grants (Grant awarding bodies) should be indicated. 

TABLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS (FIGURES)

Tables and Illustrations (Figures) are placed within the text at the appropriate points NOT at the end. Captions along with legends must accompany the appropriate Tables and Illustrations (Figures). Tables and Illustrations (Figures) to be submitted in either .doc, .docx, tiff or jpeg files. Label Illustrations (Figures) mentioned in the text in Arabic numerals (e.g. 1, 2, 3). Label Tables in Roman numerals (e.g. I, II, III). Authors are restricted to ONLY 4 Tables and 4 Illustrations (Figures).

Permission is required for Illustration (Figures), irrespective of authorship or publisher, except for documents in the public domain. Human subjects must not be identifiable in photographs. If this is unavoidable, pictures of patients must be accompanied by written permission from the patients or legal guardians granting permission to use the photographs.

Numbers and symbols should be clear and of sufficient size that when reduced for publication each item will still be legible. Poor quality illustrations will not be accepted. The Editorial Board reserves the right to trim illustrations to a size compatible with the description in the text. Survival curves must be accompanied by a table giving the actual number of patients involved and should be truncated when the numbers at risk are small; that is, when they are less than one-third of the starting figure. Include in the Legends to Illustrations, and Footnotes to Tables, brief but comprehensive explanations of all the information presented.

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

Use only standard abbreviations. Avoid the use of abbreviations and symbols in the title and abstract. Use the full term first and subsequently the abbreviation. Use the full term if it is a standard unit of measurement. In general, symbols and abbreviations should be those used by British Chemical and Physiological Abstracts. Weights, volumes, etc. should be in metric units.

STATISTICS

Clearly describe the statistical methods used with sufficient detail to enable a reader to verify the reported results. Where possible, a clear numerical and graphical presentation of the results is recommended. The results of the primary analysis should preferably be reported using Effect Size and/or Confidence Intervals in addition to p values.

Eligibility criteria for participants, details of randomization, methods and the success of blinding, adverse events, sample size and reports of dropouts must be submitted so that other researchers can confirm the results. References for study design and statistical methods should be to standard works (with page numbers stated) when possible, rather than to papers in which the designs or methods were originally reported. Specify any general use of computer programmes.

Avoid non-technical use of technical terms in statistics, such as random (which implies a randomizing device), normal, significant, correlations, and sample. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and symbols.

REFERENCES

Please follow Vancouver method of referencing. It is the authors’ responsibility to check all references carefully for accuracy and completeness. Number references consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. References should be identified in the text, Tables and Legends by Arabic numerals in superscript. Use the style as in Index Medicus. Examples of correct referencing styles are given below.

Revise your annotation format (Superscript, after a full stop). Kindly use the Vancouver reference style.

For example:

This virus is among the group of seven types of coronaviruses that infect the respiratory system, and its severity ranges from mild cold symptoms to respiratory syndrome symptoms and then acute lung inflammation to pulmonary failure that leads to death, and the most dangerous of it to humans is SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV (Huang et al. 2020).

Change to:

This virus is among the group of seven types of coronaviruses that infect the respiratory system, and its severity ranges from mild cold symptoms to respiratory syndrome symptoms and then acute lung inflammation to pulmonary failure that leads to death, and the most dangerous of it to humans is SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV.⁸

Examples of correct forms of references

Articles in journals

Standard journal article:

Omit month and issue number. List all authors, but if there are six or more authors, list first three followed by et al

Azarisman SMS, Fauzi MA, Faizal MPA, et al. The SAFE (SGRQ score, Air-Flow limitation and Exercise tolerance) index: a new composite score for the stratification of severity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Postgrad Med J 2007; 83:492-7.

No author given:

21st century heart solution may have a sting in the tail. BMJ 2002; 325:184.

Article in foreign language:

Flageul B, Wallach D, Cavelier-balloy B, et al. [Thalidomide and thrombosis]. Ann Dermatol Venereol 2000; 127:171-4. [French].

Issue with supplement:

Hadzri MH, Azarisman SMS, Fauzi MA, et al. Endobronchial lignocaine and cough suppression during bronchoscopy: does concentration matter? Respirology 2007; 12(4 suppl):A203.

 Books

Personal author(s):

Colson JH, Armour WJ. Sports injuries and their treatment. 2nd ed. London: S Paul, 1986.

Editor(s), compiler as author:

Diener HC, Wilkinson M, eds. Drug-induced headache. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1988.

Organisation as author and publisher:

Virginia Law Foundation. The medical and legal implications of AIDS. Charlottesville: The Foundation, 1987.

Chapter in a book:

Weinstein L, Swartz MN. Pathogenic properties of invading microorganisms. In: Sodeman WA Jr, Sodeman WA, eds. Pathologic Physiology: Mechanisms of Disease. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1974: 457-72.

Scientific or technical report:

Akutsu T. Total heart replacement device. Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Health, National Heart and Lung Institute; 1974 Apr. Report no: NIH- NHLI-69-2185-4.

 Online sources

Online book or website:

Garrow A, Weinhouse GL. Anoxic brain injury: assessment and prognosis. In: Up To Date Cardiovascular Medicine [online]. Available at: www.UpToDateInc.com/card. Accessed February 22, 2000.

Online journal article:

Miyamoto O, Auer RN. Hypoxia, hyperoxia, ischemia and brain necrosis. Neurology [serial online] 2000; 54:362-71. Available at: www.neurology.org. Accessed February 23, 2000.

 Other sources

Newspaper article:

Rensberger B, Specter B. CFCs may be destroyed by natural process. The Washington Post 1989 Aug 7; Sect A:2 (col 5).

In press:

Lillywhite HB, Donald JA. Pulmonary blood flow regulation in an aquatic snake. Science. In press.

SUBMISSION OF REVISED MANUSCRIPTS

The authors are strongly advised to carefully read and if necessary revise the manuscripts in accordance with comments made by the reviewers and or the editors before resubmission. Two copies must be resubmitted. One copy should be a clean copy and the other as an annotated anonymised version. The authors are also required to provide a point-by-point reply for each of the comments made by the reviewers and/or the editors.

PROOFS

Upon acceptance for publication, copyediting of the manuscript will be done to conform to the style of the Journal. The galley proof is then sent back to the authors who would then be responsible to carefully scrutinize and answer any further enquiries, should there be any. A copyright assignment form will also be sent at this stage and an immediate response (within one week) by the authors is required. Failure to comply may delay publication of the manuscript.