MedJEM Submission Guidelines

Limit for each manuscript type

Submission Checklist
MedJEM adheres to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf).

To facilitate prompt peer review, before submitting, please adhere to the following guidelines. Papers submitted without these features will be returned to the authors for completion.

1. Upload manuscript as a Microsoft Word document
2. Entire paper in one document (but without title page) including abstract, text with tables and figures embedded within the paper in the order in which they are cited, and references.
3. Blinded with all author information and study locations removed throughout
4. A conflict of interest declaration form should be provided with every manuscript upon acceptance. Authors are advised to download and fill ICMJE declaration form from here and submitting it to us with the other documents.
5. Each individual table/figure with its associated legend and footnotes (if present) on the same page (All legends must be sufficiently explanatory that they could be understood without reference to the article itself.)
6. Appendices should be uploaded as separate documents under “Supplemental Files”
7. Cover letter including corresponding author and first author contact information
8. Address, affiliation, official Title, and complete contact information for corresponding, first and/or senior author
9. Brief statement of justification, importance, and fit with the niche of the journal
10. Conflicts of interest (outside jobs, consultations, stocks, research support, financial interests, honoraria, speaker fees, military support, etc.)
11. List any grants received for the manuscript both in the acknowledgements section of the manuscript as well as in the cover letter. If it was an NIH or CDC grant, provide the grant number.
12. Title page should include (not to be shared with reviewer to maintain blinding):
13. Authors with respective titles (MD, PhD, MS, etc), institutions, and departments, city, state, and contact emails (12 author limit).
14. Which meeting (if any) where the research was presented.
15. Word count
16. Corresponding author and first author with complete contact information including phone number(s) – (please use institutional email addresses, personal emails will not be accepted)
17. Individual files for figures, tables, and videos
18. Images in original format (.jpeg, .png, .gif, .tiff, .bmp, etc)
19. Videos must be in .mov, .mp4, or .flv format
20. Tables in Microsoft Word documents
21. Upload individual files under “Supplementary Files” section
22. Signed patient waiver and permissions form acknowledging potential publication and accessibility on the internet for figures/videos containing a patient’s face, eyes, or other identifiers

Format

1. Include title at the top of the first page (limited to 100 characters including spaces). Spell out all abbreviations no matter how obvious, for example, “emergency department”
2. Include abstract before body
3. Structured abstract: Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusion
4. Non-structured abstract (Review manuscripts only): Paragraph narrative
5. Continuous line numbering is included in left-hand margin [WORD directions: Page Layout →Line Numbers →Continuous]
6. Text in 12 point Times New Roman font
7. Entire manuscript is double-spaced including references
8. All footnote numbering must be in superscript format (Ctrl shift +) with the number following punctuation per this example: …to develop a standard of care.

Headlines

• List major headlines in BOLD, UPPERCASE lettering without colon
• Subheadings are in bold and in title case lettering (first letter of each word is capitalized)
• Original Research: ABSTRACT, INTRODUCTION, METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION, LIMITATIONS, CONCLUSION, REFERENCES
• Brief Research Report: ABSTRACT, INTRODUCTION, METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION, LIMITATIONS, CONCLUSION, REFERENCES
• Review: ABSTRACT, INTRODUCTION, METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION, LIMITATIONS, CONCLUSION, REFERENCES

Figures/Tables

• For the ease of peer-review, all figures/tables/videos are to be referenced within text of manuscript in the order that they appear, and all figures/tables/videos are presented at the point of which they are referenced in the text (as opposed at the end of the manuscript)
• Must include original file used to create graphs/figures (e.g. excel, word, etc.)
• Remove any titles and/or bold fonts in graphs/figures
• Fully descriptive legends for each figure and table such that they could stand alone if removed from the context of the larger paper.
• Table legends are above the Table and Figure legends are below the Figure
• Abbreviations in figures/tables must be spelled out or notated in legend or footnote, even if already done so in text
• All line art figures have a minimum resolution of 600 dots per inch (DPI) and images 300 DPI
• To check DPI: Right click image file, Click “Properties”, found under Details
• To change DPI: Open image using Photoshop, Click “Image”→Image Size→ Resolution→ 600 pixels/inch
• Every figure/video includes contrasting black or white arrows clearly pointing to important (even obvious) findings
• Tables are made in a Microsoft Word document using “Insert Table” function
• Each column must have a heading
• Minimum size of 2 X 2
• Every row/column, including subcategories (i.e. female and male subcategories below gender category) should be split into own cells. This includes corresponding data for each sub-category.
• Subcategories should be indented by 0.125 inches
• Sub-subcategories should be indented by 0.25 inches
• Example Table: Type fully descriptive legend here. (List all abbreviations here).

References

All submissions must contain references
References created by the EndNote application will not be accepted
They must be listed in the order in which they first appear in text (not alphabetically)

References follow the American Medical Association Citation Style Guide. (https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/ama_style/) except:

• Authors: List up to three authors, before putting et al.
• Remove DOI
• Delete spaces between publication year, volume, issue, and page numbers
• In-text reference numbers should be placed after the period as a superscript, like this.¹
• Arabic numerals (i.e. 1,2,3) are used instead of roman numerals (i.e. i, ii, iii)
• Journal names must be abbreviated

Article Processing Charges
All articles published in our journal are open-source, freely and immediately available upon publication. We do not charge any article processing or publication fee as our journal is supported by MAEM and other organizations.

Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission’s compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines:

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it pending peer review or publication with another journal. If there are any conflicts, an explanation box is provided in Comments to the Editor at the end of this page.

2. The submission does not infringe any copyright, nor violate any proprietary rights, nor contain any libelous matter, nor invade the privacy of any person or third party.

3. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements. The authors understand that failure to adhere to these submission guidelines will delay the peer review process.

4. If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in ensuring a blind peer-reviewed process have been followed. The authors understand that failure to adhere to these guidelines will delay the peer review process.

5. If applicable, in all cases where applies (human research, case report, others), authors must hold informed consent documents for any patient photographs or participant consent in any research, if any. The editor may request these documents at any point during manuscript processing and the authors must provide when requested.

6. In case of original human research, Institutional Review Board approval was obtained and must be noted the Methods section of the manuscript. Any clinical trial that involves human subjects and health outcomes must have been registered with ClinicalTrials.gov or other trial registries. This must be noted in the Methods section. The identification number must be listed in the cover page with a short description.

7. Authors agree to disclose all affiliations, funding sources, and financial or management relationships that could be perceived as potential sources of bias. This MUST be clearly noted in the acknowledgement section of the manuscript.

Reporting guidelines for different study types

• Randomized controlled trial (RCT) superiority design
• CONSORT Statement (Begg et al, JAMA 1996, 276(8), 637-9) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8773637
• RCT with non-inferiority/equivalence design
• Modified CONSORT Statement (Piaggio et al, JAMA 2006: 295, 1152-1160)http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23268518
• Systematic review of therapeutic interventions
• PRISMA Statement (Moher et al, Int J. Surg. 2010, 8: 336-341)http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10584742
• Diagnostic test performance study
• STARD Statement (Bossuyt et al, Clin Chem 2003, 49: 1-6)http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12507954
• Standards for Reporting Implementation Studies (StaRI) Statement
• Standards for Reporting Implementation Studies (StaRI) Statement (H Pinock et al, BMJ 2017, 356)
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5387970/