Preparing for Submission

To reduce delays, authors should adhere to the level, length, and format of the journal at every stage of processing right from manuscript submission to each review stage. Editable Word files are required to typeset your article for final publication. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, is sent by e-mail.

• Our online submission system guides you stepwise through the process of entering your article details and uploading your files. Please submit your article via the submission page

Contact Information

For queries with your submission, please contact the team via email:

Editor in Chief

Dr. Tahir Mehmood Khan

Email: 

Contribution of Author

The credit of the authorship should be based on

Consequential inputs to the concept and design, procurement of data or analysis, and interpretation of data.

Preparing the article or revising it critically for an important matter.

Final confirmation of the adaptation to be published. All three conditions must be met by the authors. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or data or general supervision of the research group does not constitute authorship.

The author must include a proclamation mentioning each author's contribution. Please ensure that this is discussed with your co-authors and that compliance is reached before manuscript submission. Post-acceptance changes to the author list will not be permitted. The contribution statement is not included in the maximum word count.

Article Types

1. Letter to the Editor
2. Original article
3. Review article
4. Case study
5. Cross-Sectional Study
6. Clinical trial

Letter to the Editor

A Letter to the Editor is a brief report that is within the journal's scope and of particular interest to the community, but not suitable as a standard research article. It does not follow a format such as an abstract, subheads, or acknowledgments. It is more feedback or the opinion of the reader on a particular article published and should reach the editor within 6 months of article publication. Letters should have a maximum of 1,500 words.

Original Articles

The Research Articles report on primary research. They must describe significant and original observations. Consideration for publication is based on the article’s originality, novelty, scientific soundness, and appropriateness of its analysis. Research articles should follow all the criteria mentioned in the preparation of the manuscript section and have a maximum of 5,000 words (Excluding references), a maximum of 50 references (70% of the references should be within the last 5 years), and 7 tables/figures together. Please use the journals-ready template for preparing your article.

Review Articles

Review Articles are considered reviews of research or summary articles. They are state-of-the-art papers covering a current topic by experts in the field. They should give evidence and provide answers to a well-defined aspect or question in a particular area. The introduction generally delivers the issue forward to the readers followed by analytical discussion with the help of imperative tables, graphs, pictures, and illustrations wherever necessary. It compiles the topic with a conclusion. All the statements or observations in the review articles must be based on necessary citations, providing complete references at the end of the article. Review articles should have a maximum of 7,000 words (Excluding references), and a maximum of 100 references (70% of the references should be within the last 5 years). Please use the journals-ready template for preparing your review article. Abstract, keywords, introduction, and conclusion headers are necessary.

Case Study

A case study is a detailed examination of a single instance, event, or subject, often used to explore and highlight unique clinical, organizational, or situational phenomena. This type of study provides an in-depth understanding of complex issues, offering valuable insights into the practical application of theories and practices. Case studies are particularly effective in shedding light on rare or novel occurrences that may not yet be widely documented. Submissions in this category should follow a structured approach, including an introduction, a detailed presentation of the case, a discussion of its implications, and conclusions that link the findings to broader contexts. The word limit for case study manuscripts is 3,000 words, excluding references and tables, and authors are encouraged to include up to 50 references to support their findings and analysis.

Cross-Sectional Study

A cross-sectional study is a type of observational research that analyzes data from a population, or a representative subset, at a single point in time. These studies are particularly useful for determining prevalence rates, identifying associations between variables, and generating hypotheses for further longitudinal research. Cross-sectional studies often involve surveys, medical records, or other forms of data collection, providing a snapshot of the studied phenomenon. Manuscripts submitted in this category should clearly describe the study design, population, sampling methods, and statistical analyses used. Like case studies, cross-sectional study submissions are limited to 3,000 words, with up to 50 references to ensure thorough and credible reporting of findings. Authors should emphasize the practical implications of their results while discussing their study's strengths and limitations.

Clinical trial

All Clinical Trials should be registered in a publicly available registry approved by the WHO or other organizations and the clinical trial number must be clearly stated in the manuscript.

Plagiarism

At any stage of peer review, publication, or post-publication, if plagiarism is detected the manuscript may be rejected, returned to the author for correction, or retracted.

Peer Review

We use a double-blind peer-review system where both the referee and author remain anonymous throughout the process. We aim to provide authors with timely and constructive feedback regarding their submitted manuscripts.

Authors’ Professional and Ethical Responsibilities

 Pharmacophore follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Works in Medical Journals (Available at: https://icmje.org).

Authorship

Only those persons who contributed directly to the intellectual content of the article should be listed as authors. The surnames and addresses/affiliations of all authors, as well as the e-mail address of the corresponding author, should be indicated on the title page. Only one person can be the “Corresponding Author”. The corresponding author is the one individual who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal office during the manuscript’s submission, peer

review, and publication processes.

Acknowledgments and Sources of Support

Sources of outside support for the research work, including funding, grants, equipment, and drugs, must be indicated in the Acknowledgements section. Any involvement of laboratory support staff and other researchers must also be clearly stated in the Acknowledgement statements.

Double Publication and Concurrent Submission

Duplicate or Double submission means submission of a manuscript to two or more different journals at the same time. Manuscripts that are submitted to the Pharmacophore should not have been previously published in, submitted to, or be under consideration for publication by another journal.

Any manuscript displaying more than 15% level of duplication by the journal’s iThenticate/Plagiarism check will not be considered for publication in the journal.

Ethical Considerations

 All manuscripts submitted to the Pharmacophore must provide appropriate information on Ethical Considerations. Research works on laboratory animals must provide evidence of institutional or national ethical approval.

When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and/or national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. Voucher numbers of plant materials used in the study must also be provided.

All studies involving human subjects must expressly include written consent of the patients or volunteers. If the patient is deceased or incapable of providing informed consent, the patient’s next-of-kin, beneficiary, or legal guardian should provide the consent. Inclusion and Exclusion criteria for the choice of patients or volunteers used must also be clearly stated. When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether or not the procedures followed are in agreement with the ethical standards of the committee on human experimentation (institutional, national, and international), and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008.

Preparation of Manuscript

1. The preferred word processing program for manuscripts is Microsoft Word.
2. Footnotes should be avoided.
3. Abbreviations (Except those well-established in the field) should be explained when they are first used both in the abstract and the main text.
4. Units of measurement should be expressed in SI units wherever possible.
5. All manuscripts must contain the essential elements, for example, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Conclusions, Artwork, and Tables with Captions.
6. Please ensure the figures and the tables are placed next to the relevant text in the manuscript, rather than at the bottom or the top of the file.
7. Only papers written in English are considered.
8. Please use the journal's ready template for preparing your article.
9. The document may contain a few short subheadings of no more than 40 characters.
10. By submitting an article for publication, the authors agree to the transfer of the copyright to the publisher upon acceptance.
11. The author should make sure that the article submitted for review/publication is not under consideration elsewhere contemporaneously.
12. The author has to mention a clear title of the article along with complete details of him/her and all the co-author’s professional/institutional affiliation, educational qualifications, and contact information.
13. The Copyright form with original (hand-written) signatures is to be provided upon submitting the paper.
14. Manuscripts may be accompanied by a cover letter to the Editor(s)-in-Chief. mentioning altogether the type of manuscript (e.g., Research article, Review article, Case study, etc.) Unless invited on a special case, authors cannot and should not classify a particular manuscript as Editorials, Letters to the editor, or concise communications.
15. All submitted manuscripts must contain a conflict of interest and funding statements before the reference list.
16. Studies involving humans and animals must have been performed with the approval of an appropriate ethics committee and provide the reference number where appropriate.
17. Confirm that each individual named as an author fits the uniform requirements of the Journal criteria for authorship.

Title

The first page should contain a short title (8-16 words, Cambria, 13.5) words plus a running title (20-42 characters, Times or Cambria, 12). Abbreviations should be avoided.

Authors

Below the title, list all the authors with their complete affiliations. Each listed author must have an affiliation, which comprises the department, university, or organization and its location, city, state/province (if applicable), and country.

Place the e-mail address of the corresponding author at the bottom of the first page.

Abstract

A concise and factual unstructured abstract is required (150- 250 words). The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results, and major conclusions.

Keywords

4-6 keywords relevant to the article should be listed below the abstract.

Introduction

State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Material and methods

Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.

Results

Results should be clear and concise.

Discussion

This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of

published literature.

Conclusions

The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.

Acknowledgments

Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section.

Conflict of interest

Any interest, financial relationship, personal relationship, or religious or political beliefs that might influence the objectivity of the author can be considered as a potential source of conflict of interest. All manuscripts submitted to the journal must include a conflict of interest disclosure statement or a declaration by the authors that they do not have any conflicts of interest.

Financial support

Authors should list all funding sources and they are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation.

Ethics statement

Studies involving humans and animals must have been performed with the approval of an appropriate ethics committee and provide the reference number.

Math formulae

Please submit math equations as editable text and not as images and numbers consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text.

e.g.

Tables/Figures

• Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Number tables consecutively following their appearance in the text and place any table notes below the table body.
• Ensure that all figures have a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. Please make sure that the figure files are in TIFF or JPEG format (300 dpi).

Mention all the tables and figures in the text as follows:

 (Table 1), (Figure 1)

References

The references should be listed on a separate sheet and should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are cited in the text. Cite in the text by the appropriate Arabic number e.g. 1, 2, 3, and the numbers should be in the brackets. e.g [1], [1,3], [5-8], [5,6,12]

Reference list

Print articles

Electronic journal articles

Conference articles

Books and book chapters

Government and other reports 

Dictionaries and encyclopedias

From the Internet

Manuscripts Submission Steps

 logging in/creating an author account, uploading and submitting the manuscript and supplementary files, and checking the status of your article (submission page)

Decisions

 Corresponding authors will be notified by a notification in their submission panel. Once a decision regarding their articles has been made. If any further actions are required, they will be outlined in the submission dashboard.

Revisions

When revision of a manuscript is requested, it is important that the authors carefully follow the instructions given in the Editor’s comments, which include reviewers’ comments point-by-point. The editor may request the author/s to revise a manuscript more than once

Proof-Reading

Before publication of manuscripts, authors must proofread their articles for correctness. It is the author’s responsibility to complete the proofreading within 7 days.

Copyright and Access

Pharmacophore is an Open Access journal, and all articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This license allows third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. Creative Commons Corporation (“Creative Commons”) provides this license as a standardized framework for sharing original works of authorship and other materials subject to copyright and certain other rights. Here are the key points:

Sharing and Adaptation:

• You are free to share, copy, and redistribute the material covered by this license.
• Adaptation, remixing, and transformation are also allowed.
• Proper attribution to the original creator is essential, along with indicating any changes made.

Non-Commercial Use:

• The material cannot be used for commercial purposes.
• Educational, research, and personal projects fall within the non-commercial scope.
• Seek alternative permissions if you intend commercial use.

Share Alike Requirement:

• If you create derivative works based on this material, you must distribute them under the same CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 terms.
• This ensures a chain of openness and collaborative sharing.

Author Rights:

• Authors retain copyright of their articles.
• Authors grant the journal a non-exclusive license to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher.
• Authors may reuse their articles in any manner consistent with the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

License for Authors and Readers:

• This license allows authors and readers to use all articles, data sets, graphics, and appendices in data mining applications, search engines, websites, blogs, and other platforms by providing an appropriate reference (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
• All individual articles are available to readers without any restrictions.

Archiving:

• The publisher of journal ensures electronic backup of the published articles and website content regularly.
• All published articles are also being archived in a secondary backup database and are available for access.

Remember that Creative Commons licenses aim to strike a balance between openness and respecting creators’ rights. Always review the full license for legal details.

Proofs and Reprints

Electronic proofs will be sent (In the corresponding author’s profile) to the corresponding author as a PDF file. Page proofs are considered to be the final version of the manuscript. Except for typographical or minor clerical errors, no major changes will be made to the manuscript at the proof stage. Because  Pharmacophore will be published freely online, authors will have free electronic access to the full text (in both HTML and PDF) of the article.

Plagiarism

Permission from the copyright owner(s) of reproduced Tables, Figures, and Illustrations must be obtained, and a copy of the permission letter submitted to the Pharmacophore. The source must be acknowledged under the Table, Figure, or Illustration. The use of copied text, photographs, tables, or graphics from any source as one’s own is considered plagiarism, especially when a reference to the copied portion is not given.

 Pharmacophore does not require all authors to sign the letter of submission. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all authors have agreed to be listed and approved for the paper submission to the journal, and approved papers managing all communication between the journal and all co-authors, before and after publication. All manuscripts are checked for plagiarism using the iThenticate tool by Pharmacophore. Authors should strictly avoid plagiarism, including self-plagiarism. Manuscripts with over 15% overlapping from the similarity report results exceeding 15% would not be considered for publication by the Pharmacophore. Papers submitted to the Pharmacophore must be original and not be published or submitted for publication elsewhere. 

The editorial board will thoroughly check submitted manuscripts to identify and prevent possible research misconduct regarding the publication of papers with Pharmacophore. If research misconduct is identified, according to the Editor’s and reviewers’ feedback, the corresponding author is responsible for retracting or correcting articles.

Withdrawal Policy

Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication in the journal, withdrawal is not permitted. However, if the withdrawal is eventually granted, the authors must pay the submission and processing fees, and submit to the Editorial Office, a document signed by all authors. Withdrawal of a published article is not an option, although such an article can be retracted for fraudulent reason/s.

Open access policy 

Pharmacophore releases all academic papers under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. As an open-access journal, all content is freely available to users and their institutions without any fees.

Key Points:

• Access and Use: Users are granted the permission to read, download, copy, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal.
• Non-Commercial Use: The materials cannot be used for commercial purposes without seeking alternative permissions.
• Attribution: Proper attribution must be given to the original authors and source.
• Share Alike: Any derivative works based on the materials must be distributed under the same CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 terms.

Users do not need to seek prior permission from the publisher or the authors for these non-commercial uses, in accordance with the terms specified in the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

For more details about the license, please visit: Creative Commons License Details.

Publishing Schedule

 Pharmacophore is published online 6 times per year in (February, April , June , August, October, December).