Categories

1. List of Reviews and Editorials
2. Special Contributions
3. Original Articles
4. Review Article
5. Case Reports
6. Medical Images 
7. Continuing Professional development
8. Brief Communication (short studies) / critical appraisal
9. Junior Scholar
10. Letters to the Editor
11. Scientific Events 

Journal Manuscript

Journal Language & Translation
The Oman Medical Association Journal will publish papers in English, with the title, author names, abstracts and keywords in Arabic. A full Arabic translation of the journal will be available upon request. British English spelling and punctuation are used.

Style
The modern trend to simplify has also influenced scientific writing. Avoid long sentences, jargon and clichés. When tempted to use a difficult word or complex sentence, see if it can be replaced by simpler one.

Format
Use the Times New Roman font, 12 point in Microsoft Word, preferably in Rich-Text Format (RTF). Use minimum formatting, since most formatting will be removed before typesetting. Restrict formatting to superscripts and subscripts and what is absolutely essential to reveal various heading levels. Use true superscripts and subscripts and not “raised/lowered” characters. For symbols, use the standard “Symbol” fonts on Windows or Macintosh. Using strange symbol fonts may give unpredictable results in print, even if the fonts are supplied by the author.

Abbreviations & System of Units
Since abbreviations tend to make the text difficult to read, avoid them except when essential. In the Abstract and the article itself define each abbreviation when first used, eg. Root canal Treatment (RCT) and thereafter use the abbreviation alone without further explanation. Avoid beginning sentences with abbreviations. Abbreviations must be expanded in titles, subtitles and captions. Use abbreviations, rather than words, for units and percentages. (e.g., km, mm, kg, l, ml, % etc). SI units are used in this Journal. (eg. pmol/L) The corresponding units may be included in parentheses.

Layout

Photographs - The quality of photographs must be high enough for good reproduction and should stand reduction. Photographs must be in digital format (300 dpi). It is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission for reproductions from other sources. Number photographs consecutively and provides a brief caption for each, on a separate page. Cite all photographs in the text and number them consecutively. All photographs are printed in colour in OMAJ.

Drawings - All line drawings should be planned to fit the Journal’s page size (12-18cm). Lines should be dark enough and letters should be of professional quality in order to stand reduction. Do not use bold or all-capital lettering. Do not combine line drawings and photographs into one illustration. For best results, it is advisable to execute your drawings in a vector application such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw. The Editorial Office is able to accommodate a wide range of vector and bitmap formats executed on Windows or Macintosh platforms. Cite all drawings in the text and number them consecutively.

Tables and Charts - Each table should be on a separate page at the end of the manuscript. Long tables and those with calculations should preferably be in Microsoft Excel. Number them consecutively, give concise but self-explanatory titles to each and cite them in the text. All X and Y axes must be clearly labelled. Charts pasted into MS Word documents in un-editable “picture” formats are not acceptable.”

Article Structures

The Scientific Research article Sections 

1. Title
2. Abstract
3. Key words
4. Introduction
5. Methods
6. Results
7. Discussion
8. Conclusion and recommendation
9. References

Title:

This section should have article titles; authors’ names; authors’ credential. The title should be: 

• Informative and specific
• Concise
• Comprehensible
• Descriptive
• Centered on the title page 
• Nouns are capitalized

Abstract:

The abstract is 150 words in one paragraph that includes: introduction; objectives; methods; results and conclusions. This layout applies all types of research from systematic reviews to case reports.  The abstracts provide significant summary of the articles using precise wording.   

 Keywords:
Keywords are crucial words for reviewers and readers and the maximum number of words are eight words. 

Introduction:

The introduction is a concise section with one page that is designed to inform readers about the background of a study and it leads to a statement of the problem. It usual starts broadly and then narrows to end with research questions and aim.  It provides sufficient context of the study to the reader to comprehend and evaluate authors’ research.  In the introduction the authors should define terms and abbreviations that readers may be unfamiliar.  The introduction should develop   the rationale of the study that poses questions or research problems and outlines your main research focus.

Methods:

The methods section should describe mechanisms, samples and, materials that authors undertook to complete the research. It is written in descriptive style that is precise, complete, and concise.  It can be divided into subsections, if appropriate. However, the content of this section depend on the type of research and it is explained in the authors’ instruction section.    It includes reasons why the authors selected certain methods or chose to use certain equations.

Results:

This section describes the major findings of the study. It presents the data using graphs; tables and pictures to reveal any trends that you found. This section does not provide any interpretation of findings.  The authors explain what is shown in each graph as well as interesting and all figures should be labeled and referenced in the text prior to the figure. The result section Illustrate and summarize findings.

Discussion:

This section is offers authors’ interpretations about their findings.  It contains analysis, evaluation, and reasons statements.  The authors should present to the readers well-supported or disprove views of other authors. This section should contain key limitations of the studies (if identified).

Conclusion and Recommendation:

This section, offers authors’ conclusion based on reasons and main supporting evidence that will draw recommendations. It does not contain any reasons statements. 

References:
This section the references list is based on Vancouver referencing system. Reference numbers must be in superscript after a comma or full stop. In the Reference section, list all the references in numerical order.  Within a reference list all authors up to a maximum of six. If there are more than 6 authors then write et al. after the sixth author.