Guidance
for authors
Journal scope
Mental Health in
Family Medicine welcomes
original papers and correspondence from all those involved in
research, education, development and delivery of mental health in primary
care. Articles should contain
material of relevance to primary care mental health or health within the
family context worldwide.
Ethical issues
-
Mental Health in Family
Medicine
upholds the ethical principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics
(COPE) which are available at http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/guidelines/code.
-
Authors
are referred to the need to conform to the Declaration of Helsinki and
to provide confirmation that the study has been approved by a named
Research Ethics Committee.
-
Authors
are also asked to declare that the paper has not been submitted
elsewhere for publication and that duplicate publication has been
avoided.
-
The
following declarations should be made at the end of the article before
the references: ‘ethical approval(s)’, ‘acknowledgements’,
‘source of funding’ for the study, and any ‘conflict of
interest’. This includes ownership of shares, consultancy, speaker's
honoraria or research grants from commercial companies or professional
or governmental organisations with an interest in the topic of the
paper. If in doubt, disclose.
-
Authors
are also asked to declare, where relevant, that patient consent has been
obtained and that all reasonable steps have been taken to maintain
patient confidentiality.
-
Once
submitted authors are assured that the material under consideration will
be kept confidential.
-
Authors
have the right to appeal against editorial decisions. Once an appeal is
lodged, this will be dealt with by an editorial board member who has not
been involved in the editorial progress of the paper in question.
-
Misconduct
is investigated and acted on according to COPE guidance.
Originality and copyright
It will
be assumed that all material submitted for publication in Mental
Health in Family Medicine is offered on the understanding that it has
not been accepted for publication elsewhere and, on acceptance, it becomes
the copyright of the journal. Permission to reproduce previously published
material must be obtained in writing from the copyright holder (usually the
publisher) and the original source should be acknowledged in the manuscript.
Types of
articles accepted
Original
articles and research papers should be between 1000 and 5000 words. The
journal welcomes letters on articles in the journal or on any other topic
related to mental health in primary care. Letters should be addressed to the
Editor and must be signed to be considered for publication.
Refereeing
Submissions
are subject to peer review, a process which is undertaken with a minimum of
delay so that those papers accepted for publication can be included in the
first available issue. The journal aims to return peer-review comments to
authors within eight weeks. Authors are invited to recommend two appropriate
reviewers for their paper whom the Editor might approach. Before final
acceptance authors may be asked to revise submissions in the light of
referees’ comments.
Preparation of papers
Papers can be submitted electronically by emailing
gabriel.ivbijaro@nhs.net
Title
page
The title of the paper should be as brief and informative as possible. A
short title of not more than 50 characters should be supplied for a running
head. The initials and last name of all authors, and their full addresses
(including telephone, fax, and email details, where available) should be
given. The name of the author responsible for correspondence should be
indicated. The sources of support for any work, such as grants, equipment or
drugs, should be stated.
Abstract
and keywords
A summary in not more than 250 words, indicating concisely the scope and
main conclusions of the paper, as well as three keywords or phrases, should
be given.
Structure of the text
Subheadings are encouraged, when
suitable, to break up the text as well as to improve readability; these
normally consist of: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion,
Conclusions.
Acknowledgements
These should be kept to a minimum; only those persons who have made a
substantial contribution to the paper should be acknowledged. Authors should
obtain written permission from all those acknowledged by name, as readers
may infer their endorsement of details given in the paper.
Tables and figures
When submitting the
paper electronically, each figure and table should be placed in a separate
file. Each should be self-explanatory, on a separate sheet, and have a
caption. Do not use vertical rules in tables. Figures should be suitable for
direct reproduction; they may be line drawings in black ink, or black and
white photographs. Authors wishing to submit colour illustrations are
requested to contact the Editor before sending any material.
References
This journal uses the Vancouver style for references. In the text,
references should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they first
appear. They should be assigned superscript numbers, outside punctuation at
the end of sentences.
References
should be presented as a separate list at the end of the paper, and not as
footnotes. For references with up to three authors, all names should be
given; for more than three authors, the first three names then et
al. should be given. The format of references is as follows.
Example 1: journal article
1 Perrin JM, Horner
C, Berwick D et al. (1989)
Variations in rates of hospitalisation of
children
in three urban communities. New
England Journal of Medicine 320:
1183–7.
Example 2: chapter in a book
2 Miller DK and
Goodman GN (1989) Gastric bypass procedures. In: Dietel M (ed)
Surgery
for the Morbidly Obese Patient. Lea & Febiger: Philadelphia, pp.
113–33.
Example 3: author of whole book
or other publication
3 Fentem PH (1992) Allied Dunbar National Fitness Survey: main findings. Belmont
Press:
Northampton.
Example 4: editors of a whole
book or other publication
4 Law J, Parkinson A
and Tamhne R (eds) (1999) Communication
Difficulties in
Childhood.
Radcliffe Medical Press: Oxford.
Proofs
Proofs will be sent to the author submitting the paper and must be returned
promptly. This will allow correction of printers’ and similar errors.
Major changes will not be entertained and authors may be charged for
excessive amendments at this stage.
Correspondence
and enquiries
Queries
concerning the production of the journal should be directed to the Journals
Manager at Radcliffe Publishing.
Any queries concerning the content, suitability and acceptance of papers
should be directed to the editor: Dr Gabriel
Ivbijaro, The
Wood Street
Medical Centre,
6 Linford Road
, Walthamstow,
London
E17 3LA
,
UK
.
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8430 7712; fax:
+44 (0) 20 8430 7711; email: Gabriel.ivbijaro@nhs.net.
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