About the Journal
Journal History
The Dalhousie Medical Journal was established in 1936 and is the oldest student-run peer-reviewed medical journal in Atlantic Canada.
Focus and Scope
The Dalhousie Medical Journal is a student-run peer-reviewed biannual publication. Much like our medical school, we feature a mix of both science and humanities. We accept a variety of submission types, including original research, reviews, case reports, commentaries, and humanities pieces.
The primary goal of the journal is to increase student participation in research and writing, while offering an interesting product for the Dalhousie medical community. In the past the journal has primarily published the work of Dalhousie medical students and residents. However, we encourage submissions from members of all allied health profession at any level of training.
We also consider submissions from individuals based at institutions outside of the Dalhousie community. We invite you to browse our latest issue and consider submitting manuscripts or humanities pieces.
Open Access Policy
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
Past Editorial Team Members
Mohammad Sultan, Editor-in-Chief, 2020-2023
Abbey MacLellan, Editor of Reviews, 2020-2023
Grace Power, Editor of Reviews, 2020-2023
Kevin Telfer, Layout Editor, 2020-2023
Mary Fay, Editor of Reviews, 2021-2023
Brianne Cruickshank, Editor of Reviews, 2019-2022
Emily Poole, Editor of Reviews, 2019-2022
Gavin Lifman, Editor of Reviews, 2019-2022
Christopher O'Grady, Humanities Editor, 2019-2022
David Hodgson, Web Editor, 2019-2022
Kathleen MacMillan, DMNB Liaison Editor, 2019-2022
Eric Poon, Editor of Reviews, 2019-2021
Dejan Vidovic, Editor-in-Chief, 2018-2021
Margaret Sun, Editor of Reviews, 2018-2021
Clara Long, Layout Editor, 2018-2021
Alicia Malone, Web Editor, 2017-2020
David Faour, Humanities Editor, 2017-2020
Vivian Tan, Editor of Reviews, 2017-2020
Joel Bergman, Editor-in-Chief, 2016-2019
Shweta Dhawan, Editor of Reviews, 2016-2019
Chansey Veinotte, Layout Editor, 2016-2019
Leanne Delaney, Editor of Reviews, 2015-2018
Jessica MacIntyre, Humanities Editor, 2015-2018
Chad Purcell, Web Editor, 2015-2018
André Pollmann, Editor-in-Chief, 2014-2017
Michael Butler, Layout Editor, 2014-2017
Ceilidh MacPhail, Editor of Review, 2014-2017
Ian MacDonald, Editor of Reviews, 2013-2016
Jessie Kang, Humanities Editor, 2013-2015
Chelcie Soroka, Editor-in-Chief, 2012-2015
Jon Melong, Editor of Reviews, 2012-2015
James Pius, Layout Editor, 2012-2015
Jennie Lee, Editor of Reviews, 2011-2014
Jason Meisner, Humanities Editor, 2011-2014
Joey Corkum, Editor-in-Chief, 2010-2013
Mike Wong, Layout Editor, 2010-2015
Andre Maddison, Editor of Reviews, 2010-2013
Peter Reardon, Editor of Reviews, 2010-2013
Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statements
The following research standards are adapted from the COPE Responsible Research Publication International Standards for Authors (Wager & Kleinhart, 2011).
Author Standards
All research published in the Dalhousie Medical Journal (DMJ) must be conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and must comply with all relevant legislation. All authors must be fully aware of and refrain from engaging in scientific misconduct. Results must be presented clearly and without fabrication, falsification, or data manipulation.
All authors should strive to describe their methods as clearly as possible and unambiguously so that their findings are reproducible. All authors must ensure that submitted work must be original, not plagiarized, and has not been published elsewhere, and is not under consideration or submitted elsewhere. Authors take collective responsibility for all submitted and published work.
Each author is expected to have made substantial contributions to the conception, design, acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of the data; or to drafting, editing, or revising the final manuscript. All authors must approve the submitted version of the manuscript and agree to be accountable for their own contributions. All authors agree that any questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even when the author was not personally involved in said work, is appropriately investigated, resolved, and the resolution documented. The order of authorship of research publications should accurately reflect individuals‘ contributions to the work and its reporting, with the exception of the corresponding author, whose name should appear last in the author list and with whom all correspondence will be addressed.
All authors must disclose any direct or indirect conflict of interests with editors or members of the Editorial board. If applicable, all sources of research funding should be disclosed, whether direct or indirect.
Editors‘ Standards
The DMJ uses a double blinded peer review process managed by individual editors. An editor will initially evaluate a submission to ensure it fits within the scope of the DMJ (see About page for more). The editor is solely and independently responsible for selecting, processing, and deciding which article fits within this scope. The editor will then send the manuscript to three independent blinded peer reviewers who are experts within their field and are able to assess the quality of the work. The editor, upon receiving peer reviewers‘ comments, is responsible for the final decision of whether or not the manuscript will be accepted for publication, with or without major or minor revisions. Reviewed articles are treated with confidentiality by editorial board members and reviewers. Any editor with a direct or indirect conflict of interest in making the final decision will withdraw from said editorial decision and pass it on to another editor without any conflicts of interest.
Misconduct
The editor-in-chief (EiC), members of the editorial board, and the DMJ will not encourage misconduct of any kind, or knowingly allow misconduct to occur. If any such misconduct does occur, the EiC and members of the editorial board will deal with allegations accordingly.
In the case of misconduct (i.e. retractions or corrections), the EiC will be responsible for resolving the issue; they will rectify the issue by working with authors, other members of the editorial board, and peer reviewers. The author(s) will first be notified of the misconduct and then will be given an opportunity to respond to the complaint, allegation, or dispute. Due process will be documented accordingly on the part of the editorial team.
If misconduct has occurred, the editorial board will consider the nature of the case to distinguish between when honest human error and a deliberate attempt to defraud. In the case of minor typographical or reference errors, there will be a correction issued. In the case of major errors, either from honest human error (i.e. miscalculations, experimental errors), or a deliberate case of dishonesty (data fabrication, plagiarism, unethical research), the paper would be retracted.
Reviewer Standards
All reviewers must know and keep in mind the Editorial policies and Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.
The DMJ requires that all potential reviewers have scientific and/or clinical expertise, or have significant work experience in the relevant field. Potential reviewers must withdraw if they know they are unqualified to evaluate a manuscript, or if they feel like there may be a potential conflict of interest. Reviewers must treat articles with confidentiality. If reviewers suspect any misconduct, they shall inform the editorial board immediately.
Human and Animal Rights
In order to protect the proper use of animals and humans in research, the DMJ requires that authors declare this and adhere to the following policies;
1) In the case of human subjects, the authors must provide proof that explicit informed consent has been provided by the subject, their parent/guardian, or their substitute decision maker. Failure to provide proof will prohibit publication.
2) In the case of animal subjects, the authors must include a statement validating that they have followed their institutional or licensing committee's animal care guidelines, and that their experiments were approved by said commitee. Authors must declare that their experiments were all performed in accordance with approved guidelines.
The Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) provides an up-to-date description on general policies and guidelines pertaining to ethical animal care in a scientific setting.
In cases where human or animal subjects are used, the Editor-in-Chief will evaluate that the above policies have been followed. Failure to follow any of the above policies may result in rejection of the manuscript.
Data Sharing Policy
Submission of an article to the DMJ implies that materials described in the manuscript will be available to other researchers wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, as long as patient confidentiality is not breached.
It is strongly encouraged that any datasets used within a manuscript from which conclusions were drawn are available to readers. Datasets can be deposited in the main manuscript, as additional supporting figures or files, or uploaded to publically available repositories (where available/appropropriate; e.g. microarray data may be deposited in GEO).
In cases where a widely accepted repository exists for a certain type of data, it is mandatory that data be submitted to that repository prior to publication (e.g. microarray submitted to GEO). Any DOIs, accession numbers, or similar identifiers provided by the repository must be included within the main manuscript.
Data of the following types must be submitted to an appropriate repository; protein sequences, DNA/RNA sequences and/or sequencing data, genetic polymorphisms, linked genotype-phenotype data, macromolecular structure, microarray data, and crystallographic data.
If data of the nature described above is used in a manuscript, a data availability statement must be included in the main manuscript describing where to find the data, including all unique data identifiers.
Where authors are using previously uploaded data from a repository, that unique identifier (e.g. accession number) must be cited within the manuscript.
