Editorial Policies

Aims and Scope

Libyan Journal of Medicine (ljm) is a peer-reviewed, Open Access, international medical journal aiming to promote heath and health education by publishing high-quality medical research and data in the different disciplines of medicine.

ljm was founded in 2006 by a group of enthusiastic Libyan medical scientists who looked at the contribution of Libyan publications to the international medical literature and saw that a publication outlet was missing. To fill this gap they launched ljm as a tool for transferring current medical knowledge to and from colleagues in developing countries, particularly Libya and other African countries, as well as internationally.

As of 2010 ljm is published by Co-Action Publishing. The journal is still led by a group of Libyan physicians inside and outside Libya but also enjoys support as well as recognition from the international medical community.

ljm publishes Invited Editorials, Original articles, Review articles, Case Reports, Letters to the Editor, and also features Brief communications and ABC-articles which are written for medical students and a general audience on a disease, procedure or treatment.

 

Section Policies

Editorials

Unchecked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Correspondence

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Review Articles

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Original Articles

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Case Reports

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Case Studies

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

ABC-articles

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Special Articles

Unchecked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed
 

Peer Review Process

Papers submitted to Libyan Journal of Medicine are subject to rigorous peer review so as to ensure that the research published is 'good science'.

All manuscripts will undergo preliminary evaluation at the editorial level and those judged to be of significant importance will subsequently be peer reviewed by two or more experts.

Manuscripts are sent out for review electronically, and all correspondence takes place via e-mail. ljm has a 'double blind' review process: Authors are not told who reviewed their paper, and reviewers are not told who wrote the paper. Peer reviewers are informed of the identity of the authors immediately after the manuscript is either accepted or rejected. The referees’ identity remains unknown to the authors although it is up to the referee if he/she wants to contact the author at a later stage and reveal his/her identity.

Peer reviewers are asked to give their opinion on a number of issues pertinent to the scientific and formal aspects of a paper, and to judge the papers on grounds of originality and urgency. All relevant information will be forwarded to the author(s).

Peer reviewers will have six possible options, for each article:

  1. Accept manuscript (i.e. no need for any revision)
  2. Accept after revision (i.e. accepted if the author makes the requested revisions)
  3. Revise and resubmit (i.e. accepted or rejected after revisions have been made - paper will be sent out for another peer review round)
  4. Submit elsewhere (i.e. if the manuscript is better suited for another journal)
  5. Reject manuscript (i.e. if the manuscript is substandard)
  6. See comments (i.e. if the reviewer cannot choose from any of the above)

In addition, papers may be rejected directly by the Editors if judged to be out of scope or if scientifically or formally sub-standard.

When asking for revisions, reviewers have two possible goals: to ask authors to tighten their arguments based on existing data, or to identify areas where more data are needed. Even formal revision may be required if the language or formalities is sub-standard. To facilitate rapid publication, authors are given a maximum of 2 months for revision. After 2 months, revised manuscripts will be considered new submissions.

 

Publication Frequency

All articles are posted online immediately they are ready for publication. All articles will be assigned a DOI number (Digital Object Identifier) whereby they become searchable and citeable without delay.

 

Open Access Policy

ljm is published under the Open Access model and is therefore free for anybody to read and download, and to copy and disseminate for educational purposes. Articles will be published immediately after the final corrections of the master proof have been made. When posted online, articles will be assigned a DOI number (Digital Object Identifier) whereby it becomes possible to search and cite them without delay.

The Open Access model used for ljm implies that production costs are partly covered by publication fees normally paid for by the author’s institution or funding agency. The total sum will be charged to the author(s) upon acceptance of his/her article. Author from institutions that have difficulty in paying may be eligible for a full or partial waiver of the publication fee. The Publisher would be happy to provide more information or discuss individual cases. The ability of authors to pay remains unknown to the Editors prior to possible acceptance.

ljm is accessible via the journal’s website at http://www.libyanjournalofmedicine.net as well as via international search engines such as Google Scholar.

Under the Open Access model authors retain copyright. See copyright section.

Publication fee

Publishing in ljm is free for 2010!

However, if the author's university or institute officially maintains a central fund to cover costs for Open Access Publishing, or the article describes results from research funded by an Open Access-positive funder, a publication fee will be charged as follows:

Publication of an Article (up to 8 typeset A4 pages) €575, excl. VAT. Articles exceeding 8 typeset pages incur an additional charge of €30 per page.

Publication of a Short Communication (up to 4 typeset A4 pages) incurs a charge of €400, excl. VAT. Articles exceeding 4 typeset pages may incur an additional charge of €30 per page.

For a list of universities/institutes and funders supporting Open Access publication, please see here.

 

Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.

In addition, all files will be archived with CLOCKSS and Portico.

 

Author Self-Archiving

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post items submitted to this journal on personal or institutional websites, prior to and after publication (while providing the bibliographic details of that publication)

 

Indexing

Libyan Journal of Medicine is indexed/tracked/covered by the following services:: Embase, DOAJ, Google Scholar, Open J-Gate, AJOL, HINARI, CAB abstracts, AFRO, EMRO, LMI, Science Citation Index Expanded, Open J-gate, Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, JournalSeek, Scopus

Material in ljm is also further distributed by EBSCO, one of the worlds largest content aggregators and research database providers.

 

Commercial reprints and advertising

If you wish to purchase reprints or advertise in ljm, you are welcome to contact:

Caroline Sutton, Publisher

Email: caroline.sutton@co-action.net
Tel (SkypeIn): +46 18 495 11 26
Tel (cell): +47 90 69 05 06




Libyan Journal of Medicine ISSN 1819-6357 (online), 1993-2820 (print)

This journal is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License. Responsible editor: Omran Bakoush