Instructions for Authors
Please note that the British Medical Bulletin only accepts previously commissioned articles, and non-solicited manuscripts should not be submitted.
Please read CAREFULLY before preparing your manuscript for submission.
British Medical Bulletin is an Oxford University Press publication, which comprises high quality reviews aimed at non specialists in your field including consultants and GPs, junior doctors and medical students in both developed countries and developing countries.
Its key aims are to provide interpretations of growing points in medicine by trusted experts in the field, and to assist practitioners in incorporating not just evidence but new conceptual ways of thinking into their practice.
The Bulletin is keen to promote high quality reviews based on sound evidence. Sufficient information should be given in the review for it to be capable of reproduction by other authors and added to as more data become available. A search strategy is an invaluable part of such an approach. Papers on treatment interventions will, ideally, be in the form of a Systematic Review.
Your published paper should be approximately 14 pages in printed length, including abstract, all figures and tables and references. Each A4 page of text is about 475 words.
We recommend that the length be no longer than 4000 words, that there be no more than forty references, and that the number of figures and tables should not exceed four.
Should you wish to devote more space to figures, less will be available for other elements of your paper. Where possible, please restrict the length of the reference list by including recent review articles that cite older references. Papers that exceed 14 pages may be edited.
Preparation of Manuscript
Please remember that your article should be an original piece of work in its own right and be written without the extensive reuse of previously published material. All source material should be fully acknowledged and referenced as described below.
References
Number references consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned. Identify references in text, tables, and captions by Arabic numerals superscripted above the line.
Abbreviations & Units
Only use standard abbreviations; those prescribed by The Biochemical Journal Instructions to Authors are preferred. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its FIRST use in the text. SI units should always be used.
Trade Units
These should be marked with ® and proprietary drug names should be capitalised e.g. Nogotin.
Manuscript Order
- TITLE page
- Full title of the article
- Initials (or first name) and surname of each author as they should appear in the printed chapter (Degrees and appointments will NOT be included)
- Department and institution to which the work should be attributed
- Name, full postal address, telephone and fax numbers and email address of author responsible for correspondence
- Preferred SHORT title of paper (not more than 50 letters + spaces) to be used as a running head throughout the article
- STRUCTURED ABSTRACT of no more than 150 words. If the paper is a systematic review of therapy or patient management the following structure should be used:
- Introduction or background
- Methods, which should include a search strategy
- Results; the main body of the review
- Discussion - which may include previous systematic review evidence
- Conclusion
- Where such an approach is not possible, particularly in relation to scientific research the abstract should include:
- Introduction or background
- Sources of data
- Areas of agreement
- Areas of controversy
- Growing points
- Areas timely for developing research.
- KEY WORDS: a minimum of 3 key words which reflect the content of the review
- TEXT to follow a similar general format to the abstract. Authors should ensure that technical language used is understandable to a scientific but general readership. A glossary may be a useful addendum where appropriate.
- DISCUSSION OR CONCLUSIONS, which gives more detail of areas of agreement, controversy, growing points and areas timely for developing research.
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- REFERENCES listed in numerical sequence according to their order of appearance in the text. Avoid using abstracts as references. ‘Unpublished observations’ and ‘personal communications’ should be avoided whenever possible.
Journals
If there are more than 6 authors of a paper (see 19 in example below), abbreviate to the first 3 names and then add ‘ et al’. Use abbreviated journal title as given in Index Medicus.
Examples:
18. Candis JH. Artificial joint materials. J Biomed Eng 1994; 45: 54-78
19. Paul KN, Smith ADF, Manners M et al. Coagulation mechanisms. J Cell Biol 1993; 430: 200-30
Books
Authors and title of chapter are followed by the editor(s) of the book, title of book, main town of publisher, publisher’s name (omit ‘Press’, ‘& Sons’, ‘Inc’ etc), year and page range.
Examples:
20. Acorn AD, Management of rheumatoid arthritis. In: Brown CC, Davies GH. (eds) Inflammatory diseases. 3rd edn. London: Apple, 1992; 203-30
21. Dunlop E, David BC, Winston WDC. (eds) Diabetes update. New York: Pullworth, 1983
Figures
The use of figures is strongly encouraged where they can assist the reader in the understanding of the article and replace lengthy passages of text. The Journal can include free colour in the manuscript when it is deemed necessary by the Editorial Office for the scientific understanding of the manuscript. Alternatively, colour figures may be freely published online as supplementary data to the corresponding article even if the same figures in the body of the print and online manuscript are to be reproduced in black and white.
Number figures consecutively and, where figures are related, number them 1(a), 1(b), 1(c) etc
Figures will be sized to fit the width of a single column of text, i.e. 120 mm wide. Any lettering should be in proportion with the overall dimensions of the drawing.
All figures sent in hard copy should have a LABEL on the BACK giving the first author’s name, the figure number and, where relevant, an arrow indicating which edge is the top.
Photographs
These should be of sufficiently high quality - with respect to detail, contrast and fineness of grain - to withstand the inevitable loss of contrast and detail inherent in the printing process. Please indicate the original magnification by a bar (e.g. 1 cm) on the photograph.
Line Drawings
Faint or fine-grained stippling or shading or continuous-tone shading will be lost or may appear black on reproduction. Please use a coarse stippling or hatching.
Tables
Number tables consecutively and place a descriptive heading above each table. Give each column a short heading. Explain in footnotes all non-standard abbreviations used in a table.
Figure Captions
Captions should be brief descriptions of each figure or illustration (e.g. Fig. 1 The diagram shows…. ). Where relevant, captions should also include definitions for all symbols used.
Permissions
If a figure or table has been published previously, please obtain written permission from the copyright holder and send copies of such permissions with your manuscript. The original source should be acknowledged in the figure caption or table heading and the full reference included in the list.
Submission of Manuscript
Please note that there is a facility for online submission. The link to the website for online submission can be found on the home page.
All submissions should be accompanied by a signed License to Publish and a signed Conflict of Interest statement.
Biographical Details
To give a review context, a brief description of the authors (maximum 100 words and including professional qualifications and key areas of clinical/research interest) will be published. This description should be submitted with the manuscript.
Proofs
The corresponding author will be sent PDF page proofs by e-mail. To avoid delays in publication, proofs should be checked immediately for typographical errors and returned by fax to Oxford University Press [+44 (0)1865 353798].
On-line Publishing
Reviews will be published on-line at http://bmb.oupjournals.org/, as soon as they are accepted by the Commissioning Editor. At the time of commissioning, authors will be told the print issue for which their review is planned. Authors may be able to publish additional material on-line only, with the agreement of the Commissioning Editor (e.g. supplementary colour figures or lengthy appendices).