Author Guidelines

These guidelines apply to manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Precision Medicine and Health Research (JPMHR). Authors should read the requirements in full before beginning a submission.

Manuscripts must fall within the journal’s scope, follow the applicable reporting guideline, provide complete ethical and authorship documentation, and be submitted as separate title-page and blinded-manuscript files.

JPMHR follows the ICMJE Recommendations , relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines , and the journal’s published editorial and publication policies .

Contents

Article Types and Word Limits | Manuscript Format | Title Page | Blinded Manuscript | Abstract and Keywords | Authorship, ORCID and CRediT | References | Tables and Figures | Statistical Reporting | Ethics and Consent | Study Registration | Data Availability | Funding and Conflicts | Generative AI | Prior Publication | Reporting Guidelines | Similarity Assessment | Issue-Level Restrictions | Charges and Waivers | Before You Begin | Submission Checklist | Upload Files | Contributors | Submission Details | For the Editors | Review and Submit | Copyright Notice | Reviewer Suggestions

Accepted Article Types and Word Limits

Word limits exclude the abstract, references, tables, figure legends, and supplementary files. A justified exception may be approved by the editor before submission.

Article Type Main Text Abstract General Limits
Original Research Article 3,000–4,500 words Structured, 250–300 words Normally up to 50 references and six tables or figures
Systematic Review or Meta-Analysis 4,000–6,000 words Structured, 250–300 words References and display items as scientifically required
Brief Report or Pilot Study 1,500–2,500 words Structured, 200–250 words Normally up to 30 references and four tables or figures
Diagnostic, Prognostic or Prediction Study 3,000–4,500 words Structured, 250–300 words Normally up to 50 references and six tables or figures
Methodology or Validation Paper 3,000–4,500 words Structured, 250–300 words Normally up to 50 references
Research Protocol 3,000–5,000 words Structured, 250–300 words Normally up to 50 references
Case Report 1,500–2,500 words 150–250 words Normally up to 20 references and four tables or figures
Perspective or Scholarly Commentary 1,500–3,000 words Up to 200 words where appropriate Normally up to 40 references
Letter to the Editor 500–1,000 words No abstract Normally up to 10 references and one table or figure

General Manuscript Format

  • Submit manuscripts in editable Microsoft Word format.
  • Use a clear 11- or 12-point font.
  • Use 1.5 or double-line spacing.
  • Include page numbers and continuous line numbering.
  • Use clear academic English and one spelling convention consistently.
  • Define abbreviations at first use and avoid unnecessary abbreviations.
  • Use International System of Units where applicable.
  • Report generic drug names. Proprietary names may be added in parentheses where scientifically necessary.
  • Do not include author names, affiliations, acknowledgements, institutional logos, or identifying information in the blinded manuscript.
  • Remove author-identifying information from document properties, tracked changes, comments, file names, headers, and footers.

Title Page

Upload the title page as a separate file. It will not normally be shared with reviewers.

The title page must include:

  • Full manuscript title.
  • Concise running title.
  • Article type.
  • Full names of all authors in the intended publication order.
  • Highest relevant academic or professional qualification where required.
  • Department, institution, city, postal code, and country for every affiliation.
  • Numeric superscripts connecting each author to the correct affiliation.
  • Full corresponding-author name.
  • Corresponding-author postal address, institutional email, and telephone number.
  • Complete ORCID URL for the corresponding author and all available co-authors.
  • Total word count.
  • Number of tables, figures, and supplementary files.
  • CRediT author-contribution statement.
  • Acknowledgements.
  • Funding statement.
  • Conflict-of-interest declaration.
  • Ethics approval and informed-consent statements.
  • Trial or study-registration information where applicable.
  • Data Availability Statement.
  • Generative-AI disclosure where applicable.
  • Prior-publication or preprint disclosure where applicable.

Blinded Manuscript

The blinded manuscript should contain:

  • Manuscript title.
  • Structured abstract.
  • Keywords.
  • Main manuscript text.
  • References.
  • Tables.
  • Figure legends.
  • Declarations written without identifying authors or institutions.

Where institutional information is necessary for interpretation, replace the identifying wording with:

[Institution blinded for peer review]

The complete unblinded information must remain on the title page. Authors must also remove identifying information from file names, document properties, comments, tracked changes, headers, and footers.

Abstract and Keywords

Original research, clinical trials, observational research, diagnostic studies, and systematic reviews should normally use the following structured headings:

  • Background
  • Objective
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Conclusion

Protocol abstracts should normally use Background, Methods, and Discussion.

Case-report abstracts should normally use Background, Case Presentation, and Conclusion.

The abstract must:

  • Accurately reflect the manuscript.
  • Include essential numerical findings and effect estimates where applicable.
  • Avoid references, tables, figures, and undefined abbreviations.
  • Avoid unsupported claims or conclusions not demonstrated by the results.
  • Include the clinical-trial registration number at the end where applicable.

Provide three to six keywords, preferably selected from the Medical Subject Headings database .

Authorship, ORCID and CRediT Contributions

Authors must satisfy the ICMJE authorship criteria .

All listed authors must approve the submitted version, accept accountability for their contributions, and agree to the author order.

ORCID

  • The corresponding author must provide an authenticated or independently verifiable ORCID iD.
  • ORCID iDs are strongly expected for all authors.
  • Enter ORCID iDs as complete URLs, for example: https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0000-0000
  • Authors without an ORCID may register through the ORCID registration page.

CRediT Contributor Roles

Every manuscript must include a contribution statement using the CRediT Contributor Role Taxonomy .

Use the applicable roles:

  • Conceptualization
  • Data curation
  • Formal analysis
  • Funding acquisition
  • Investigation
  • Methodology
  • Project administration
  • Resources
  • Software
  • Supervision
  • Validation
  • Visualization
  • Writing—original draft
  • Writing—review and editing

Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged with their permission. Generative-AI systems and other automated tools cannot be listed as authors.

Changes to authorship after submission require a written explanation and signed agreement from all affected authors. Authorship must not be changed to avoid journal or issue-level compliance requirements.

References and Citation Style

JPMHR uses the Vancouver numbered-reference system following the National Library of Medicine’s Citing Medicine guidance.

  • Number references consecutively in the order first cited.
  • Cite references in the text using Arabic numerals in square brackets.
  • Use official NLM journal-title abbreviations.
  • Include the required authors, article title, journal title, year, volume, issue, pages or article number, and DOI.
  • Display DOIs as complete links in the format https://doi.org/...
  • Verify every reference against PubMed, Crossref, the publisher record, or another authoritative source.
  • Check whether any cited article has been corrected, withdrawn, or retracted.
  • Do not cite a retracted article as valid evidence.
  • Where discussion of a retracted article is essential, identify its retracted status clearly.
  • Identify preprints as preprints and replace them with the peer-reviewed version when available.
  • Artificially generated, unverifiable, incomplete, or inaccurate references may result in return or rejection.

Authors may use the Crossref Simple Text Query to identify or verify DOIs.

Journal Article Example

Author AA, Author BB, Author CC. Article title. Abbreviated Journal Title. Year;volume(issue):pages. https://doi.org/xxxxx

Book Example

Author AA. Book title. Edition. City: Publisher; Year.

Dataset Example

Creator AA. Dataset title [dataset]. Repository; Year. https://doi.org/xxxxx

Tables and Figures

  • Number tables and figures consecutively according to first mention in the text.
  • Cite every table and figure in the manuscript.
  • Provide a concise title for every table.
  • Provide a complete legend for every figure.
  • Tables must be editable and must not be submitted as screenshots.
  • Define abbreviations and statistical symbols in table footnotes.
  • Submit figures as clear PNG, TIFF, or high-quality JPEG files.
  • Figures should normally have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.
  • Line drawings may require higher resolution.
  • Do not duplicate the same results extensively in the text, tables, and figures.
  • Explain image grouping, enhancement, cropping, or composite construction where relevant.
  • Manipulation that changes, hides, fabricates, or misrepresents data is prohibited.
  • Obtain written permission for previously published or copyrighted material.
  • Written consent for publication is required for identifiable patient images or information.

Statistical Reporting

The Methods section must describe:

  • Study design and analysis plan.
  • Sample-size or power calculation where applicable.
  • Sampling method and eligibility criteria.
  • Statistical software and version.
  • Statistical tests and models used.
  • Assumptions assessed.
  • Handling of missing data.
  • Handling of outliers.
  • Handling of clustering and repeated measures.
  • Handling of multiple comparisons.
  • Prespecified and exploratory analyses.
  • Sensitivity and subgroup analyses where applicable.

Results should report:

  • Absolute participant numbers with percentages.
  • Appropriate descriptive statistics.
  • Effect estimates with 95% confidence intervals.
  • Exact p-values, normally to three decimal places.
  • Use p < 0.001 for smaller values.
  • Numerators and denominators for proportions.
  • Clinically meaningful interpretation rather than reliance on statistical significance alone.
  • Model performance, calibration, discrimination, and validation for prediction or artificial-intelligence studies.
  • Participant flow and protocol deviations for clinical trials.
  • Intention-to-treat analysis where applicable.

Ethics Approval and Informed Consent

Research involving human participants, identifiable information, biological material, clinical records, or personal health data must comply with applicable ethical requirements and the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki .

The manuscript must state:

  • Full name of the ethics committee or institutional review board.
  • Approving institution.
  • Approval or reference number.
  • Approval date.
  • Whether approval preceded recruitment or data collection.
  • Whether written or verbal informed consent was obtained.
  • The basis and approving authority for any consent waiver.
  • Whether consent for publication was obtained for identifiable information.

Authors must retain the original approval documentation and provide it confidentially when requested.

Animal research must identify the approving committee, approval number, and applicable institutional and national standards.

Prospective Trial and Study Registration

Clinical trials must be prospectively registered in a public registry acceptable under the ICMJE clinical-trial registration policy .

Acceptable registries include registries within the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform and ClinicalTrials.gov .

  • Registration should occur at or before the first participant’s consent or enrolment.
  • Include the registry name, registration number, and registration date.
  • Include the registration number in the abstract and Methods section.
  • Explain discrepancies between the registered protocol and the submitted manuscript.
  • Retrospective registration must be disclosed and justified but does not guarantee consideration.

Registration of eligible systematic reviews and protocols through PROSPERO , the Open Science Framework, or another recognized registry is encouraged.

Data Availability and Research Transparency

A Data Availability Statement is required for every research article.

Authors should state whether data are:

  • Publicly available in a named repository with a DOI or permanent link.
  • Available from the corresponding author under stated conditions.
  • Available through controlled or mediated access.
  • Restricted because of ethical, legal, contractual, privacy, or confidentiality requirements.
  • Not applicable because no new data were generated.

Shared datasets, code, protocols, instruments, and supplementary materials should be cited and versioned where possible.

Authors must not publicly share identifiable or inadequately de-identified participant information.

See the journal’s Data Sharing and Research Transparency Policy .

Funding and Conflicts of Interest

All financial and non-financial support must be disclosed.

The manuscript must state:

  • Funder name.
  • Grant number where applicable.
  • Role of the funder in study design.
  • Role of the funder in data collection and analysis.
  • Role of the funder in interpretation and manuscript preparation.
  • Role of the funder in the publication decision.
  • Whether the authors had access to the underlying data.
  • Relevant financial, professional, institutional, personal, or other relationships.

Where no funding or conflict exists, state: None declared.

Authors should follow the ICMJE disclosure guidance and the journal’s Conflict of Interest Policy .

Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies

Authors must disclose any use of generative AI or AI-assisted technology beyond routine spelling, grammar, or reference-management functions.

The disclosure must identify:

  • Tool name and version.
  • Provider.
  • Purpose of use.
  • Manuscript sections or research processes affected.
  • How the output was reviewed and verified.

Authors remain fully responsible for accuracy, originality, confidentiality, citation support, data integrity, and the submitted text.

  • AI systems cannot be listed as authors.
  • AI must not be used to fabricate data, references, images, analyses, ethics documents, reviewer identities, or author contributions.
  • Confidential participant information must not be uploaded to an AI platform without lawful authorization.
  • Unpublished third-party material or restricted research data must not be entered into external AI systems without permission.
  • Nondisclosure of material AI use may require editorial or corrective action.

See the journal’s Policy for the Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies and the ICMJE guidance on AI use .

Prior Publication, Related Work and Preprints

The manuscript must not be simultaneously submitted to another journal or already published substantially elsewhere.

Authors must disclose:

  • Preprints.
  • Conference abstracts, posters, or proceedings.
  • Theses and dissertations.
  • Repository versions.
  • Related manuscripts submitted, accepted, or published elsewhere.
  • Previous publications using the same participants, trial, dataset, protocol, or analysis.
  • Translations or secondary-publication proposals.

A disclosed preprint does not automatically make a manuscript ineligible. Authors must provide the preprint URL or DOI and identify it as non-peer-reviewed.

Secondary analyses must cite the primary publication and explain clearly how the research question and analysis differ.

See the journal’s Prior Publication Policy and the ICMJE guidance on overlapping publications .

Reporting Guidelines

Authors must use the reporting guideline appropriate to the study design. Upload the completed checklist and flow diagram where applicable.

Uploading a checklist without complying with its reporting items is insufficient.

Plagiarism and Similarity Assessment

All submissions are screened for text overlap, duplicate publication, unattributed reuse, citation manipulation, and related integrity concerns.

  • JPMHR ordinarily expects an overall similarity index below 20% after appropriate exclusions.
  • No substantial unattributed overlap from an individual source is acceptable.
  • A numerical similarity percentage does not by itself establish or exclude plagiarism.
  • Editors assess the nature, location, attribution, and scholarly significance of the overlap.
  • Undisclosed text recycling or duplicate data publication may result in revision, rejection, investigation, correction, or retraction.
  • Copied tables, figures, analyses, or citations are prohibited unless properly attributed and permitted.
  • Fabricated or unverifiable references may be treated as a publication-integrity concern.

Issue-Level Authorship and Editorial Restrictions

  • An individual may appear in no more than one article in the same issue.
  • This restriction applies whether the person is first author, corresponding author, or co-author.
  • Editors and Editorial Board members are not eligible to publish manuscripts in JPMHR during their active appointment.
  • Issue composition is managed to comply with applicable self-institutional publication limits.
  • Acceptance does not guarantee placement in a particular issue.
  • Publication may be deferred to a later issue where necessary for compliance.
  • Authors must disclose any other accepted or under-review JPMHR manuscript involving the same author group.
  • Authorship must not be removed, added, reordered, or altered to circumvent these requirements.

Article Processing Charge and Waivers

The current Article Processing Charge is PKR 25,000, or the stated equivalent for international authors.

  • The charge is payable only after formal acceptance.
  • No submission or peer-review fee is charged.
  • Payment does not guarantee acceptance.
  • Payment does not influence editorial assessment or peer review.
  • Authors must not make payment before receiving an official acceptance and payment notice.
  • Waiver or concession requests should be submitted with the initial manuscript.
  • Waiver requests should include a brief justification.
  • Waiver decisions are administrative and independent of peer review.
  • Waivers remain subject to the journal’s published criteria and available resources.

See the Author Charges and Publication Fee Policy .

Before You Begin

Before starting a submission, confirm that:

  • The manuscript is within the journal’s stated scope.
  • All authors meet the authorship criteria.
  • All authors have approved the manuscript and author order.
  • A separate title page has been prepared.
  • A fully blinded manuscript has been prepared.
  • The blinded file and document properties contain no author-identifying information.
  • Ethics approval and informed-consent information are complete where applicable.
  • Prospective trial registration is complete where applicable.
  • The appropriate reporting checklist and flow diagram are ready for upload.
  • All references and DOIs have been checked.
  • Funding, conflicts, data availability, prior dissemination, and AI use have been disclosed.
  • No author is included in another article intended for the same issue.
  • No current JPMHR Editor or Editorial Board member is an author.
  • The authors understand that the APC is payable only after acceptance.

Incomplete or inaccurate submissions may be returned before editorial assessment.

Submission Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements:

  • The manuscript is original.
  • The manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere.
  • The manuscript has not been published substantially in another journal.
  • Any preprint, thesis, conference output, related manuscript, or prior dataset publication has been disclosed.
  • The manuscript falls within the aims and scope of JPMHR.
  • All authors meet authorship criteria.
  • All authors have approved the submitted version.
  • The author order, affiliations, emails, and ORCID iDs are accurate.
  • A complete CRediT contribution statement has been provided.
  • A separate title page has been uploaded.
  • The main manuscript has been fully anonymized.
  • The blinded manuscript contains no identifying file metadata.
  • The abstract follows the required structure and word limit.
  • Three to six keywords have been provided.
  • The main text complies with the article-type word limit.
  • The applicable reporting checklist and flow diagram have been uploaded.
  • Tables are editable, numbered, titled, and cited.
  • Figures are clear, numbered, accompanied by legends, and cited.
  • Permission has been obtained for reused material.
  • References have been checked for accuracy and completeness.
  • Reference retraction status and DOI availability have been checked.
  • References follow Vancouver/NLM style.
  • Statistical methods and sample-size considerations are reported where applicable.
  • Effect estimates, confidence intervals, and missing-data handling are reported where applicable.
  • The ethics committee name, approval number, and approval date are provided where applicable.
  • Informed-consent arrangements are reported.
  • Prospective clinical-trial registration is provided where applicable.
  • Consent for publication has been obtained for identifiable participant information.
  • A Data Availability Statement has been included.
  • Funding and the funder’s role have been disclosed.
  • Financial and non-financial conflicts have been disclosed.
  • Material use of generative AI has been declared.
  • No current JPMHR Editor or Editorial Board member is included as an author.
  • No author is intended to appear in more than one article in the same issue.
  • The authors have reviewed the APC and waiver policy.
  • The corresponding author accepts responsibility for communication with the journal.

Upload Files

Upload each component as a separate, clearly labelled file.

Required Files

  1. Title Page
    Include author names, affiliations, ORCID iDs, corresponding-author details, contributions, acknowledgements, funding, conflicts, ethics, registration, data availability, and AI disclosure.
  2. Blinded Manuscript
    Include the title, abstract, keywords, main text, references, tables, and figure legends. Remove all author and institution identifiers.
  3. Reporting Checklist
    Upload the applicable CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, STARD, CARE, TRIPOD, COREQ, SRQR, SPIRIT, ARRIVE, or other checklist and flow diagram.
  4. Figures
    Upload high-resolution figures separately where required. Do not use author names in file names.
  5. Supplementary Material
    Upload appendices, questionnaires, protocols, statistical-analysis plans, additional tables, code, or other supporting files.
  6. Permissions or Consent Documentation
    Upload copyright permissions or publication-consent documentation where requested. Mark confidential files as not for reviewer access.
  7. Ethics or Registration Documents
    The Editorial Office may request ethics approval letters, registry records, protocols, raw outputs, or other verification documents.

For Revised Submissions

  • Clean revised manuscript.
  • Tracked-changes manuscript.
  • Point-by-point response to every editor and reviewer comment.
  • Revised tables, figures, checklists, and supplementary files where applicable.

Suggested File Names

  • Title_Page.docx
  • Blinded_Manuscript.docx
  • CONSORT_Checklist.docx
  • Figure_1.tif
  • Supplementary_Table_1.docx
  • Response_to_Reviewers.docx

Contributors

Add every author as a separate contributor in the exact order in which names should appear in publication.

For each author, provide:

  • Full given name and family name.
  • Preferred published name.
  • Current department and institution.
  • City and country.
  • Institutional email where available.
  • ORCID iD as a complete URL.
  • Country.
  • Author role.
  • Principal-contact designation where applicable.
  • CRediT contribution roles.

Contributor information entered in OJS must match the title page exactly.

The corresponding author must ensure that:

  • Every listed author approved the manuscript.
  • Every listed author approved the author order.
  • Every author meets authorship criteria.
  • No eligible author has been omitted.
  • No guest, honorary, or gift author has been included.
  • Every author can account for their contribution.
  • Every author has disclosed relevant conflicts.
  • Every author agrees to journal communication and publication terms.

Institutional email addresses are preferred. A personal email may be used where no institutional account is available, but independent identity and affiliation verification may be requested.

Submission Details

Enter the submission details exactly as they appear in the uploaded files.

Title

  • Use sentence case.
  • Keep the title clear, specific, and informative.
  • Identify the study design where required by the reporting guideline.
  • Avoid unexplained abbreviations.
  • Avoid promotional wording and unsupported claims.
  • Do not include author or institutional information.

Abstract

  • Paste the abstract exactly as it appears in the blinded manuscript.
  • Use the required structured headings.
  • Do not include citations, tables, or figures.
  • Include essential numerical findings.
  • Include the trial-registration number where applicable.

Keywords

Provide three to six specific keywords. Use Medical Subject Headings where appropriate.

Language

Select the language in which the manuscript is written.

Additional Metadata

Provide accurate discipline, subject, supporting-agency, and other metadata. Metadata are used for publication, indexing, discovery, and DOI registration and must match the final manuscript.

For the Editors

This field is confidential and is not normally shown to peer reviewers.

Provide a concise submission note covering:

  • Article type.
  • How the manuscript fits the scope of JPMHR.
  • Principal research question and contribution.
  • Ethics committee, approval number, and approval date.
  • Trial or study-registration details.
  • Prior dissemination, including preprints, theses, or conference abstracts.
  • Related manuscripts or previous publications using the same dataset.
  • Funding and relevant conflicts.
  • Data-access or confidentiality restrictions.
  • Generative-AI use.
  • Required permission or consent documentation.
  • Reviewer exclusions supported by a valid conflict-of-interest reason.
  • Any issue requiring confidential editorial attention.

Do not use this field to make promotional claims or request acceptance.

Review and Submit

Before completing the submission:

  • Review all metadata for accuracy.
  • Confirm that the author order matches the title page.
  • Confirm that the title and abstract match the manuscript.
  • Open every uploaded file and verify that the correct version is attached.
  • Confirm that the main manuscript is fully blinded.
  • Confirm that all declarations are included.
  • Confirm that the applicable reporting checklist has been uploaded.
  • Confirm that the manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere.
  • Confirm that all authors approved the submission.
  • Confirm that no ethical, registration, funding, data, conflict, or AI disclosure has been omitted.

Once submitted, the manuscript enters editorial screening. Submission does not guarantee external review or acceptance.

The Editorial Office may return incomplete, inaccurate, out-of-scope, or non-compliant submissions before peer review.

Reviewer Suggestions

Authors may suggest qualified reviewers with direct expertise in the manuscript’s subject and methodology. Reviewer suggestions are optional and are not binding on the editors.

For each suggested reviewer, provide:

  • Full name.
  • Current designation.
  • Department and institution.
  • Country.
  • Official institutional email.
  • ORCID, institutional profile, Scopus profile, or another verifiable researcher profile.
  • Specific subject or methodological expertise relevant to the manuscript.

Ineligible Reviewer Suggestions

Do not suggest individuals who:

  • Work in the same institution as any author.
  • Have recently collaborated or co-authored with an author.
  • Have a current or recent supervisory, trainee, mentoring, or employment relationship with an author.
  • Have a close professional, personal, family, financial, or competitive relationship with an author.
  • Were involved in the study, analysis, manuscript preparation, or informal review.
  • Have an interest in the acceptance or rejection of the manuscript.
  • Cannot be independently verified as having relevant expertise.

Institutional email addresses are strongly preferred. Where only a personal email is available, the reviewer’s identity, affiliation, and expertise must be independently verifiable.

No Direct Author–Reviewer Communication

Authors and reviewers must not communicate directly with one another regarding a submitted manuscript.

If an author and a suggested or assigned reviewer know each other, or become aware of each other’s identity during the review process, neither party may disclose the review relationship, discuss the manuscript or review, exchange review-related information, or attempt to influence the editorial process.

Any accidental identification, direct contact, attempted contact, or potential conflict must be reported promptly and confidentially to the Editorial Office. The handling editor will determine whether the reviewer may continue or must be replaced.

Authors may identify reviewers who should be excluded and provide a concise, evidence-based conflict-of-interest reason. Editors retain full authority over reviewer selection.

Related Journal Policies

Journal Policies | Peer Review Policy | Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement | Conflict of Interest Policy | Data Sharing Policy | Generative AI Policy | Prior Publication Policy | Author Charges Policy

Editorial Office: editor@jpmhr.com

Page last reviewed: 2 August 2026

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