Author Guidelines
Manuscripts containing original material are accepted for consideration if neither the article nor any part of its essential substance, tables, or figures has been or will be published or submitted elsewhere before appearing in the Canadian Medical Education Journal.
Authors of all types of articles should follow the general instructions given below. For a description of the article types, please see "Editorial Policies".
These guidelines are in accordance with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors at http://www.icmje.org.
AUTHORSHIP
As stated in the Uniform Requirements (see above), credit for authorship requires substantial contributions to:
(a) the conception and design or analysis and interpretation of the data,
and
(b) the drafting of the article or critical revision for important intellectual
content.
SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT
Please log in to submit a new manuscript. If you have submitted a manuscript in the past, an account has already been set up for you. If you have forgotten your password, simply type your e-mail address into the "Forgot your Password" box on the CMEJ Home page and a password will be e-mailed to you. Otherwise, please register to create an account. Once logged in, click on "Submit a New Manuscript" and follow the instructions at the top of each screen. You will receive an automatic acknowledgement of submission.
You do not need to send a separate cover letter file with your online submission. Instead, we offer a text box in which you can type a message to the editor regarding your submission. This box can also be left blank if you wish.
PREPARING THE MANUSCRIPT
The language of the journal is English. If English is your second language, please have your manuscript edited by an English-speaking professional. CMEJ reserves the right to make further editorial changes if necessary.
Manuscripts must be submitted electronically as MS-Word (.doc or .docx) documents. They must be in Times 12-point font, left-justified, and double-spaced throughout. All text, references, tables, and figure legends should be included in one document. Manuscripts should generally contain the following sections:
Title page: Include the title of the manuscript, the full names, titles, and institutional affiliations of all the authors, as well as the name, full address, and e-mail address of the corresponding author.
Conflict of interest notification: Authors must state explicitly whether any conflicts of interest exist due to financial and personal relationships that could potentially bias their work. Identify the source of funding, or specify that there was no funding.
Abstract: Provide an abstract of not more than 200 words. For research papers or brief reports, it should consist of four paragraphs identifying the background, methods, results, and conclusions used in the manuscript. They should briefly describe, respectively, the problem being addressed in the study, how the study was performed, the salient results, and what the authors conclude from the results. Acronyms and abbreviations should be spelled out in full when first introduced.
Introduction: Briefly describe the study question, its scope and relevance, how it is related to the existing literature, and the hypothesis and/or objectives of the investigation.
Methods: The methods should include subsections with headings detailing the study design, setting, sample size and sampling methods, study protocol, outcome measures, and data analysis.
Results: The results must be concisely stated. This section must include the statistical analysis of the data, illustrated in tables and/or figures where appropriate. If you give percentages, also give the sample size (for example, n = 75).
Discussion: The discussion should present the study results in the context of current knowledge.
Conclusions: The conclusions should answer the study question, discuss the limitations of the study, and may include suggestions for further investigation.
References: References must be double-spaced and numbered consecutively as they are cited. Numbers should be in superscript or included within parentheses - please do not use footnotes or endnotes. References first cited in a table or figure legend should be numbered so that they will be in sequence with references cited in the text at the point where the table or figure is first mentioned. List all authors when there are six or fewer; when there are seven or more, list the first three, followed by 'et al.' Authors must ensure that all references are correct and in the same order as they are first cited in the manuscript. Please do not copy and paste references from another source, as this may cause problems with formatting.
The following are sample references:
- Shapiro AMJ, Lakey JRT, Ryan EA, et al. Islet transplantation in seven patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus using a glucocorticoid-free immunosuppressive regimen. N Engl J Med 2000;343:230-8.
- Goadsby PJ. Pathophysiology of headache. In: Silberstein SD, Lipton RB, Dalessio DJ, eds. Wolff's headache and other head pain. 7th ed. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2001:57-72.
- Kuczmarski RJ, Ogden CL, Grammer-Strawn LM, et al. CDC growth charts: United States. Advance data from vital and health statistics. No. 314. Hyattsville, Md.: National Center for Health Statistics, 2000. (DHHS publication no. (PHS) 2000-1250 0-0431.)
- U.S. positions on selected issues at the third negotiating session of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Washington, D.C.: Committee on Government Reform, 2002. (Accessed March 4, 2002, at http://www.house.gov/reform/min/inves_tobacco/index_accord.htm.)
Numbered references to personal communications, unpublished data, or manuscripts either in preparation or submitted for publication are unacceptable. If essential, such material can be incorporated at the appropriate place in the text.
Tables: Whenever possible, tables should be presented in "portrait" format. The table title should be self-explanatory. Insert the table number and title at the appropriate place in the text but leave the tables themselves at the end of the document. For original research articles, there is normally a limit of 5 figures and tables (total) per manuscript. Additional figures and tables may be considered at the discretion of the editors.
Figures: You may either insert figures at the end of the text file or upload your figures separately. We prefer the former, but this may not work well for complicated graphics, which should be sent in a separate file.
Legends for all figures should be included in the file with the text and should not appear on the figures. Acceptable formats for pictures, photos, and figures are DOC, GIF, JPG, PDF, PPT, and TIF.
If a figure was created by an outside illustrator, CMEJ reserves the right to modify or redraw it, or request a resubmission of the item to meet our specifications for publication. The author must explicitly acquire all rights to the illustration from the artist in order for us to publish it. Please describe and clearly indicate all modifications, selective digital adjustments, or electronic enhancements in all digital images. It is permissible to send low-resolution images for peer review, although we may ask for high-resolution files at a later stage.
REVIEW AND ACTION
Manuscripts are examined by members of the editorial staff and are sent to outside reviewers at the discretion of the editors. We encourage authors to suggest the names of possible reviewers, but we reserve the right to final selection. Manuscripts should not be masked for review. We require that all reviewers 1) keep the paper confidential; 2) do not make copies of the paper or share its contents with others; and 3) inform the editor of any conflicts or biases that might affect their ability to provide an objective assessment of the paper.
Reviewers are asked only to evaluate the content of the paper. Formatting, spelling, and grammar are the responsibility of the author(s). However, the editors reserve the right to further edit the manuscript after acceptance. Before publication, you will receive a proof, which must be corrected and returned within 48 hours.
Communications about manuscripts will be sent after the review and the editorial decision-making process is complete. We aim to complete this process within 90 days but for potentially acceptable manuscripts that need revisions, the period between the receipt of all reviews and an editorial decision may be longer. Only the corresponding author will receive a copy of the acknowledgement e-mail and notification of acceptance or revisions required. All correspondence must contain the submission number in the subject line.
RESUBMISSIONS AND REVISIONS
CMEJ differentiates between manuscripts that have been declined and manuscripts that will undergo further consideration after requested changes have been made.
Resubmission: If your manuscript is declined and you wish the editors to review a revised version of your manuscript at a later date, you are resubmitting. Your old file will be archived, your revised file should be uploaded as a new submission, and you will receive a new manuscript number. Please upload a letter with specific responses to the reviewers' comments along with your new manuscript.
Revision: If the editors have asked you to make specific changes to your manuscript and return it for further consideration, you are sending a revision. The revised manuscript should be returned within 3 weeks and uploaded on the same page as your original submission. Please let us know if you need more time or if you do not intend to submit a revised manuscript.
COPYRIGHT
Authors who publish in the Canadian Medical Education Journal agree to release their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada Licence. This licence allows anyone to copy and distribute the article for non-commercial purposes provided that appropriate attribution is given. For details of the rights an author grants users of their work, please see the "Copyright Notice". You will be required to agree to the copyright statement upon submission of your manuscript.
CMEJ will not consider any manuscripts that have been published, or are being considered, by another journal. Conference proceedings that were not previously published in full or papers rejected by another journal can be submitted. Any previous preliminary work on the same or similar subject by the same authors must be properly referenced in the new paper and permission must be obtained from the original publisher.