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MANUSCRIPT CRITERIA AND INFORMATION
Archives of Internal Medicine publishes a variety of manuscript types including Original Investigations, Reviews, and invited Editorials. Occasionally Archives accepts Clinical Observations and unsolicited Commentaries or Editorials. Topics of interest include all subjects that relate to the science and practice of internal medicine. We receive in excess of 2000 manuscripts per year, with an acceptance rate of about 15%. The most frequently published types of articles are described in the section Categories of Manuscripts later in these instructions. Manuscripts should meet the following general criteria: material is original; writing is clear; study methods are appropriate; the data are valid; conclusions are reasonable and supported by the data; information is important; and topic has internal medicine interest. From these basic criteria, we assess a manuscript’s eligibility for publication.
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Manuscript Submission
Manuscripts should be submitted via our online manuscript submission and review system (http://manuscripts.archinternmed.com). Please note that although preliminary information must be entered into the online submission form, the following should also be included on the title page of the manuscript: manuscript title, names and affiliations of all authors, word count, and contact information of the corresponding author. Signed authorship forms, with the manuscript number indicated, should be sent by regular mail or fax after the manuscript has been submitted via the online system and a manuscript number has been assigned. See Manuscript Checklist and details in these Instructions for additional requirements. Manuscripts submitted by regular mail will NOT be reviewed and will not be returned. Authors will be notified by e-mail to resubmit electronically. If authors do not receive an acknowledgment e-mail notification within 2 days, they should contact the Archives’ office via e-mail or telephone.
On the submission form, authors will be asked to suggest 4 peer reviewers who are knowledgeable on the subject matter of the manuscript. A short list (no more than 5) of peer reviewers whom the authors wish to have excluded from review of the manuscript may also be included.
To ensure that the electronic submission is usable, please adhere to the following guidelines when submitting your manuscript electronically.
- • Text: Save the text in Word, WordPerfect, RTF, or text.
- • Tables: Tables can be submitted as separate files or inserted at the end of the manuscript text file. Make certain that each item in the table is in its own table cell. Do not use paragraph returns (to start new rows) or tabs (to start new columns) to format the table.
- • Figures: Please refer to the instructions in Technical Requirements for Figures for guidelines at submission and acceptance. Each figure must be submitted in a separate file. Figures should be submitted as high-resolution TIF or JPG files. Submit your photographic images at 5 inches (13 cm) wide at 300 pixels per inch (120 pixels per centimeter), minimum. This applies to each part for multipart figures. Save them as TIF (with LZW compression), JPG (with “maximum quality” setting), or PSD (native Adobe Photoshop format). Please do not add arrowheads, “a,” “b,” asterisks, etc directly to the file that contains the single figure. A separate composite figure in PowerPoint may be submitted to indicate the location of arrows, asterisks, etc. Manuscripts should not be submitted by regular mail, fax, or e-mail.
- • Manuscripts received are not to be under simultaneous consideration by another publication.
- • Accepted manuscripts become the permanent property of the Archives and may not be published elsewhere without permission from both the author(s) and the publisher (American Medical Association [AMA]).
- • Any materials submitted to the Archives will NOT BE RETURNED.
- • Copyright Form and Patient Consent: Upon notification of an assigned manuscript number, the corresponding author should fax the completed author responsibility forms (see Authorship Form) for all authors to the editorial office: (312) 503-5388. On the fax cover page, please indicate the date that the manuscript was submitted electronically and the manuscript number. At the same time, please send a signed statement of informed consent to publish (in print and online) patient photographs and pedigrees from all persons who can be identified in such photographs and pedigrees (see Patient Consent Form).
Editorial Office Contact Information
Archives of Internal Medicine, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, c/o Philip Greenland, MD, Editor, 750 N Lake Shore Dr, 11th Floor, Chicago, IL 60611 USA; phone: (847) 869-7609; fax (312) 503-5388; e-mail: archinternmed{at}jama-archives.org.
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Categories of Manuscripts
Original Investigations. Randomized trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, cohort studies, cost-effectiveness analyses, case-control studies, and surveys with high response rates. Registered trials should include the registry and registration number (see Trial Registration later in these Instructions). Each manuscript should contain a structured abstract that clearly states an objective or hypothesis; the design and methods (including the study setting and dates, patients or participants with inclusion and exclusion criteria, or data sources and how these were selected for the study); the essential features of any interventions; the main outcome measures; the main results of the study; a comment section placing the results in context with the published literature; and the conclusions. Maximum length: 3000 to 3500 words (not including abstract, tables, figures, and references).
Reviews. Systematic, critical assessments of literature and data sources pertaining to clinical topics, emphasizing factors such as cause, diagnosis, prognosis, therapy, or prevention. All articles or data sources should be selected systematically for inclusion and be critically evaluated, and the selection process should be described in the manuscript. The specific type of study or analysis, population, intervention, exposure, and tests or outcomes should be described for each article or data source. Meta-analyses also will be considered as reviews.1(pp847-848) Maximum length: 3000 to 4000 words (not including tables, figures, and references).
Clinical Observations. Short reports of original studies or evaluations or unique, first-time reports of clinical case series. Maximum length: 1200 to 1500 words (not including tables, figures, and references). Space allocated to Clinical Observations is extremely limited. Manuscripts under the category of Clinical Observations must be of unusual quality and special interest.
Letters to the Editor. Letters discussing a recent Archives of Internal Medicine article should be received within 4 weeks of the article’s publication and should not exceed 400 words of text and 5 references. Research Letters reporting original research, including case series or case reports, also are welcome and should not exceed 600 words of text and 6 references, and may include a table or figure. Letters should be double-spaced and a word count should be provided with each letter.
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Editorial Policies for Authors
Authorship Requirements, Financial Disclosure, Assignment of Copyright, and Acknowledgment Forms. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. One or more authors should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to published article. Authorship credit should be based only on (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; and (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and (3) final approval of the version to be published. Conditions 1, 2, and 3 must all be met.2 Authors are required to identify their contributions to the work described in the manuscript. With the cover letter include the authorship form with statements on (1) authorship responsibility, criteria, and contributions, (2) financial disclosure, and (3) either copyright transfer or federal employment. Each of these 3 statements must be read and signed by all authors.1(pp127-135) (4) The corresponding author must sign the Acknowledgment statement. Authors should obtain written permission from all individuals named in an Acknowledgment, since readers may infer their endorsement of data and conclusions.1(p146) See Authorship Form.
Please note that authorship must be declared upon submission as author changes cannot be made after review.
Group Authorship. If authorship is attributed to a group (either solely or in addition to 1 or more individual authors), all members of the group must meet the full criteria and requirements for authorship described in the Authorship Form. A group must designate at least 1 or more individuals as authors or members of a writing group who meet full authorship criteria and requirements and who will take responsibility for the group, in which case the other group members are not authors, but may be listed in an acknowledgment.2,3
Conflict of Interest. A conflict of interest may exist when an author (or the author’s institution or employer) has financial or personal relationships that could inappropriately influence (or bias) the author’s decisions, work, or manuscript. All authors are required to report potential conflicts of interest, including specific financial interests relevant to the subject of their manuscript, in their cover letter and on the financial disclosure form or in an attachment to the form. Authors without relevant financial interests in the manuscript should indicate no such interests in the manuscript (see Authorship Form).4
Authors are required to report detailed information regarding all financial and material support for the research and work, including but not limited to grant support, funding sources, and provision of equipment and supplies. Each author is also required to sign and submit the following financial disclosure statement: “I certify that all my affiliations with or financial involvement, within the past 5 years and foreseeable future (eg, employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, royalties, or donation of medical equipment) with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript are completely disclosed.”
Authors are expected to provide detailed information about any relevant financial interests or financial conflicts within the past 5 years and for the foreseeable future, particularly those present at the time the research was conducted and up to the time of publication, as well as other financial interests, such as relevant filed or pending patents or patent applications in preparation, that represent potential future financial gain. Although many universities and other institutions have established policies and thresholds for reporting financial interests and other conflicts of interest, Archives of Internal Medicine requires complete disclosure of all relevant financial relationships and potential financial conflicts of interest, regardless of amount or value. If authors are uncertain about what might constitute a potential financial conflict of interest, they should err on the side of full disclosure and should contact the editorial office if they have questions or concerns. In addition, authors who have no relevant financial interests are now asked to provide a statement indicating that they have no financial interests related to the material in the manuscript.
This information is for the editorial office and is not shared with peer reviewers. However, for all accepted manuscripts, authors’ disclosure of relevant financial interests and declarations of no relevant financial interests will be published. Decisions about whether financial information provided by authors should be published, and thereby disclosed to readers, are usually straightforward. Although editors are willing to discuss disclosure of specific financial information with authors, the Archives of Internal Medicine’s policy is one of complete disclosure of all relevant financial interests.
This policy applies to all manuscript submissions, including letters to the editor.
Funding/Support and Role of the Sponsor. All financial and material support for the research and the work should be clearly and completely identified in an Acknowledgment. The specific role of the funding organization or sponsor in each of the following should be specified: design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; and preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.4
Data Access and Responsibility. For reports containing original data, at least 1 author (eg, the principal investigator) should indicate that he or she “had full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis”).4 For industry-sponsored studies, this statement must be provided by an investigator who is not employed by any commercial funder, and an independent data analysis must be conducted by statisticians at an academic institution with access to the raw data set, rather than only by statisticians employed by the company sponsoring the research. Details of this independent statistical analysis, the name and institutional affiliation of the independent statistician, and whether compensation or funding was received for conducting the analyses should be reported in the Acknowledgment.5
Duplicate Publication or Submission. Manuscripts are received with the understanding that they have not been published previously in print or electronic format and are not under consideration by another publication or electronic medium. When submitting a manuscript, authors should include copies of possibly duplicative material that has been previously published or is currently being considered elsewhere. If after submission but before publication of a manuscript, publication of the findings occurs in press reports, interviews, or other formats, the Editors must be notified.
Reference to Patients. Refer to patients by number (or, in anecdotal reports, by fictitious given names). Do not use real names or initials in the text, tables, or illustrations.
Reporting Race/Ethnicity. If race and/or ethnicity is reported, indicate who classified individuals as to race/ethnicity, the classifications, and whether the options were defined by the investigator or the participant. Explain why race and/or ethnicity was assessed in the study.6
Ethical Requirements. For human or animal experimental investigations, appropriate institutional review board approval is required and should be so stated.1(p226) For those investigators who do not have formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki should be followed.7 For investigations of human subjects, state in the “Methods” section the manner in which informed consent was obtained from the study participants. In the case of animal experimentation, please indicate in the “Methods” section what animal-handling protocols were followed, eg, “Institutional guidelines regarding animal experimentation were followed.”
Previous Presentation or Release of Information. A complete manuscript submitted following oral presentation that results in the publication of substantive information elsewhere, including magazines, or “tabloids,” may be deemed ineligible for publication in the Archives. The Archives is willing to receive and evaluate manuscripts submitted following presentation or publication of preliminary findings (eg, in an abstract) at a major meeting, but only if publication in other print media is not under consideration. Press reports of the meeting should not be amplified by additional data or copies of tables and illustrations.
Patient Consent. A letter of consent must accompany all photographs of patients in which a possibility of identification exists. It is not sufficient to cover the eyes to mask identity. (See Patient Consent Form.)
Trial Registration. In concert with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE),8,9 the Archives of Internal Medicine will require, as a condition of consideration for publication, registration of all trials in a public trials registry (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov, http://www.anzctr.org.au, http://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr, http://www.isrctn.com, http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/index.asp) that requires the minimum registration data set of 20 items as determined by the World Health Organization and the ICMJE. Trials must be registered at or before the onset of subject enrollment. This policy applies to any clinical trial starting enrollment after March 1, 2006. For trials that began enrollment before this date, registration will be required by June 1, 2006, before considering the trial for publication. For this purpose, the ICMJE defines a clinical trial as any study that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or comparison groups to evaluate the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. Studies designed for other purposes, such as to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (eg, phase 1 trials), are exempt. The trial registry name, registration number, and the URL for the registry should be included at the end of the abstract at the time of submission.
Embargo Policy. Information regarding the content and publication date of accepted manuscripts is confidential. Information contained in or about accepted articles cannot appear in print, radio, television, or in electronic form or be released to the media until 3 pm CST on the second and fourth Mondays of the month. (Note: For August and December, which each have only 1 issue, the embargo lifts on the second Monday of the month.)
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Editorial Review and Publication
Peer Review. Manuscripts are commonly (but not invariably) sent to expert consultants for peer review. Peer reviewer identities are kept confidential. Authors, by special request, may keep their identities confidential but must submit both a second electronic file of the manuscript with all identifying information edited out.
Editing. Accepted manuscripts are edited according to AMA style and returned to the author for approval. Authors are responsible for all statements made in their work, including changes made by the manuscript editor and authorized by the corresponding author. If you wish to receive page proofs for approval, contact the manuscript editor assigned to your paper within 2 days of receiving the typescript.
Reprints. Reprints may be ordered when the edited typescript is sent for approval to the corresponding author (download Reprint Order Form). Reprints are shipped 3 weeks after publication. AMA does not charge a permission fee to authors who wish to use their articles or parts thereof in other books or journals. However, an author must obtain permission from AMA, as the copyright holder, for such use. To do so, send written request to Rhonda Bailey Brown, Department of Licensing and Permissions, AMA, 515 N State St, Chicago, IL 60610; fax: (312) 464-5835 (permissions{at}ama-assn.org). In the permission you receive, the proper credit line will be indicated.
e-Prints. Corresponding authors who provide an e-mail address for publication will receive an electronic link that provides 25 free online accesses to the PDF view of their article.
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Manuscript Preparation and Submission Requirements
Manuscript Preparation. Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the American Medical Association Manual of Style1 and/or the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.2 All copy must be typed double-spaced with 1-inch margins, numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page. Do not justify lines. Do not use line numbering. Double-space throughout, including title page, abstract, text, acknowledgments, references, legends, and tables.
Length of Manuscript. While the Editors occasionally approve nonconforming manuscripts, they do so only when they are considered to possess exceptional merit. Submissions that do not conform to recommended space limitations are subjected to a particularly rigorous editorial review and are thus less likely to be accepted than those that fall within recommended guidelines.
Original Investigations are generally limited to 12 to 14 double-spaced text pages (about 3000 to 3500 words), 25 references, and no more than 6 to 8 tables and figures.
As a rule of thumb, 3 typed double-spaced pages translate into 1 typeset page when manuscripts are prepared in 12-point font with standard 1-inch (2.5-cm) margins. The right margin should be unjustified (ragged). Authors should make allowance for tables and illustrations; use a rough estimate of one-quarter page for each table and each figure.
Title Page (page 1 of manuscript). Titles should not exceed 75 characters, including punctuation and spacing. Avoid using declarative sentences or questions as titles. Avoid abbreviations in the title, abstract, and text. Give full names, highest academic degrees, and institutional affiliations of all authors. (If an author’s affiliation has changed since the work was done, list the new affiliation as well.) Designate a corresponding author and include a complete mailing address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address. Specify the address to which requests for reprints should be sent. If the manuscript was presented at a meeting, please specify the name of the meeting, the city where it was held, and the exact date on which the paper was read or the poster was presented. Also include on the title page a word count for the text only, exclusive of the title, abstract, references, tables, and figure legends.
Financial disclosure information should be included as a footnote on this page.
Abstract (page 2 of manuscript). Include a structured abstract of no more than 250 words for reports of original data from clinical or basic science investigations and reviews (including meta-analyses). Abstracts consist of 4 paragraphs labeled Background, Methods, Results, Conclusions. Authors are expected to consult “The Need for Concrete Improvement in Abstract Quality”10 and “Writing Informative Abstracts for Journal Articles.”11 Editorials, Commentaries, Comments, Opinions, Brief Case Reports, and letters to the editor do not require an abstract.
Style of Writing. The style of writing should conform to acceptable English usage and syntax. Slang, medical jargon, obscure abbreviations, and abbreviated phrasing are to be avoided.
Statistics. Authors are encouraged to consult “Reporting Statistical Information in Medical Journal Articles.”12 Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to reproduce the reported results. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Avoid relying solely on statistical hypothesis testing, such as the use of P values, which fails to convey important quantitative information. Give details about randomization. Describe the methods for and success of any blinding of observations. Report complications of treatment. Give numbers of observations. Report losses to observation (such as dropouts from a clinical trial). For multivariate models, report all variables included in models, and report model diagnostics and proportion of variance explained by both individual variables and the complete model.
Put a general description of methods in the “Methods” section. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the article and to assess its support. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Avoid nontechnical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as random (which implies a randomizing device), normal, significant, correlations, and sample. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols.
Units of Measure. Laboratory values are expressed using conventional units of measure, with relevant Système International (SI) conversion factors expressed secondarily (in parentheses) only at first mention. Articles that contain numerous conversion factors may list them together in a paragraph at the end of the “Methods” section. In tables and figures, a conversion factor to SI units should be provided in a footnote or legend. The metric system is preferred for the expression of length, area, mass, and volume. A Conversion Table is available on the Web site for the AMA Manual of Style.
Drug Names.
The generic (nonproprietary) name of a drug is preferred in almost all instances. If it is necessary to include the brand (proprietary or trade) name for reproduction or interpretation of the study, the brand name should be given parenthetically, following the generic name, at first mention in the abstract, text, and each figure or table in which it appears. In addition, the brand name and supplier’s name and location should be given in the “Methods” section. In the case in which a manuscript is comparing various brands of a single product, or in which an adverse event is described that might be unique to a single brand of product, both the brand name and generic name should appear at first mention and the brand name(s) should be used thereafter.
Authors submitting manuscripts or letters to the editor regarding adverse drug or medical device reactions, reportable diseases, and the like should also report such to the relevant government agency.
Gene Names, Symbols, and Accession Numbers. Authors describing genes or related structures in a manuscript should include the names and official symbols provided by the US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) or the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee. Before submission of a research manuscript reporting on large genomic data sets (eg, protein or DNA sequences), the data sets should be deposited in a publicly available database, such as NCBI’s GenBank, and a complete accession number (and version number, if appropriate) must be provided in the “Methods” section or the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript.
Reproduced Material. Acknowledge illustrations from other publications and, when applicable, include author(s), title of article, title of journal or book, volume number, page(s), month, and year. The publisher’s permission to reproduce in print and online and in Archives licensed versions should be submitted to the Archives when the manuscript is submitted. Tables and illustrations should be original work and only rarely should they be reproduced material. (See Permission to Reproduce Copyright-Protected Material Form.)
Acknowledgment Section. List all persons who have made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript (including writing and editing assistance), but who are not authors; any financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript; any research or project support/funding; grant support. Manuscripts with statistical evaluations should include the name and affiliation of statistical reviewer(s). Authors should also obtain written permission to include the names of individuals in the Acknowledgement section (see also Authorship Form).
References. List references in consecutive numerical order (not alphabetically). All subsequent reference citations should be to the original number. Cite all references in the text or tables. Unpublished data and personal communications should not be listed as references. References to journal articles should include (1) author(s) (list all authors and/or editors up to 6; if more than 6, list first 3 and “et al”), (2) title, (3) journal name (as abbreviated in Index Medicus), (4) year, (5) volume number, (6) issue number, and (7) inclusive page numbers, in that order. References to books should include (1) author(s) (list all authors and/or editors up to 6; if more than 6, list first 3 and “et al”), (2) chapter title (if any), (3) editor (if any), (4) title of book, (5) city of publication, (6) publisher, and (7) year. Volume and edition numbers, specific pages, and name of translator should be included when appropriate. The reference numbers in the reference list (if any) should be keystroked. Do not let the word-processing program generate the reference numbers, using such features as automatic footnotes or endnotes. The author is responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the references and for their correct text citation. Do not include “personal communications” in the list of references. Authors who name an individual as a source for information in a personal communication, be it through conversation, a letter, e-mail message, or telephone call, should obtain written permission from the named individual.
Web References. Please keep a print copy of any reference to Web-only information. If the URL changes or disappears, interested readers may contact the corresponding author for a copy of the information.
Tables, Illustrations, Legends. Number all tables and illustrations in the order of their citation in the text. Include a title for each table and figure—a brief, succinct phrase, preferably no longer than 10 to 15 words. Tables and illustrations should be original work and only rarely should they be reproduced material.
Tables. Tables should be able to stand alone, without the need to refer to the text. Table titles should convey complete information about the study population, research question, methods, and sample size. Table footnotes should include adequate descriptions of outcome variables, covariates in multivariate models, and model diagnostics, where relevant.
Title all tables and number them in order of their citation in the text. If a table must be continued, repeat the title on a second sheet, followed by “cont.” Make certain each item in the table is in its own table cell. Do not use paragraph returns (to start new rows) or tabs (to start new columns) to format the table. See Instructions for Table Creation for further information.
Illustrations. For initial manuscript submissions, all figures should be submitted as individual digital files. If your manuscript is accepted, you may be asked to submit a high-quality original of each figure as outlined below:
- • For photographs (halftones, including radiographic images, and color), provide high-quality prints and, for color, include slides along with the prints. Affix a label with figure number, first author, and an arrow indicating “top” on the back of each figure.
- • For line drawings, provide glossy prints. These must be accompanied by a signed copyright transfer (see section 3 of the Authorship Form) from the illustrator(s).
- • For images and illustrations originally created digitally, see Digital Art Submissions.
- • For digitally enhanced images (eg, computed tomographic-magnetic resonance imaging scans, blots, photographs, photomicrographs, ultrasound images, x-ray films), clearly identify in the figure legends as electronically enhanced or manipulated. You may be asked to provide clearly labeled copies of the enhanced images and 3 copies of the original images.
See Technical Requirements for Figures for more details.
Digital Art Submissions. RGB color submissions are preferred. Calibrated color proofs should be submitted with color digital files, if possible. The canvas size of continuous-tone images should be at least 5 inches wide (depth not important) with an image resolution of at least 350 ppi. Line art images should have a minimum resolution of 1270 ppi. Formats accepted are TIF, GIF, JPG, EPS, BMP, Photoshop, CorelDraw, PowerPoint, Excel, or Word. (See Technical Requirements for Figures.)
Image Integrity. Preparation of scientific images (clinical images, radiographic images, micrographs, gels, etc) for publication must preserve the integrity of the image data. Digital adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color applied uniformly to an entire image are permissible as long as these adjustments do not selectively highlight, misrepresent, obscure, or eliminate specific elements in the original figure, including the background. Selective adjustments applied to individual elements in an image are not permissible. Individual elements may not be moved within an image field, deleted, or inserted from another image. Cropping may be used for efficient image display but must not misrepresent or alter interpretation of the image by selectively eliminiating relevant visual information. Juxtaposition of elements from different parts of a single image or from different images, as in a composite, must be clearly indicated by the addition of dividing lines, borders, and/or panel labels.
When inappropriate image adjustments are detected by the JAMA and Archives Journals staff, authors will be asked for an explanation and will be requested to submit the image as originally captured prior to any adjustment, cropping, or labeling. Authors may be asked to resubmit the image prepared in accordance with the above standards. Deliberate alteration of images that results in misrepresentation of data may be reported to the author’s institution or funding agency.
Legends. Include double-spaced legends (maximum length, 40 words) on separate pages. Indicate magnification and stain used for photomicrographs and method of enhancement for digitally enhanced images.
Appendixes. Archives of Internal Medicine does not print appendixes. Should an appendix be necessary, it must be included in the manuscript at the time of submission. If a manuscript containing an appendix is accepted for publication, the appendix will be posted online at the time of publication, with a reference to the appendix appearing in print. Appendixes may be uploaded as “supplemental files” but should not be included in the manuscript file.
Videos. For editorial and peer review of an initial submission, submit videos in .mov, .wmv, .mpg, .mpeg, .mp4, or .avi file format. Individual videos should be less than 5 minutes long. Video dimensions should be a minimum of 320 pixels wide by 240 pixels deep. To facilitate uploading and reviewing, each video should not exceed 10 MB. Verify that all videos are viewable in QuickTime or Windows Media Player before submission.
For each video, provide a citation in the appropriate place in the manuscript text and include a title (a brief phrase, preferably no longer than 10-15 words) and a caption at the end of the manuscript. In the video caption, specify the video file format and briefly describe the content of the video. Also, enter the same title and caption in the designated fields on the Web-based manuscript submission system when uploading each video. If multiple video files are submitted, number them in the order in which they should be viewed. If a video is accepted for publication, the video title and caption will be included on the Web page that contains the link to the video.
Note: If the manuscript and accompanying video(s) are accepted for publication, all video files will be placed into a journal video frame and may be edited by the journal staff according to journal style. The journal staff may contact you to request the original full-size video without text or labels to be sent by e-mail, FTP, or CD/DVD.
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Preparing Reports of Randomized Controlled Trials
The CONSORT Checklist should be completed and submitted with the manuscript. In addition, a flow diagram illustrating the progress of patients throughout the trial should be included as a figure in the manuscript (see Figure for example). The checklist and flow diagram will be reviewed along with the manuscript.
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Figure. Flow diagram of subject progress through the phases of a randomized trial. Adapted from Moher D, Schulz KF, Altman D, for the CONSORT Group. The CONSORT statement: revised recommendations for improving the quality of reports of parallel-group randomized trials. JAMA. 2001;285(15):1987-1991. |
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Preparing Reports of Systematic Reviews
The QUORUM Checklist should be completed and submitted with the manuscript. In addition, a flow diagram illustrating the progress of study selection and exclusion (as well as reasons for exclusion) should be included as a figure in the manuscript. The checklist and flow diagram will be reviewed along with the manuscript.
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Manuscript Checklist
- • Electronic submission only.
- • On the title page, include a word count for text only, exclusive of title, abstract, references, tables, and figure legends.
- • On the title page, designate a corresponding author and provide his or her complete address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address.
- • Include statements signed by each author on (1) authorship criteria and responsibility, (2) financial disclosure, and (3) copyright transfer or federal employment.
- • Include statement signed by corresponding author that written permission has been obtained from all persons named in the acknowledgment.
- • For clinical trials, add trial registry name, registration number, and the URL for the registry. Include the CONSORT Checklist and flow diagram for randomized trials.
- • For systematic reviews, include the QUORUM Checklist and flow diagram.
- • Include research or project support/funding in an acknowledgment.
- • Double-space manuscript (text and references) and leave right margins unjustified (ragged). Do not use line numbering.
- • Figures uploaded as separate file (to be merged by the system).
- • Check all references for accuracy and completeness. Put references in proper format in numerical order, making sure each is cited in sequence in the text. It is advised not to use auto-numbering reference software.
- • Include a title for each table and figure—a brief, succinct phrase, preferably no longer than 10 to 15 words.
- • Provide an abstract that conforms with the required abstract format. Be sure to consult the articles by Winker10 and Cummings et al11 before completing the abstract. Note that Editorials, Commentaries, Opinions, Brief Case Reports, and letters to the editor do not require an abstract.
- • Include written permission from each individual identified as a source for personal communication.
- • Include informed consent forms for identifiable patient descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees (see Patient Consent Form).
- • Include written permission from publishers (or other copyright owner) to reproduce or adapt previously published illustrations and tables in the Archives (in print, online, and in Archives licensed versions) (see Permission to Reproduce Copyright-Protected Material Form).
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References
- 1. Iverson C, Christiansen S, Flanagin A, et al. American Medical Association Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors. 10th ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2007.
- 2. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. http://www.icmje.org.
- 3. Flanagin A, Fontanarosa PB, DeAngelis CD. Authorship for research groups. JAMA. 2002;288(24):3166-3168. FULL TEXT | MEDLINE
- 4. DeAngelis CD, Fontanarosa PB, Flanagin A. Reporting financial conflicts of interest and relationships between investigators and research sponsors. JAMA. 2001;286(1):89-91. FULL TEXT | MEDLINE
- 5. Fontanarosa PB, Flanagin A, DeAngelis CD. Reporting conflicts of interest, financial aspects of research, and role of sponsors in funded studies. JAMA. 2005;294(1):110-111. FULL TEXT | MEDLINE
- 6. Winker MA. Measuring race and ethnicity: why and how? JAMA. 2004;292(13):1612-1614. FULL TEXT | MEDLINE
- 7. World Medical Association. Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. http://www.wma.net/e/policy/pdf/17c.pdf. Accessed July 26, 2007.
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Last updated August 2008.
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