1. Aims and Scope: The Zahedan Journal of Research in Medical Sciences (ZJRMS) Journal is the official scientific quarterly publication of the Zahedan University of Medical Sciences (ZAUMS). ZJRMS is a peer-reviewed journal fostering the integration of medical sciences with the traditionally health related issues in both English and Persian languages. Our journal is indexed with some of most known indexing databases. All individuals have free access to PDF and XML format of all archived issues. The editorial office does not charge article submission processing or publication fees from the authors or authors’ institutions. The open access policy of the journal aims at increasing visibility and accessibility of the published content of the articles and providing a desirable research impact.

2. This Journal accepts original papers, review articles, short communications, image in medicine, case reports and letter to the editor in the fields of medicine, health, dentistry and paramedical sciences. Our new strategy is based on publishing all submitted articles with a good and reasonable methodology approved by the editorial board.

3. Authors submitting a paper do so on the understanding that the work has not been published before, is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has been read and approved by all authors. The submission of the manuscript by the authors means that the authors automatically agree to assign exclusive copyright to ZAUMS if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication. The articles published in this journal are protected by copyright, which covers translation rights and the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute all of the articles printed in the Journal. Submission should be done via Journal’s home page at http://www.zjrms.ir. Full instructions on how to load manuscript are given at the site. The text should be submitted in Microsoft word format as an attachment. Tables as well as illustrations should be typed and drawn on the same file. Do not submit tables as photographs. The figures should be sent in a format of JPEG or GIF which will produce high quality images in the online edition of the Journal.

4. The manuscript should include: Title page; Abstract; Introduction; Materials & Methods; Results; Discussion; Acknowledge­ment and References.

5. Title page: Bearings ONLY the complete title of the manuscript, the name of all the authors with their highest academic degrees, institutional affiliations, departments to which the work should be attributed, running title (up to 45 characters), type of manuscript, words number for the pure text (includes introduction, methods, results, discussion and acknowledgement), and corresponding author’s e-mail, telephone and facsimile numbers.

6. Abstract: The second page should carry the full title and an abstract. It should be structured up to 250 , 100 and 80 words in original research articles, short communications and case reports, respectively. Letters to editor do not need any abstract. The abstract should be structured only in original articles and short communications and includes Background, Methods, Results and Conclusion followed by 3 to 5 Keywords. Keywords will assist indexers in cross indexing the article as they are published with abstract. Use terms from the Medical Subject Headings list of index medicus at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/mbrowser.html. Authors need to be careful that the abstract reflects the content of the article accurately.

7. Introduction: This should summarize the purpose and the rationale for the study. It should neither review the subject extensively nor should it have data or conclusions of the study. It should not exceed 450 words in original research articles and 250 in short communications and case reports. The research objective should be clearly declared in the last part of the introduction. Abstract should be written in fluent English. 

8. Materials & Methods: This should include exact method or observation or experiment. If an apparatus is used, its manufacturer’s name and address should be given in parenthesis. If the method is established, give reference but if the method is new, give enough information so that another author is able to perform it. If a drug is used, its generic name, dose and route of administration must be given. For patients, age, sex with mean age ± standard deviation must be given.

9. Statistics: Statistical methods must be mentioned in the last paragraph of the methods and please specify any general computer program used. The Info system used should be clearly mentioned. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Report losses to observation (such as dropouts from a clinical trial). Put a general description of methods in the Methods section. When data are summarized in the Results section, specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Avoid non-technical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as ‘random’ (which implies a randomizing device), ‘normal’, ‘significant’, ‘correlations’, and ‘sample’. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Use upper italics (p=0.046).

10. Units of Measurement: Le System International d’Unites (SI) is preferred equivalent values in traditional units should be given if thought to be necessary.

11. Results: It must be presented in the form of text, tables and illustrations. The contents of the tables should not be all repeated in the text. Instead, a reference to the table number may be given. Long articles may need sub-headings within some sections (especially the Results and Discussion parts) to clarify their contents.

12. Discussion: This should emphasize the present findings and the variations or similarities with other work done in the field by other workers. The detailed data should not be repeated in the discussion again. Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. It must be mentioned whether the hypothesis mentioned in the article is true, false or no conclusions can be derived.

13. Ethical consent: All manuscripts reporting the results of experimental investigations involving human subject

should include a statement confirming the informed consent was obtained from each subject or subject’s guardian, after approval of the experimental protocol by a local human ethics committee.

14. Review articles: are systemic critical assessments of literature and data sources. Manuscript text should be up to 4000 words excluding references and abstract. At least three internationally cited published articles of the author(s) should be included in the references. Those articles should be indexed in ISI/PubMed databases.

15. Acknowledgement: All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be covered in the acknowledgement section. It should include persons who provided technical help, writing assistance and departmental head that only provided general support. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged. Registered number or code of the research proposals, clinical trials or dissertations should be written in this part. 

16. Tables: In limited numbers and should be submitted with the captions placed above. Do not submit tables as pho­tograph. Place explanatory matters in footnotes, not in the heading.

17. Figures: Should be in limited numbers, with high quality art work and mounted on separate pages. The captions should be placed below. The same data should not be presented in tables, figures and text, simultaneously.

· Important note: Pure text (includes introduction, methods, results, discussion and acknowledgement) should not be more than 3500, 1500, 750 and 400 in original articles, short communications, case reports and letters to editor, respectively. In original articles tables and figures should not be exceeded more than 6 and 4 respectively. Totally they should not be more than 8. In short communications 2 figures and/or 2 tables could be used if they do not exceed 3 totally. Total number of tables and/or figures in case reports is only 2. Letter to editor should not have any abstract, tables or figures. In case report and letter to editors the title should not contain more than eight words and three authors.

· Images in Medicine are a new feature in ZJRMS due to its educational importance. Images are an important part of much of what we do and learn in medicine. Images in Medicine are classic images of common medical conditions. The provided original, high-quality images are considered for publication (subject to editing) concerning that contain material that has been submitted or published elsewhere. To submit an image for publication in the ZJRMS, please follow the submission instructions below. All text should be in one double-spaced electronic document. Please include a title for your submission. The title should not contain more than eight words and more than two authors. Please follow the submission process in the guideline. The legend should contain no more than 150 words.

· Written permission must accompany any photograph in which the subject can be identified or any illustration that has been previously published.

18. References: All manuscript should be accompanied with relevant references. References must be numbered consecutively as they are cited. They should not be more than 50, 35, 15, 8 and 3 in reviews, original articles, short communications, case reports and letter to editor, respectively. The style of reference should be in the Vancouver. The reference list should be on a separate sheet. List all authors when there are six or fewer; when there are seven or more, list the first three then "et al". The author should ensure reference to locally published studies by doing proper literature search. It may not be possible for the editor and reviewers to check all reference citations. To minimize such errors author should verify references against the original documents and/or use bibilographing softwares such as EndNote.

19. Only 1-2 up to date references should be used for each particular point in the text. References to journal articles should include, in this order: (1) authors, (2) title, (3) journal name (as abbreviated in Index Medicus, if not included in Index Medicus journal title should be given in full), (4) year, (5) volume, (6) page numbers. Listed below are the samples of references to a journal article, journal article in Persian, a chapter in a book, and a book, respectively.

· Vega KJ, Pina I, Krevsky B. Heart transplantation is associated with an increased risk for pancreatobiliary disease. Ann Intern Med 1996; 124(11): 980-3.

· Zare N, Keshavarzi S, Zeighami B, et al. [Some risk factors of obesity in rural women of Zarrindasht: using linear regression odds ratio] Persian. Zahedan Journal of Research in Medical Sciences (ZJRMS) 2007; 9(2): 133-40.

· Philips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Large JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: Pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2^nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995: 465-78.

· Guyton AC Textbook of Medical Physiology. 8^th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1996: 255-62.

20. Proof Reading: Final copy of article will be sent to the corresponding author for proof reading before publishing in order to avoid any mistakes. Corrections should be marked clearly ONLY in red color and sent immediately to the Journal’s editorial office.

21. Abbreviations and symbols: Use only standard abbre­viations. Avoid using them in the title and ab­stract. The full term for which an abbre­viation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a stan­dard unit of measurement. Unfamiliar terms or abbreviations should be given in full at first mention. All units should be metric. Use no roman numerals; in decimals use the decimal point (2.5), NOT the comma (2.5). Use percent icon (%) ONLY in front of the numbers (23%). Describe all things in the text NOT in the footnotes.

22. The corresponding author: will be supplied with and electronic PDF copy of the published article.

23. Ethical guidelines: Ethical considerations must be addressed in the Materials and Methods section. 1) Please state that informed consent was obtained from all human adult participants and from the parents or legal guardians of minors. Include the name of the appropriate institutional review board that approved the project. 2) Indicate in the text that the maintenance and care of experimental animals complies with National Institutes of Health guidelines for the humane use of laboratory animals, or those of your Institute or agency. 3) This journal is a member of COPE. Misconduct in research and publishing the research results are assessed for all submitted article.

24. Conflicts of interest:  Authors must acknowledge and declare any sources of funding and potential conflicting interest, such as receiving funds or fees by, or holding stocks and shares in, an organization that may profit or lose through publication of your paper. Declaring a competing interest will not lead to automatic rejection of the paper, but we would like to be made aware of it. It should be clearly stated that the study is the result of university research proposal or a dissertation (thesis) or something else.

25. Page charges: There are no charges for publica­tion in this Journal.

26. Copyright: The entire contents of the Zah J Res Med Sci (ZJRMS) are protected under international copyrights. Corresponding author should fax the copy right form to the Journal’s office at the time of submitting the manuscript. This Journal is for your personal noncommercial use. You may not modify copy, distribute, transmit, display, or publish any materials contained on the Journal without the prior written permission of it or the appropriate copyright owner.

27. Peer review process: All manuscripts are considered to be confidential. All submitted material will be subject to peer review, but manuscripts can be rejected based on in-house assessment alone. They are peer-reviewed by at least 2 anonymous reviewers selected by the editorial board. The corresponding author will be notified (up to 10 weeks) of the editor’s decision to accept, reject, or require modifications. That decision will be communicated rapidly. If the manuscript is completely acceptable according to the criteria set forth in these instructions, it is scheduled for the next available issue. Editorial office is completely free an acceptation or rejection the manuscripts submitted to the journal.  

28. Journal will not have a print version and it will be totally web based. The authors can down load a copy of their article(s) free of charge.

29. Final Checklist: The authors must ensure that before submitting the manuscript for publication, they have taken care of the following:

1. Title page.
2. Abstract in Structured format.
3. Manuscript text.
4. References as stated above.
5. Tables should be typed on separate pages.
6. Make sure for Headings of Tables, their numbers and Captions of illustrations.
7. Photographs / illustrations along with their captions.
8. Disclosure regarding source of funding and conflict of interest if any besides approval of the study from respective Ethics Committee/Institution Review Board.
9. Cover letter.
10. Copyright form.

Address: 

Zah J Res Med Sci, Editorial office,

Zahedan University of Medical Sciences,

Khalij Fars Boulevard,

Zahedan, 98167-43463

Iran

Phone/Fax: 0098-541-3425790

Email: zahjrms@gmail.com; zahjrms@zaums.ac.ir 

Web site: www.zjrms.ir