Medical Education

Published on behalf of the Association for the Study of Medical Education

Edited by:
Kevin W. Eva

Print ISSN: 0308-0110
Online ISSN: 1365-2923
Frequency: Monthly
Current Volume: 44 / 2010
ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking: 2008: 1/23 Education, Scientific Disciplines; 18/62 Health Care Sciences & Services
Impact Factor: 2.181

TopAuthor Guidelines

Medical Education is an international, peer-reviewed, journal with distribution to readers in more than 80 countries. The journal seeks to enhance its position as the pre-eminent journal in the field of education for health care professionals and aims to publish material of the highest quality reflecting world wide or provocative issues and perspectives. The contents will be of interest to learners, teachers and researchers. It aims to have a significant impact on scholarship in medical education and, ultimately, on the quality of health care by prioritizing papers that offer a fundamental advance in understanding of educationally relevant issues. The journal welcomes papers on any aspect of health professional education.

If you would like to download these guidelines as a PDF, please click here.

1. The journal's mission in education and research
Manuscripts and reviews submitted to Medical Education may be used for teaching and research purposes with potential authors and reviewers. Authors and reviewers may be asked from time to time to take part in surveys. Every effort will be made to protect confidentiality. Names will not be passed to third parties.

2. Submission of manuscripts
Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (see http://www.icmje.org/). All manuscripts are considered on the understanding that they have not been published previously in print or electronic format and that they are not under consideration by another publication or medium. Medical Education is committed to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Conduct (http://publicationethics.org/). Authors should familiarize themselves with issues of publication ethics noted by COPE including duplicate publication/submission and 'salami slicing' as these behaviours will not be accepted.

Papers not correctly formatted will be returned to the authors for correction and re-submission. Manuscripts should be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/medicaleducation. Full instructions and support are available on the site. A user ID and password can be obtained on the first visit. All parts of the manuscript must be available in an electronic format; those recommended are: generic rich text format (RTF) or Microsoft Word for text, and JPEG, GIF, TIFF, EPS, PNG, Microsoft PowerPoint or Excel for graphics. It is recommended that, where possible, figures are embedded into a single Microsoft Word document. However, identifying details must be uploaded in a separate document (see section 6, Preparation of Manuscripts, below). If you cannot submit online, please contact the Editorial Office (Medical Education, ITTC Building, Tamar Science Park, Davy Road, Plymouth PL6 8BX, UK email: med@mededuc.com).

3. Criteria for manuscripts
All manuscripts should meet the following criteria: the writing is clear and the information important and likely to be of interest to an international audience. For research papers, the study methods should be appropriate and the data valid; and for both discussion papers and research papers, the conclusions should be reasonable and supported by data or evidence. Papers are selected for peer review and publication on these criteria. We publish around 20% of manuscripts received each year. We welcome contributions from authors whose first language is not English, although it is recommended that before submitting your manuscript to the journal you ask a colleague familiar with written English to read it through. All authors are encouraged to review the peer review criteria (see Med Educ 2009;43:2-4) prior to submitting their manuscripts.

4. Editorial and peer review process
All submitted manuscripts are read initially by the editor. One or more associate editors may also be involved in early decision making. Papers with insufficient priority for publication are rejected at this stage - sometimes with advice about re-submission in a different category. Other manuscripts are sent to experts in the field for peer review. The review process is usually double-blinded so that authors' and reviewers' identities are not disclosed to either party. However, we encourage reviewers to sign their reviews in the interest of providing responsible feedback. Guidelines for reviewers are available www.mededuc.com. We aim to give an initial decision within 12 weeks. All accepted manuscripts are edited according to the journal's style and returned to the author as page proofs for approval. Authors are responsible for all statements made in their work.

5. Categories of manuscript
Medical Education published original research papers, review articles, special feature pieces, short reports of research in progress or of educational innovation, commentaries, and letters to the editor. Specific guidelines are shown below:

Original Research: Generally less than 3,000 words, but longer papers will be accepted if the context warrants the inclusion of more text. A structured abstract of no more than 300 words must be included and the paper should contain a maximum of five tables or figures with references included in the Vancouver style. The paper will usually be organized using the Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion (IMRAD) structure. The context of the work (i.e. findings from the existing literature) and your choice of methods must be made clear in the text. Qualitative and quantitative research approaches are equally welcome. All papers must make it clear how the findings advance understanding of the issue under study. Quality assurance papers that are predominantly of local interest or relevance do not meet this latter criterion. See Med Educ 2009; 43:294-6.

Review articles: Generally less than 3,000 words, plus a structures abstract of no more than 300 words. Up to two tables or figures and references in the Vancouver style. Systematic or critical reviews are welcome, but again, both types of reviews will be held to the criterion of needing to advance understanding beyond the current. See Med Educ 2008; 42:852-3.

Short Reports: Generally less than 1,000 words, plus a structured abstract of no more than 300 words, with one table or figure and up to five references.

The Cross-Cutting Edge (Commissioned papers only - please send a brief email to the editor at med@mededuc.com if you would like to write for this section or have suggestions of other topics/authors who should be recruited): Generally less than 4,000 words plus a structured abstract of no more than 300 words, with up to two tables or figures and references in Vancouver style. See Med Educ 42(10):950-1 for an overview of the intent of these papers.

Really Good Stuff: Short structured reports of new ideas in medical education. 500 words plus structured sub-headings: the context and setting; why the idea or change was necessary; what was done; and evaluation of the results or impact. One reference only may be included but there should be no abstract, figures or tables . Detailed guidelines on this section are available on Manuscript Central and from www.mededuc.com.

Commentaries: Up to 1,000 words and no more than ten references; up to five short 'pull-out' quotations from the article of approximately 15 words should be supplied. An abstract is not required.

Letters to the Editor: Up to 400 words, up to 6 references in the Vancouver style.

6. Preparation of manuscripts

Two separate documents should be prepared to accompany the manuscript: the identifying document and the copyright assignment form. A checklist to assist in the preparation of the manuscript for submission is also available. Copies of all these documents may be obtained by clicking 'instructions and forms' on http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/medicaleducation.

(1) The anonymous manuscript

All manuscripts should be anonymized before submission to Medical Education. Authors must not identify themselves or their institution in the submitted main manuscript file(s) for review. This includes making sure that neither the filename nor the footer/header contains the authors' names. We encourage the use of the active voice, short sentences and clear sub headings in the text. Chambers Guide to Grammar and Usage (1996) can give advice on matters of style. The manuscript should be double-spaced with a wide margin (at least 3 cm) on either side. All pages should be numbered. Do not use abbreviations. All scientific units should be expressed in SI units. Before submission please remove fields from automatic referencing programs and switch off change tracking. Please supply a word count. Where figures, tables or illustrations from other publications have been used, appropriate permissions should be obtained prior to submission.

Referencing should be set out in double spacing in the Vancouver style. Authors are advised to consult the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (see http://www.icmje.org/) for details of the Vancouver reference style.

Authors should restrict titles to 15 words or fewer (90 characters), and the editor reserves the right to edit titles. The main text should start on a separate page and sections within the text should be appropriately sub-headed. Spelling should conform to the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Both numbers and percentages should be given (not percentages alone) when relevant. Where statistical methods are used in analysis their use should be explained in the setting of the study and an appendix given if the method is particularly unusual or complex. For all research-oriented manuscripts a consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of the approach used should be included.

Keep a copy of the original manuscript for reference. An email acknowledgement of receipt will be sent by the journal. Any material sent to the Editorial Office will not be returned.

We reserve the right to copy edit papers to house style before final publication, but substantive changes will be the responsibility of the authors.

(2) The identifying document

(template available at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/medicaleducation)

A separate identifying document marked 'not for review' should be uploaded with the anonymous manuscript, giving the following information:

(1) The full address, institution and contact details of the corresponding author

(2) The names of all authors and details of the contribution each made to the work described in the paper

(3) Details of any funding

(4) Details of any acknowledgements

(5) A statement indicating whether ethical approval was sought for the research described. All word involving research on human subjects must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki (http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm) and authors must confirm, when appropriate, that informed consent was given. We expect ethical approval to have been sought from an appropriate body, such as an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Independent Ethics Committee (IEC), where such bodies exist to review educational research. Both the manuscript itself and identifying documents should indicate the outcome of the application, even when the decision was that no ethical approval was required. Where no formal framework for ethical approval is currently available, please provide a statement confirming if ethical considerations were made by a qualified person outside the group directly involved in work reported in this paper. Your identifying document and the manuscript itself should also contain a statement confirming the following points: That the work was carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, including, but not limited to there being no potential harm to participants, the anonymity of participants is guaranteed, and the informed consent of participants was obtained. See Med Educ 2009; 43:194-5.

(6) Details of any potential conflicts of interest. A conflict of interest exists when professional judgement concerning a primary interest (such as patients' welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by secondary interests (personal matters such as financial gain, personal relationships or professional rivalry).

(3) The copyright assignment form.

A copyright assignment form (available from 'instructions and forms' on http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/medicaleducation) must be downloaded, completed and signed by all contributing authors and uploaded as a separate file during the submission process, alternatively it may be emailed to med@mededuc.com as a pdf file or sent by fax and post to the Editorial Office at the time of electronic submission. We cannot accept submissions without this document.

7. Proofs
Proofs will be sent to the corresponding author via e-mail as an Acrobat PDF. Your e-mail server must be able to accept attachments up to 4MB in size. Acrobat Reader is required to read these proofs and it can be downloaded free of charge from www.adobe.com. This will enable the proof to be opened, read on screen and printed out for any corrections to be made. Authors are required to provide corrections promptly; if you are going to be out of email contact for an extended period, please supply us with the contact details of someone who can attend to the proofs in your absence.

8. Fast tracking
A fast tracking system is in place for selected manuscripts. Papers of particular importance or topicality will receive priority when being scheduled for publication. Accepted and published papers may be used for publicity and public relations purposes.