Quality has to be ensured at every step during publication process
Carefully select the topic for research, Journal, seek guidance
from Peers and stay motivated – Prof. Maj. Gen. M. Aslam
Pre-conference seminar on Scientific Writing
KARACHI: A pre-conference seminar on Scientific Writing and Quality in Publications was one of the important salient features of 6th Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine Conference held here from April 17th to April 20th 2025. This session was chaired by Prof. Maj. Gen. Muhammad Aslam along with Prof. Syed Moyn Aly and it was moderated by Prof. Nadia Naseem Pro Vice Chancellor of University of Health Sciences who is also Chief Editor of BioMedica official Journal of UHS.
Prof Maj. Gen. M. Aslam along with Prof. Syed Moyn Aly and Prof. Nadia Naseem chairing the Seminar on Scientific Writing and Quality in Publications at the PSIM 6th Int. Conference on April 17th 2025.
Prof. Maj.Gen. M. Aslam was the first speaker who talked about “Selection of a research topic and Selection of a Journal”. He pointed out one must look at the real value of the journal, is the topic aligned with the scope of the journal and does it meet the journal’s academic goals. Relevance is extremely important which one must look at before making the submission. There are general and specialized journals hence one has to look at what is the target of your readership. Consider interdisciplinary relevance. Journals which enjoy Impact Factor are important and should be preferred as they enjoy good credibility. Other important issues include indexation of the journal in important databases, publisher’s credibility, reputation of the journal, recognition by the academic circles, quality of the Editorial Board, opportunities which it provides for career growth as some journals are more helpful for the new researchers, submission to publication time, time taken during peer review. Look at the type of manuscripts the journal accepts, time taken from submission to acceptance, processing fee and publication charges.
Some journals do provide fast track processing facilities for which one has to pay extra fee. Proper formatting, selection of the right audience ensures publication success, he added.
The next part of his presentation was on how to choose a research topic. Herein he emphasized on selection of a topic with novelty and innovation. Feasibility, relevance and scope, guidance facility from a mentor. Narrow scope will take little time for completion of the study. Make sure you have enough time to complete the study in the time you have. Consult your professors, colleagues, review university website, read referenced papers. Formulate a research proposal, identify research gaps, consult Artificial Intelligence including Jenni AI for topic selection. Try to find out how to identify research gaps, use AI tools, stay motivated and seek guidance, he remarked.
Speakers at the Seminar on Scientific Writing and Quality in Publications during the PSIM Conference photographed from (L to R) are Prof. Jamshed Akhtar,
Mr. Shaukat Ali Jawaid, Prof. Maj. Gen. M. Aslam and Prof. Akhtar Sherin.
Mr. Shaukat Ali Jawaid Chief Editor of Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences was the next speaker who discussed “Quality in Scientific Writing and Publications: What attracts the Reviewers and Editors”. He pointed out that quality has to be built into the product for which quality in selectin of the topic, quality in formatting, quality in internal review, quality of peer review, post acceptance editing, plagiarism check, proof reading and finally publication are all important steps. The title should be brief, attractive and must convey the subject covered in the study. Short interesting titles ensure more citations. Remember title and abstract are both very important as many people including reviewers and editors first read it and if they find it interesting, they will read the manuscript further. Abstract must provide message, tables and figures should convey the message in stand alone position and there should be no need to read the text. It is essential that the manuscript must provide some new ideas, insights and findings. It must add some new information to the medical literature or it must provide some new perspectives regarding known issues. Make sure that the objective is clear and can be described just in one sentence. It should be directly liked to research question.
Methodology must give minute details how the study was conducted so that others can replicate it. Give compete details of the drugs use, form i.e. oral, parenteral, dose used, if any solution has been used how it was prepared. Ensure comprehensive review of the relevant literature, summarize and critically analyze the contents, make sure that at least 30-50% of the references are from the last five years. Reference from peer review journals should be preferred and website references if any must Menton when it was last accessed. It is important to mention when and where the study was conducted.
Once the study has been conducted; it is easy to write the manuscript. Just answer five questions and the abstract will be ready. Why did you do it will give you objective, how did you do it will provide methodology, what did you find is the result and what is the take home message will be the conclusions. Once the structured abstract is ready, one can enlarge it and include relevant information in the main sections of an original article. In the introduction, include what is known, what is not known, state rationale of the study and then restate the objective of the study. In methodology include information like inclusion and exclusion criteria, Ethics Committee approval with referenced number and date all with appropriate sub-headings. Ensure authenticity of the data. Potential bias must be acknowledged. In Results data must support the results. Avoid duplication, information covered in tables, illustrations should not be included in the text.
While writing Discussion, start with the findings of your study and then compare it with local, national, regional and international studies. Most of the references will come in this section. If results are similar good but if they are different, it makes the study more interesting and also adds to the strength of the study. Try to find out why your results are different, there may be some reasons, differences in inclusion and exclusion criteria, there could be some differences in dietary pattern, cultural differences are important in psychological, mental healthcare studies. Carefully read and follow the instructions of authors of the journal to which you are submitting your manuscript which will minimize trauma to your manuscript.
Follow journal formatting style. Cite similar studies published in the journal to which you wish to submit the manuscript as it will increase the chances of acceptance. Avoid gift authorship, follow ICMJE criteria for authorship, be careful while revising the manuscript and benefit form reviewers’ comments and suggestions which will improve the quality of the manuscript. Respond to each and every comment and submit revised manuscript with covering letter giving details how you have responded to the reviewers’ comments. It is always important to identify a problem and try to find an indigenous cost-effective solution.
During the whole process, one has to be patient, All the different steps from submission to internal review, plagiarism check, external review take time and one has to be patient. An ideal manuscript, he stated, is original, prospective, ethical, accurate, relevant and interesting. However, it does not minimize the importance of retrospective studies which are important for clinical audit and improving the practice. He concluded his presentation by stating that editing and publishing a good quality peer reviewed journal is very stressful and frustrating job and at times one ends up annoying so many people whose papers are not accepted for publication. Learn to say No but do it politely, he remarked.
Prof. Jamshed Akhtar another distinguished Editor who remained affiliated with Journal of CPSP for a long time and now edits Journal of Surgery Pakistan highlighted the challenges in Peer Review. He gave examples from some of the published papers in reputed journals which showed there were problems in the peer review. Papers with lot of flaws do get published even in well reputed journals that is why quality of peer review is extremely important. One has to offer some incentives to peer reviewers as finding good quality peer reviewer is extremely difficult. One learns the art of peer reviewing with practice and peer review is also important to retain public trust in medical research, he remarked.
Prof. Akhtar Sherin Chief Editor of Khyber Medical University Journal spoke about Journal quality, Scientometrics and Indexation. These are some of the topics which every Editor, he stated, must know. He discussed in detail the Impact Factor, Altimetric IF, Cite Score by Scopus. SCIMAGO SJR and SNIP also uses information from Scopus database. Be careful about the factious Impact Factor used by some journals like Scientific Impact Factor, Global IF, Current IF and so on. The real IF is the one issued by the Clarivate through Journal Citation Report annually.
During the discussion, Prof. Masood Hameed remarked that we need to organize training sessions for Peer Reviewers how to review a manuscript. We need to practice Evidence Based Medicine. Prof. Javed Akram remarked that we need to encourage postgraduates and include Scientific Writing in the curriculum. It should have some marks in evaluation.
In his concluding remarks Prof. Syed Moyn Aly highlighted the importance of scientific writing and publications and thanked the organizers for including this topic in the scientific programme. He also thanked the presenters for their informative presentations. All this also showed how the journals are looked at, he stated.
