USER GUIDES
We welcome readers from all over the world.
Our publishing model is globally accessible and affordable to all. We are community focussed, allowing readers to essentially crowd fund our published articles to achieve open access status for the entire readership. Any one can contribute to the article publishing cost, from as little as $0.10 Bitcoin Cash micropayment to paying the entire article fee in one transaction. As contributions from readers accumulate, the remaining publishing price fee reduces, and once the journal’s publishing cost is covered, the article becomes open access. Once the article has been opened, we consider the published work owned by the community under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
No user account is required to access our articles. However, registering an account as a reader will offer a few benefits:
1. It will allow the reader to choose to pay a contribution to any article that has not been opened. Without a user account, an anonymous reader would have to pay the entire remaining balance of an article to access the full article (this will also open up the article for everyone).
2. Allow readers to keep a track record, including invoicing, of their article contributions.
We welcome authors from all over the world.
The manuscript submission process is very simple. Once you have registered an account with our journal, you can choose a setting to either be a “reader” or a “reader and an author”. If you have declared yourself an author, you will see in your menu an author portal where you can start creating submissions.
Once you have created your draft submission, fill out the required information in the manuscript submissions manager. All instructions are clearly described in the portal in a step-by-step manner. There are no formatting criteria, as our submissions system will resolve this automatically. Once you have submitted your manuscript to us, you will then receive further responses from our editorial team about a decision.
Suggested Word Counts
- Full-length articles: 2,000 – 4,000 words
- Opinions and Editorials: 1,500 – 3,000 words
- Case Series and Case Reports: 1000 – 2,500 words
References
References must be formatted using the Vancouver reference style, as outlined in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/).
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of cited references and these should be checked before the manuscript is submitted.
Citing in the text
References must be numbered sequentially as they appear in the text and enclosed in square brackets, for example[4]. References should not be cited in figures or tables, including their legends and footnotes.
Reference numbers should be inserted immediately before punctuation, with no space between the preceding word and the reference number, for example[6].
Where more than one reference is cited, separate the reference numbers with commas, for example[1, 4, 39]. For a sequence of consecutive references, give the first and last numbers separated by a hyphen, for example[22-25].
If references are not cited in numerical order, the manuscript may be returned for amendment before being passed to the Editor for review.
Preparing the reference list
References must be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are mentioned in the text.
Only papers published or in press should be included in the reference list. Personal communications or unpublished data must be cited in parentheses in the text with the name(s) of the source(s) and the year. Authors should request permission from the source to cite unpublished data.
Reference style
List the names and initials of all authors if there are 3 or fewer; otherwise list the first 3 and add ‘et al.’ Use one space only between words up to the year and then no spaces. The journal title should be in italic and abbreviated according to the style of Medline. If the journal is not listed in Medline then it should be written out in full.
Example references
Journal article: Koziol-Mclain J, Brand D, Morgan D, et al. Measuring injury risk factors: question reliability in a statewide sample. Inj Prev 2000;6:148–50.
Abstract/supplement: Roxburgh J, Cooke RA, Deverall P, et al. Haemodynamic function of the carbomedics bileaflet prosthesis [abstract]. Br Heart J 1995;73(Suppl 2):P37.
Preprints: Rostami A, Sepidarkish M, Leeflang M, et al. First snap-shot meta-analysis to estimate the prevalence of serum antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in humans. MedRxiv 20185017 [Preprint]. September 02, 2020 [cited 2020 Sep 20] https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.31.20185017.
Data citations: [dataset] [52] Wang G, Zhu Z, Cui S, Wang J. Data from: Glucocorticoid induces incoordination between glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons in the amygdala. Dryad Digital Repository, August 11, 2017. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.k9q7h.
Electronic citations: Websites are referenced with their URL and access date, and as much other information as is available. Access date is important as websites can be updated and URLs change. The “date accessed” can be later than the acceptance date of the paper, and it can be just the month accessed.
Electronic journal articles: Morse SS. Factors in the emergency of infectious diseases. Emerg Infect Dis 1995 Jan-Mar;1(1). www.cdc.gov/nciod/EID/vol1no1/morse.htm (accessed 5 Jun 1998).
Electronic letters: Bloggs J. Title of letter. Journal name Online [eLetter] Date of publication. url eg: Krishnamoorthy KM, Dash PK. Novel approach to transseptal puncture. Heart Online [eLetter] 18 September 2001. http://heart.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/86/5/e11#EL1
Book: Howland J. Preventing Automobile Injury: New Findings From Evaluative Research. Dover, MA: Auburn House Publishing Company 1988:163–96.
Chapter in a book: 14 Nagin D. General deterrence: a review of the empirical evidence. In: Blumstein A, Cohen J, Nagin D, eds. Deterrence and Incapacitation: Estimating the Effects of Criminal Sanctions on Crime Rates. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences 1978:95–139.
Legal material: Toxic substances Contro Act: Hearing on S776 Before the Subcommittee of the Environment of the Senate Comm. on Commerce, 94th Congress 1st September (1975).
Law references: The two main series of law reports, Weekly Law Reports (WLR) and All England Law Reports (All ER) have three volumes a year e.g. Robertson v Post Office [1974] 1 WLR 1176
There are good historical precedents for the use of square and round brackets. Since 1891, round ones have referred to the date of the report, square ones to the date of publication of the report. Apart from not italicising the name of the case, we use the lawyers’ style; be careful with punctuation, e.g. Caparo Industries plc v Dickman and others [1990] 1 All ER 568-608.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
A DOI is a unique string created to identify a piece of intellectual property in an online environment and is particularly useful for articles that are published online before appearing in print (and therefore have not yet been assigned the traditional volume, issue and page number references). The DOI is a permanent identifier of all versions of an article, whether raw manuscript or edited proof, online or in print. Thus the DOI should ideally be included in the citation even if you want to cite a print version of an article. Find a DOI.
Cite an article with a DOI before published in print: Alwick K, Vronken M, de Mos T, et al. Cardiac risk factors: prospective cohort study. Ann Rheum DisPublished Online First: 5 February 2004. doi:10.1136/ard.2003.001234
Cite an article with a DOI once published in print: Vole P, Smith H, Brown N, et al. Treatments for malaria: randomised controlled trial. Ann Rheum Dis2003;327:765–8 doi:10.1136/ard.2003.001234 [published Online First: 5 February 2002].
We welcome peer-reviewers from all over the world.
To apply to be a peer reviewer, simply fill in the application form in the menu. If you are successful, your account will then be registered as an official peer reviewer. The editorial team will then be able to contact you to offer your manuscripts to peer review. You can choose to accept or decline these within the portal itself. If you choose to accept, you will have access to the manuscript and an online form to complete your peer review on. Furthermore, if your peer review is accepted as good quality by the editorial team, you will be legible to redeem your stipend.