The Journal of the Bahrain Medical Society is an international open access, peer reviewed, and quarterly published medical journal. The journal aims to promote communication among clinical researchers worldwide and to disseminate the articles freely for research, teaching and reference purposes.
A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to Journal of the Bahrain Medical
Society (JBMS) alone at that point in time and has not been published anywhere, or simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for
publication elsewhere. On submission, all manuscripts received undergo a preliminary review at the level of editor/associate editor
for suitability for peer review and plagiarism. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws,
or lack of a significant message will be rejected before proceeding for formal peer-review. Manuscripts that are unlikely to be of
interest to the JBMS readers will also be liable to be rejected at this stage itself.
Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication in JBMS are sent to two or more expert reviewers. The journal follows a double-blind
review process, where the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identity. Each manuscript is also assigned to a member of the
editorial team, who based on the comments from the reviewers takes a final decision on the manuscript. The comments and suggestions
(acceptance/rejection/amendments in manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author. If required, the
author is requested to provide a point by point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript.
This process is repeated till reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript.
Within three weeks, the authors will be informed about the reviewers’ comments and acceptance/rejection of their manuscript.
Articles accepted would be copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. To avoid delay in publication, authors
are advised to adhere closely to the instructions given below.
Original articles:
Original articles include randomized controlled trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic test, outcome
studies, cost-effectiveness analyses, case-control series, and surveys with high response rate. These articles must be written
within 3000 words excluding references and abstract. A structured abstract of up to 250 words should be
included with the following subheadings: Background, Objective, Methods, Results and Conclusion.
Tables and figures
| Randomised trials | CONSORT |
| Observational studies | STROBE |
| Systematic reviews | PRISMA |
| Study protocols | SPIRIT |
| Diagnostic/prognostic studies | STARD |
| Case reports | CARE |
Original articles: The content of the original article should be structured as Title, Authors, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, Conflict of interest and References.
Review articles: Review articles include systemic critical assessments of literature and data sources. These articles must be written within 4000 words excluding references and abstract. An unstructured abstract of up to 250 words should be included.
Case reports or case studies: These studies should be short with decisive observation. These should be kept within 2000 words with not more than 15 references and up to 4 tables or figures. An unstructured abstract of up to 200 words should also be included. The content should have the following headings: Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Case presentation, Discussion, and References.
Short communications/brief reports: These follow a similar format as an Original article; however, the Results and Discussion sections in the main body of the text should be combined. The word count for Brief Reports should be kept within 1500 words in the main body of the text, with up to 15 references and not more than 2 tables or figures.
Letter to the editor/editorials: This can include comments on earlier publications, presenting data or findings in brief, expressing opinions on health-related issues, and communicating interesting case material. These should be of approximately 750-1000 words and not more than 10 references.
Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journal as recommended
by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf) guidelines.
The article must be written in adherence with the guidelines to maintain the quality of publication.
General requirements:
All files should be in Microsoft Word file format (.doc, .docx). Content should be written in uniform American English.
Abbreviations to be spelt out in full for the first time. Page size should be in Letter Portrait, A4 (8.5” × 11”) and
spacing between lines should be 1.5. The margin should be normal (2.54 cm on all sides). Font style should be Times New Roman,
and keep the font size 12 for all contents in the document except for the title (Title should be 14 Times New Roman, Bold,
Capital case, Centre aligned). The corresponding author should include an asterisk. Authors order should be mentioned with
Arabic numerals and should corresponds their affiliations.
Cover letter:
Cover letter must state that the material is original research, has not been previously published, and has not been submitted
for publication elsewhere while under consideration. If the manuscript has been previously considered for publication in another
journal, please include the previous reviewer comments, to help expedite the decision by the Editorial team.
Title:
Title of the article should be short, continuous and yet sufficiently descriptive and informative. It should not be more than 15
words
Author names and affiliations:
Clearly indicate the provided name(s) and surname(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled.
Affiliations of all the authors should be provided below the list of authors with appropriate citations in numbers.
An affiliation should include department name, institute or university name, city name and country name. Corresponding author’s
mailing address, designation, institution and contact details (email, telephone, and fax numbers) should be provided.
If authors regard it as essential to indicate that two or more co-authors are equal in status, they may be identified by an
asterisk symbol with the caption ‘These authors contributed equally to this work’ immediately under the author affiliation list.
If available, provide the 16-digit ORCID of all the author(s).
Abstract:
Abstracts in Original research articles should begin with Background & Objectives, followed by Methods, Results, and Conclusion.
An abstract should not be more than 250 words. The abstract should be brief and indicate the scope and significant results of the
paper. It should only highlight the principal findings and conclusions.
Keywords:
There should be 4-6 keywords, preferably using Medical Subject Heading (MeSH)
(https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/MeSHonDemand).
Introduction:
Introduction should be brief and state precisely the scope and relevance of the study. Introduction should be within a word limit of 400 words.
Materials & methods:
Describe the selection of the observational or experimental subjects (patients or laboratory animals, and including controls) clearly.
Sample size calculation, exclusion and inclusion criteria, and description of the source population should be clear. Methods can be
divided into subsections, if required (e.g., study design, participants, sampling, sample size, research instrument, etc.).
Details of research methods, procedure, apparatus/tools used for conducting the study should be mentioned clearly. Provide
references to established methods, including statistical methods. Provide references and brief descriptions of methods that
have been published but are not well known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and evaluate
their limitations. When mentioning drugs, it should be in generic names (proprietary names can be provided in brackets).
Following the ICMJE recommendations, CTRN should be mentioned in manuscript for clinical trials. When reporting experiments on human
subjects, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on
human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration (https://research.wayne.edu/irb/pdf/2-3-declaration-of-helsinki.pdf) of 1975, as revised in 2000. Do not use patients’
names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether
the institution’s or a national research council’s guide, or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals was
followed. Authors should provide the details of statistical methods and software used for analyzing the data.
Results:
Present the results in logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures. Tables and figures may be left at the respective location within the text.
These should be numbered using Arabic numerals only. Do not repeat the results or data in the text, which are shown in the tables or figures.
For qualitative studies, the authors are advised to present the quotations in the text or the boxes. When data are summarized in the results
section, give numeric results not only as derivatives (for example, percentages) but also as the absolute numbers from which the
derivatives were calculated, and specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. P should always be capitalized and italicized (Examples: P=.038; P< 0.001).
Discussion:
Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. Do not repeat the results or other
material given in the Introduction or the Results section. Relate the observations to other relevant studies and include
implications of the findings and their limitations, including implications for future research.
Conclusion:
This section should state the implications and how the study adds to existing knowledge. Link the conclusions with the aims of the
study but avoid unqualified statements and conclusions not completely supported by the presented research. Recommendations, when
appropriate, may be included.
Acknowledgment:
Acknowledgment should be brief and made for specific scientific/technical assistance and financial support only and not for
providing routine departmental facilities and encouragement or for help in the preparation of the manuscript (including typing
or secretarial assistance).
Source of funding:
The source of funding for the study, if available, must be cited under this section. Authors should list all funding sources.
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for
the correct nomenclature:
https://www.crossref.org/services/funder-registry/
Conflict of interests:
All authors must declare their conflicts of interest. Disclose digital object identifier (DOI) as per ICMJE recommendations
if necessary
(http://www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/).
References:
All the references must be listed at the end of the manuscript and all the listed references must be cited in the text.
JBMS follows the official ICMJE/Medline style, with minor alterations
(https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html):
Pre-submission enquiries:
Pre-submission enquiries should be sent to the editorial office. e-mail: jbms@bhmedsoc.com
Online submission of manuscript:
JBMS accepts articles only through online submission (Link). For online submission, please provide your complete manuscript in the form of
a single file (MS Word Format) containing all the material. Please place tables and figures at appropriate places in the text.
Before submitting a manuscript, authors are encouraged to read the submission instructions carefully. You will be able to monitor
the status of your manuscript online throughout the editorial process.
Article processing fee:
JBMS is an international, peer reviewed, open access and quarterly published journal. The charges are inclusive for submission and processing.
The fees paid are:
| Article processing fee | Overseas (USD $) |
| Members | 531 |
| Non-members | 795 |
Once article is accepted for publication after the peer-review process, editorial team will request all the authors to complete and
sign a copyright form (hard or scanned copy) and send it back to the editorial office for speedy processing of publication production.
Delay in sending the copyright form will result in delay of publication.
Author must return the galley proof of their manuscript within 2-3 working days for fast processing of online publication and printing.
Offprints:
Offprints may be ordered on the form accompanying the proofs and after the publication, charges will be based on number of copies.
