DO THE INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS OF PAKISTANI MEDICAL JOURNALS CONVEY ADEQUATE GUIDANCE FOR AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA?

Objective: To analyze authorship guidance in the instructions to authors provided by Pakistani medical journals. Methodology: This study of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) indexed journals was conducted at Isra University, Hyderabad in June-July 2009. Instructions to authors of these journals were evaluated for the authorship guidance by two investigators separately. Analyses of discrepancies between two investigators were resolved by mutual discussions and consensus was achieved. Results: Out of PMDC indexed 49 journals, instructions to authors of 37 (75.5%) journals were evaluated for the authorship guidance. Among these 37 journals, only six (16.2%) provided the proper International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE) wording of authorship criteria whereas 17 (45.9%) just mentioned the links to general requirements for manuscripts submitted to the biomedical journals. About one third of the journals neither provided any authorship criteria nor any link to the general requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. Conclusion: The authorship guidance provided by instructions to authors of PMDC indexed journals is less than satisfactory and needs substantial improvement.