INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS
Scope of the Pakistan Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences:Pakistan Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences (PJPS) is a peer-reviewed multi-disciplinary pharmaceutical and medicinal publication scheduled to appear monthly from January 2026 onwards, serving as a means for the exchange of scientific information at an international level. All manuscripts are evaluated for their scientific content and significance by the Editor-in-Chief. All submitted manuscripts should contain unpublished, original research not under consideration for publication anywhere else. Adherence to the guidelines will reduce the unnecessary delays. To avoid unnecessary delays in publication, authors are requested to strictly adhere to the guidelines.
Online submission:Authors must ensure that their papers align with the journal’s scope. Articles are comprehensive accounts of significant experimental or theoretical work. Authors are asked to write their manuscripts in a clear and concise manner and to only include the data crucial for arriving at the final conclusion. The manuscript should be emailed in MS Word 2000 and above or later format as a single file including all items, i.e., figures, graphs, illustrations and tables. The chemical formula or equation should be prepared in the ‘mathematical equations’ option in MS Word, including the equation number. To expedite the publication process, the Journal encourages online submission to pjps@uok.edu.pk, pakjps@hotmail.com.
Authors’ information: All authors’ names are required to be listed sequentially: First names (or initials), Middle names (or initials), and Last names (surname, family name). Each author should also include their departmental, university, or organizational affiliation with its location, such as city, state or province (if applicable), and country. It is essential that these details are accurate, as they are rarely changed after initial submission unless under exceptional circumstances. A designated corresponding author should be identified, indicated by a superscript *(e.g., Shah*), with their email and contact information appearing on the manuscript cover page. Authors are responsible for all statements in their work and for ensuring the accuracy of bibliographic references. The editorial board reserves the right to make necessary adjustments to ensure compliance with the journal’s editorial standards.
Suggested reviewers: Authors submitting a manuscript are required to suggest at least two reviewers. Detail contact information about the reviewer should be mentioned.
Structure of article: All manuscripts should be in English and prepared in A4 paper size with 1-inch (2.5 cm) margins. The text pages should be numbered consecutively. The word count for the original research article (≤8000 words), review article (≤ 12000 words), mini review (≤ 4000 words), case report (≤ 2000 words) and perspective (≤ 4000 words), excluding the abstract and bibliography. The manuscript should be organized in the following order: Title, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgments, Authors’ Contributions, Funding, Data Availability Statement, Ethical Approval, Consent to Publication, List of Abbreviations, Conflicts of Interest and References. The original manuscript should include the original inked drawings or photographs of structural formulae for direct use.
Title:Title of the manuscript should cover the aim, object and comprehensive accounts of significant experimental or theoretical work.
Authors’ citation: The names of authors must be given as per their contribution and their participation clearly must be mentioned in the Undertaking Form. Names of authors will not be increased and replaced with other names after initial submission in any stage, i.e., modification, revision and galley proof.
Abstract:The abstract should be structured and include these subheadings: Background, Objectives, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. The word count of the abstract is restricted to 300 words and must provide enough detail to clearly convey the main findings and importance of the study.
Keywords: For indexing purposes, each submitted article should include three to five keywords chosen from the medical subject heading (MeSH). In addition to facilitating the indexing of articles, our keyword system assists in the assignment of qualified reviewers for your manuscript.
Abbreviations: The full form of each abbreviation should be given when first used, and then the same abbreviation should be used throughout the document. Standard abbreviations should be used without periods, and nonstandard abbreviations should be kept to a minimum.
Introduction: The introduction should give a clear and concise background of the study, explaining its context, rationale and importance. It should clearly state the problem being addressed, summarize relevant literature and identify knowledge gaps. The objective or hypotheses should be clearly presented at the end of the section. Authors should avoid including an extensive literature review or detailed results and conclusions, which are more suitable for later sections. The writing should follow a logical flow, guiding readers from the general background to the specific goal of the study.
Materials and Methods: The experimental procedures should be described in sufficient detail to enable others to repeat the experiments. Names of products/equipment and manufacturers should be included only if alternate sources are deemed unsatisfactory. Novel experimental procedures should be described in detail, but published procedures should merely be referred to by literature citation of both the original and any published modifications. The purity of key compounds and description(s) of the method(s) used to determine purity should be included in the section.
Statistical analysis: Authors should mention the software and version used in the research article. along with the test applied for analysis.
Results:The Results section should clearly and concisely present findings, using text, tables and figures to effectively display experimental data. The same results should not be shown in more than one format (e.g., both in a table and a figure). Interpretation of results should be saved for the Discussion section. All figures and tables must be numbered in order and cited properly within the text.
Tables: The tables should be numbered sequentially with Arabic numerals and have a clear, descriptive title. Each column must have a distinct heading and units of measurement (preferably SI units) should be included. Any abbreviations or symbols used in a table must be explained in a footnote or directly below the table. Tables should be created in an editable format (e.g., .doc or .docx).
Figures and illustrations: The figures should be clear, high-quality and submitted in TIFF or PNG format with a minimum resolution of 600 dpi. Subfigures should be labeled consistently (a), (b), (c), etc., inside the figures. Each figure must have a detailed caption below it, explaining all subfigures (e.g., Fig. 1: (a), (b), etc.) and defining any abbreviations or symbols used within the figure.
Chemical structure: The chemical structures should be created using professional drawing software such as ChemDraw (preferred), ChemIntosh or ChemWindows. Files must be sent in TIFF or PNG format with a minimum resolution of 600 dpi. Authors should use chemical or nonproprietary names (according to USAN, INN or WHO nomenclature) when first mentioning drugs; trade or laboratory codes should be avoided unless provided as supplementary information.
Discussion:The purpose of the discussion is to interpret the results and to relate them to existing knowledge in the field in as clearly and brief as possible. Information given elsewhere in the manuscript should not be repeated in the discussion. Extensive reviews of the literature should be avoided.
Acknowledgments: This section should acknowledge financial support, technical assistance, advice from colleagues, gifts, etc. Permission must be received from person whose contribution to the work is acknowledged in the manuscript. If there are no acknowledgments, please state “Not applicable” in this section
Authors’ contributions: This section should clearly outline specific contributions of each author to the research and manuscript preparation. Typical roles include conception, design, data collection, analysis, interpretation and manuscript drafting or revising. All authors must approve the final version of the manuscript. Additionally, the authors must clearly disclose any use of artificial intelligence (AI) based tools or technologies during the preparation of the manuscript. This includes any use in writing assistance, data analysis, image creation, figure preparation, or editing.
Funding:This section should list all sources of financial support for the research, including grant numbers and the names of funding agencies or sponsors. If the study did not receive any specific funding, the authors should state, “There was no funding”.
Data availability statement:
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article [and its
supplementary information files]. [Only use this if all data is in the manuscript or supplementary
files.]
OR
The [type(s) of data] generated and/or analysed during the current study are available in the [Repository Name] repository, [PERSISTENT IDENTIFIER like DOI or Accession Number]. (e.g., [RNA-seq data] are available in the [NCBI GEO] repository under accession number.
OR
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Ethical approval: Manuscripts containing data generated from animal and/or human studies must specify the committee and the institution that approved the experimental protocols used to generate these data. If ethical approval was not required for the study, the authors should state the reason or write “Not applicable” in this section.
Consent to Publication: In this section, the authors must confirm that the submitted manuscript is original, has not been published previously in any language or format, and is not currently under review elsewhere. Additionally, authors are responsible for obtaining written, informed consent for publication from anyone (or their legal guardian/next of kin) whose identifiable personal information, clinical details, or images are included in the manuscript. Authors should retain the original signed consent forms and be prepared to provide copies to the editors if requested.
List of Abbreviations: In this section, authors should provide a complete list of all abbreviations used in the manuscript along with their full forms. Abbreviations should be listed alphabetically for clarity. The authors should avoid using nonstandard or unnecessary abbreviations to maintain clarity in the text.
The chemical names for drugs should be used. If the terminology is unwieldy, nonproprietary names of drugs may be used throughout the manuscript after the first mention and identification. Formally adopted nonproprietary names listed in USAN, INN or approved by the World Health Organization, should be used. Trade names and laboratory codes should not be used except as additional information.
Conflict of interest:Authors will include a statement about the conflict of interest. If there are no conflicts, the following statement should be included: “The authors declare no conflict of interest.”
References: References should be listed alphabetically on a separate page at the end of the manuscript. In the text, citations must follow the Harvard referencing style, using the author’s surname and year of publication. When citing multiple papers by the same author in the same year, use letters (a, b, c, etc.) after the year (e.g., Smith, 2015a; Smith, 2015b).
For single-author references, cite as (Robinson, 1998) or (Robinson, 1999; Jeong, 2000). For two authors, use (Robinson and Jeong, 2001). For more than two authors, use (Robinson et al., 2002).
Each reference entry must include the names and initials of all authors, the full title of the article, the abbreviated title of the journal (in italics), the volume number (in bold) and the page range. Manuscripts accepted for publication but not yet published should be cited as “in press”; otherwise, use "unpublished results".
Authors are strongly encouraged to use reference management software such as EndNote, Mendeley or Zotero to ensure accuracy and consistency in reference formatting.
The reference style and punctuation should follow the examples below:
For journals: Yoneto K, Li SK, Higuchi WI, Jiskoot W and Herron JN (1996). Fluorescence probe studies of the interactions of 1-alkyl- 2-pyrrolidones with stratum corneum lipid liposomes. J. Pharm. Sci., 85(5): 511-517.
For edited books: Rall TW and Schleifer LS (1985). Drugs effective in the therapy of the epilepsies. In: Gilman AG, Goodman LS, Rall TW, Murad F (eds.), Pharmacol. Basis Ther., 7th ed., MacMillan Publishing Co., New York, pp. 446-472.
For website: World Health Organization (2020). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Available at: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019 (Accessed 15 June 2020).
Supporting Information: Supporting information may include additional materials that complement the main text, such as experimental procedures, spectra, extended datasets, tables or supplementary figures. Authors are required to include a brief “Supporting Information Available” statement at the end of the manuscript outlining the contents. All supplementary materials should be clearly organized, numbered consecutively and submitted in appropriate digital formats. Items should be labeled as S1, S2, S3, etc., (for example, figures as Fig. S1, Fig. S2 and tables as Table S1, Table S2). Each supplementary item must be properly referenced within the main text and all figures and tables should include proper captions or legends.
Spectral Data:: It may be desirable to include such data for representative compounds in a series, for novel classes of compounds, and in structural determinations. Usually, it is not desirable to include routine spectral data for every compound in the manuscript. Papers where interpretations of spectra are critical to structural elucidation and those in which band shape or fine structure needs to be illustrated may be published with spectra included. When such presentations are deemed essential, only pertinent sections should be reproduced.
Biological Data: Biological test methods must be referenced or described in sufficient detail to permit the experiments to be repeated by others. Detailed descriptions of methods should be placed in the experimental procedures section. Data may be presented as numerical expressions or in graphical form. Statistical limits (statistical significance) and statistical parameters are usually required; if these cannot be provided, the number of determinations and some indication of the variability and reliability of the results should be given, and references to the calculations should be included. Doses and concentrations should be expressed as molar quantities (e.g., mmol/kg, mM) when comparing potencies of compounds with large differences in molecular weights. The routes of administration of test compounds and vehicles used should be indicated.
Submission of undertaking: All concerned authors are bound to submit an original, duly signed, an “Undertaking” document by them, which shows that this paper has not been submitted elsewhere and is not plagiarized, in according with the policy of the ICMJE and COPE Guidelines All contributors are also required to mention their names and affiliations. Additionally, all correspondence will be conducted exclusively with the corresponding author at the provided email address only. The author(s) information given in the “Undertaking” document must be same as submitted with the manuscript.”
Proofs: Proofs are sent to the corresponding author of the manuscripts through email. Proof should be verified against the manuscript and appropriate corrections made. Substantial changes in a manuscript after composing have been made require editorial approval and, in some cases, may be the cause for re-reviewing.
Anti-Plagiarism Policy : Manuscripts should not be plagiarized. If the similarity index is found to be more than 19% the manuscripts will not be processed for review.
Publication Systems : The PJPS publishes articles through either a fast publication system (FPS/UFR) or a regular publication system (RPS). To ensure quick publication of research articles, PJPS can arrange urgent publication via the Fast Publication System (FPS), with charges of Rs. 15,000 (local) or US$200.00 (international) per page. An Ultra-Fast Review (UFR) is also available for international submissions, with charges of US$ 200 per page plus an additional US$1,000-1,500 per article. The publication fee for the Regular Publication System (RPS) is Rs. 3000 (local) or US$ 75.00 (international). Payments can be made through online banking within a month for RPS and within a week for FPS/UFR. Additionally, the PJPS may offer a fee waiver for article processing charges on a case-by-case basis.
Details of bank account: Pakistan Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, United Bank Limited, University Campus Branch, University of Karachi, A/c No.1146-010-1731-3, Swift Code: UNILPKKA, IBAN - PK10 UNIL 0112 1146 010173 13
How to order: To obtain a printed copy of the journal issue, the order should be emailed to the following email addresses or sent to the Office of the Editor-in-Chief, PJPS, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi-75270, Pakistan. The cost is Rs.5000 (local) and US$250 (international) per copy (including shipping and handling). Additionally, the journal offers a subscription for its printed version with an annual fee of Rs.25,000 (local) and US$1250 (international).
E-mails: pjps@uok.edu.pk, pakjps@hotmail.com
For information and queries: pjpsquery@uok.edu.pk
