Instructions to Authors
The Malaysian Journal Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery welcomes contribution on all aspects of work relating to oral and maxillofacial surgery. These may take the form of original research reports, critical reviews, surgical techniques, clinical observations, and case reports. The articles shall be independently refereed by at least two referees and published at the discretion of the editors. However although the articles are subject to review and editing, the journal does not hold itself responsible for all statements made by contributors.
General Instructions:
The authors must prepare the manuscript in accordance with the ‘Uniform requirement for Manuscripts Submitted to Medical Journal’ as stated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors in October 2001. The submitted paper shall include a covering letter firmly stating that the work has not been published before, or being considered for publication elsewhere, and that it has been and approved by all authors. The submission of the manuscript also meant that the authors automatically assign the copyright to the Journal if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication. When the manuscript is accepted, the corresponding author shall receive a copyright assignment form, which should be returned to the editorial office duly signed on behalf of all co-authors.
Preparation of manuscript:
All contributions must be submitted to journal style in English (spelling may be in English or American; but it should be consistent throughout).
The manuscript should be prepared in Microsoft Word with Times New Roman size 11 fonts, double spacing throughout, with a margin of 3.0 cm all round.
A full paper is generally set out in the following manner with each section beginning on a separate page: title page, abstract, text, acknowledgement if applicable, ethics declaration, conflict of interest declaration, references, tables and illustrations and a page on legends for the illustrations/tables. The pages should be sequentially numbered, starting with the title page.
Title page:
The title page should contain a concise but informative title, the name(s) of the author(s), the name of the institution where the work was carried out; and the full postal address, telephone/fax number and e-mail address of all authors. If the title is longer than 40 letters and space, a shorter running title must be given. For case report and technical notes, a maximum of five (5) authors is allowed.
Abstract:
The second page should begin with an abstract not exceeding 200 words followed by a list of keywords.
Text:
Text should be written in a concise style. Presentation of a research paper should follow the conventional style of introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion and conclusion. For case reports format consist of introduction, case report, discussion and conclusion. All major headings should be in bolded UPPERCASE while minor headings are to be typed in bolded Title Case. Abbreviations and units which are unusual should be fully explained when they first occur in the text. All measurements should be expressed in SI units. For further details, authors are advised to refer to Baron DN (ed): Units, symbols and abbreviations: A guide for biological and medical editors and authors, 1988; published by the Royal Society of Medicine, London.
Acknowledgments / Funding:
All acknowledgments (if any) should be included at the very end of the paper before the references. The authors should also state any source of funding/supporting grants for the research.
Ethics Statement:
This is the statement of publication ethics for Malaysian Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (MJOMS). This statement was adapted from the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and covers the code of ethics for the authors, reviewers, editorial board members, and chief editors.
It is the duties of authors to:
Ensure only new and original work is submitted. Authors must not reproduce work that has been previously published in other journals. Authors must not submit any articles that are being reviewed or considered by the journal to other different journals at the same time, before receiving a formal rejection from the journal or if their request to withdraw their work is officially accepted by the journal. They should inform the Chief Editor or the publisher of any inaccuracy of data in their published work so that correction or retraction of article can be executed. They should also make significant contributions and be held accountable for any shortcoming in their work
It is the duties of reviewers to:
Disclose any competing interest prior to agreeing to review a submission. In the circumstances of conflict of interest or inadequate knowledge, reviewers can refuse to review any submission. Reviewers should review all submissions professionally, fairly, and objectivel. While reviewing to the Chief Editor, reviewers should reveal any ethical misconduct found for further action. Reviewers must also ensure the originality of a submission and be attentive to any plagiarism and redundant publication. All reviewers must get permission prior to discussion of the content of the submission. The review process time allocation should be adhered to. Any requests for extension to review the submission are at the discretion of the Chief Editor.
It is the duties of Editorial Board Members to:
Give active contribution to the development and the improvement of the journal. Editorial Board members must also act as the journal ambassadors and continuously promote and support the journal. They should also review and implement any work assigned to them.
It is the duties of Chief Editor to:
Evaluate manuscripts submitted professionally, fairly, and solely on their intellectual merit. He/She must preserve confidentiality of manuscripts and not disclose any information regarding manuscripts to anyone other than the people involved in the publishing process. It is the Chief Editor responsibility to decide when and which articles are to be published. Chief Editor must seek the views of board members, reviewers and authors actively on how to improve/increase the image and visibility of the journal. Chief Editors must also give clear instructions to potential contributors on the submission process and the expectations to the authors. He/She must ensure relevant reviewers are identified and selected for the reviewing process
Redundancy:
Authors should ensure not to publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research output in more than one journal or primary publication at any times. A similar manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal concurrently as this is unacceptable and constitutes as unethical publishing behaviour.
Plagiarism:
Authors should only submit original work that is not plagiarized, and has not been published or being considered elsewhere. It is the responsible of the authors to check for similarities by using appropriate softwares. Editorial office may recheck for similarities of submitted manuscripts with existing literature. Inclusion of fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements are unacceptable. Proper citations and quotations should be cone for any work and/or words from other publications.
Reporting:
Authors should state their results honestly, clearly, and without falsification, fabrication, or inappropriate data manipulation. The methods used in the work should be unambiguously and clearly described so that the findings can be confirmed and repeated by other researchers.
Authorship and Collaboration:
Listed co-authors should only consist of those who have made significant contributions to the manuscripts submitted. Others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the work must be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should responsible to ensure that all appropriate co-authors are included on the paper. All co-authors must approve the final version of the paper and agree to the version of the paper prior to submission.
Conflicts of Interest:
A conflict of interest statement should be included in the manuscript if authors receive any support that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. If no such support was received, this statement should include no conflicts of interest. All financial support sources for the project should be disclosed
Consent:
All patients have a right to privacy. Without written consent, any identifiable information (patients’ images, names etc.) should be omitted or sufficiently anonymized according to International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’ (ICMJE) guidelines. Informed consent that has been obtained must be mentioned in the manuscript.
References:
The accuracy of the references is the responsibility of the author. References in the text should be numbered consecutively using superscript numerals (1 for the first cited reference and followed by 2 then 3 and so on). Example for more than one reference in text: 4,5 for two references and 2-7 for more than two references. The listed references at the end of the paper should be arranged and numbered consecutively; corresponding to the order they appear in the text. References to journal should include author’s name and initials (list all if six or fewer; list the first three and add et al when seven or more), full title paper, abbreviated journal title, year of publication, volume number and first and last page number (i.e. Vancouver style).
Titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the international list of periodic title word abbreviations, Pari 1970 as used in index Medicus. For example:
Bolewska J, Holmstrup P, Moller-Madsen B, Kenrad B, Danscher G. Amalgam associated mercury accumulations in normal oral mucosa lesions of lichen planus and contact lesion associated with amalgam. J Oral Pathol Med 1990; 19:39-42.
Books should be cited as follows:
Eversole LR. Clinical outline of oral pathology: diagnosis and treatment.
Philadelphia. Lea and Febiger, 1984; 261-292.
Chapter in a book:
Lewis DH, and Nelp WB. Nuclear medicine in oral and maxillofacial surgery. In: Worthington & Evans ed. Controversies in oral maxillofacial Surgery. Philadelphia. Saunders 1994:86-94.
Tables:
Tables should be used only to clarify important points. Double documentation in text, figure or tables is not acceptable. All tables should be printed on a separate sheet to fit the proportion of the printed page. Each table should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals with a title that make its general meaning comprehensible without reference to the text.
Illustrations:
All illustrations (graphs, drawings, and photographs) are considered as figures. Each figure should be numbered in the sequence that it appears in the text. In Arabic numerals and Capital letters (e.g. FIGURE 1). All figures should fit the proportion of the printed page. Where illustrations must include identifiable individuals, written permission for publication must be obtained. Legend / caption for the illustrations should be presented in a separate page.
Submission:
The submission must include two (2) Microsoft Word documents: a cover letter file and the manuscript file. The manuscript file should include title page, abstract, text, acknowledgement if applicable, references, tables and illustrations (tables and figures should not be submitted in separate files). If the paper is accepted, the authors might be asked to provide the source of the figures.
To provide its readers with articles with good and valid scientific quality, all manuscript will go through a process of single-blind peer review and editorial work. The Editor and/or the Editorial Board members has the right to reject the manuscript prior or after the review process. If modifications to the manuscript are requested, the corresponding author should send to the Editor the revised manuscript under two separate files, one file containing the revised clean version and another containing both a letter with point-by-point responses to the reviewers’ comments and the revised version with corrections highlighted. Once accepted, all manuscripts are subjected to copyediting and formatting.
Address all manuscripts submission and correspondence to the Malaysian Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Editor in Chief email : editor.mjoms@gmail.com.
Article Processing Charges:
Malaysian Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery is an open access journal. The fees to be paid following the acceptance of an article are USD50. For members of the Malaysian Association of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon, this fee is waived.
Copyrights:
As an open access journal, the authors retain the copyrights of their papers. This permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited. The content in this journal are believed to be true and accurate on the date it is published, neither the authors, the editors, nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.