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Instructions for Authors

OPEN ACCESS OPTION FOR AUTHORS

QJM welcomes contributions relevant to the science and practice of medicine: original papers, describing either clinical research or basic scientific work; review articles on advances in clinical medicine or medical science; commentaries expressing personal or controversial views on any medical topic; and correspondence on matters arising from articles published in the journal. Please note that we seldom publish individual case reports as original papers but may, if they are of exceptional interest, consider them for our correspondence columns. We aim to offer rapid review and publication of accepted articles and to aid this process, contributors are asked to follow these guidelines.

  • Manuscript submission: QJM uses a web-based submission and review system at http://www.editorialmanager.com/qjm. Detailed instructions on how to use this system can be found by clicking here. Once you have prepared your manuscript according to the instructions below, please visit the online submission system. Original papers should include a structured abstract of fewer than 250 words under the headings: background, aim, design, methods, results, and conclusions. We suggest that authors consult a recent issue of the journal (http://qjmed.oxfordjournals.org) to ensure that their manuscript corresponds to the usual QJM style.
  • Correspondence: Manuscript and peer review enquiries should be directed to the Editorial Assistant: Wendy Moor. e-mail the Editorial Office. All other communications to the publishers: Oxford University Press, Oxford Journals, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
  • Ethics: QJM will only consider for publication research that has been scrutinized by a research ethics committee or an institutional review board. The covering letter that accompanies the submitted manuscript should indicate that the ethics of the study have been reviewed by an appropriate body. Studies should also include, where relevant, the patients' written informed consent. The editor reserves the right to refuse publication where the required ethical approval/patient consent is lacking
  • Authorship: Submission of an article to the QJM will be taken to imply that all authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and that the contributions of all people involved in the research have been properly acknowledged. The covering letter should clearly identify who will deal with correspondence concerning the article.
  • Funding
    Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in a separate section entitled 'Funding'. This should appear before the 'Acknowledgements' section.

    The following rules should be followed:

    • The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’
    • The full official funding agency name should be given, i.e. ‘National Institutes of Health’, not ‘NIH’ (full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies) Grant numbers should be given in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number xxxx]’
    • Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]’
    • Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency)
    • Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number 'to [author initials]'.
  • An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [AA123456 to C.S., BB765432 to M.H.]; and the Alcohol & Education Research Council [hfygr667789].
  • References: References should be numbered consecutively by superscript arabic numerals in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Where references are cited in a table or figure legend, numbering should correspond to the first mention of that table or figure in the text. QJM adopts the Vancouver system for references. These should include, (i) the list of all authors, (ii) the title of the article, (iii) the title of the journal (as abbreviated in Index Medicus), (iv) the year of publication, (v) volume number, (vi) first and last pages. Book references should give the author, title, edition, volume and page number (where appropriate), with town of publication, name of publisher and year of publication.

    e.g. Wilson CB. The renal response to immunologic injury. In: Brenner BM, Rector FC, eds. The Kidney, 4th edn. Philadelphia, WB Saunders, 1991:1062-181.

    e.g. Evans DGR, Harris R. Heterogeneity and genetic conditions. Q J Med 1992; 84:563-5.
  • Electronic submission of figures: Figures should be saved at a resolution of at least 300 d.p.i. at the final print size for colour figures and photographs, and at 1200 d.p.i. for black and white drawings. Digital colour art should be submitted in CMYK rather than RGB format, as the printing process requires colours to be separated into CMYK and this conversion can alter the intensity and brightness of colours. Where there is difficulty in submitting the figures electronically, they may be sent, separately from the manuscript, by post to the Editorial Office.
  • Proofs: Authors will receive PDF files of their page proofs by e-mail. Excessive corrections at this stage are discouraged and may be charged to the author.
  • Copyright: It is a condition of publication in the journal that authors grant an exclusive licence to publish to the Association of Physicians. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently, and will also allow the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. As part of the licence agreement, authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication, and Oxford University Press is notified in writing and in advance.

    Creative Commons information
  • OPEN ACCESS OPTION FOR AUTHORS
    QJM authors have the option, at an additional charge, to make their paper freely available online immediately upon publication, under the Oxford Open initiative. After your manuscript is accepted, as part of the mandatory licence form required of all corresponding authors, you will be asked to indicate whether or not you wish to pay to have your paper made freely available immediately. If you do not select the Open Access option, your paper will be published with standard subscription-based access and you will not be charged.

    For those selecting the Open Access option, the charges for QJM vary depending on the institution at which the Corresponding author is based.
  • Optional Oxford Open charges:
    For a Corresponding author based at an institution with an online subscription to QJM:
    Regular charge - £900 / $1800 / €1350
    List B developing country charge** - £450 / $900 / €675
    List A developing country charge** - £0 / $0 / €0

    For a Corresponding author based at an institution that does not subscribe to the online journal:
    Regular charge - £1500 / $3000 / €2250
    List B developing country charge** - £750 / $1500 / €1125
    List A developing country charge** - £0 /$0 / €0

    *Visit http://www.oxfordjournals.org/jnls/devel/ for list of qualifying countries.

    The above Open Access charges are in addition to any page charges and colour charges that might apply.

    Orders from UK will be subject to a 17.5% VAT charge. For orders from the rest of the EU, we will assume that the service is provided for business purposes, please provide a VAT number for yourself or your institution and ensure you account for your own local VAT correctly.
  • If you choose the Open Access option you will also be asked to complete an Open Access charge form online. You will be automatically directed to the appropriate version of the form depending on whether you are based at an institution with an online subscription to QJM. Therefore please make sure that you are using an institutional computer when accessing the form. To check whether you are based at a subscribing institution please use the Subscriber Test link for QJM.
  • Language Editing
    Particularly if English is not your first language, before submitting your manuscript you may wish to have it edited for language. This is not a mandatory step, but may help to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers. Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication. If you would like information about one such service please click here. There are other specialist language editing companies that offer similar services and you can also use any of these. Authors are liable for all costs associated with such services.
  • Author Self-Archiving/Public Access policy
    For information about this journal's policy, please visit our Author Self-Archiving policy page.'