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Author Guidelines
GUIDELINES FOR GUEST EDITORS AND AUTHORS
CME is intended to provide readers with practical, up-to-date information on medical and related matters. When selecting topics and writing articles keep in mind that these are aimed at persons who are not specialists in the field.
The guest editor, in consultation with the editor, is responsible for convening a team of authors, deciding on the subjects to be covered and for reviewing the manuscripts submitted. The suggestion is for five main articles and three ‘More about’ articles. A different approach is fine if the topic would be better served, but the editor must be notified beforehand.
For queries about these guidelines please feel free to contact us by telephone, fax or e-mail.
MANUSCRIPTS
Please submit manuscripts online using www.cmej.org.za.
Articles should be written in Microsoft Word/RTF format and uploaded into the online management system. The guest editor reviews the articles and returns them to the CME editor for review and carrying out of the publishing edit, including copy-editing, that is needed for the required journal format.
GUEST EDITORIALS
The guest editorial should be about 800 words and should include the guest editor's personal details (qualifications, positions, affiliations, e-mail address, and a short personal profile (50 words)).
MAIN ARTICLES
Main articles should be about 2 000 words in length as the journal has a limited budget and long articles are difficult to incorporate. The editor reserves the right to shorten articles but will send a substantially shortened article back for author approval.
Please do not use unnecessary document formatting. This has to be removed before copy-editing. If you wish material to be in a box, simply indicate this in the text. You may use the table format - this is the ONLY exception. Please DO NOT use fill, format lines and so on.
The text should be single-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font; employ italics and bolding, rather than underlining.
Illustrations
Please include figures and tables wherever possible. Figures must be included as 'supplementary files' upon submission and should not be embedded in the manuscript document.
If any tables or illustrations submitted have been published elsewhere, the author should obtain written consent to republication from the copyright holder and the author(s).
All figures must be of high resolution/quality: 300 dpi or more is preferable but images must not be resized to increase resolution. Raw (unformatted/uncompressed) images must be attached as 'supplementary files' upon submission, and not embedded in the accompanying text document. TIFF and PNG formats are preferable. JPEG and PDF formats are accepted but authors must be wary of image compression. For figures/graphs prepared in Microsoft Powerpoint or Excel, the original workbook must be provided.
MORE ABOUT... the major topic
Two or three items about 600 to 800 words long, covering areas not dealt with in the main articles. Long articles will be shortened.
IN A NUTSHELL (SUMMARY)
Point-form summary of about 10 major points from the article should accompany the manuscript in the case of the main articles only.
REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY
Authors are responsible for verifying references from the original sources. Please provide complete, correctly formatted reference lists. Refer to the examples below. Reference lists must be generated manually and not with the use of reference manager software.
Citations should be inserted in the text as superscript numbers between square brackets, following the punctuation marks completing the phrases or sentence to be referenced, e.g. Myotonic dystropy (DM) is an autosomal dominant disorder and is the most common form of adult muscular dystrophy.[1,4-6]
All references should be listed at the end of the article in numerical order (not alphabetical order) - i.e. in order of appearance in the text. Please limit reference numbers to no more than 15. Kindly list Digital Object Identifier (DOI) numbers for references wherever possible.
Examples:
Journal references:
Price NC, Jacobs NN, Roberts DA, et al. Importance of asking about glaucoma. Stat Med 1998;289(1):350-355. [http://dx.doi.org/hgrj.4532]
Book references:
Jeffcoate N. Principles of Gynaecology. 4th ed. London: Butterworth, 1975:96-101.
Chapter/section in a book:
Weinstein L, Swartz MN. Pathogenic Properties of Invading Microorganisms. In: Sodeman WA jun, Sodeman WA, eds. Pathologic Physiology: Mechanisms of Disease. Philadelphia: WB Saunders, 1974:457-472.
Internet references:
World Health Organization. The World Health Report 2002 - Reducing Risks, Promoting Healthy Life. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2002. http://www.who.int/whr/2002 (accessed 16 January 2010).
Other references (e.g. reports) should follow the same format:
Author(s). Title. Publisher place: publisher name, year: pages.
Cited manuscripts that have been accepted but not yet published can be included as references followed by '(in press)'.
Personal communications, e.g. ‘(Prof. Michael Jones, personal communication)’, and unpublished observations must not appear in the reference list.
Further reading lists (not cited in the text) should be listed alphabetically.
CPD QUESTIONS (please be guided by the format of the questions in current issues of CME – there is only ever one correct answer)
MAIN ARTICLES:
Send three questions of TRUE or FALSE format.
MORE ABOUT… ARTICLES:
Send two questions of TRUE or FALSE format.
NB: please supply the answers
PERSONAL DETAILS
Please supply: Your qualifications, position and affiliations and MP number (used for CPD points); address, telephone number and fax number, and your e-mail address; and a short personal profile (50 words) and a few words about your current fields of interest (not required for 'More about …' articles).
DEADLINES
Manuscripts should reach us 5 months before publication (CME appears monthly for 11 months of the year). Please inform us if you will be on leave or absent 4 – 6 weeks prior to publication so that we can arrange for someone else to check galley proofs.
PROTECTION OF PATIENT'S RIGHTS TO PRIVACY
Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives informed written consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that the patient be shown the manuscript to be published. Refer to www.icmje.org.
ETHNIC CLASSIFICATION
References to ethnic classification must indicate the rationale for this.
CHARGES
There is no charge for the publication of manuscripts.
SAMPLES
SAMPLE – IN A NUTSHELL
Anterior dislocation of the shoulder is a common injury.
The patho-anatomy should be accurately evaluated and classified.
Young patients have a high rate of recurrent dislocation.
Conservative management is not effective in preventing recurrence.
Open repairs are very successful.
Arthroscopic stabilisation can be highly successful in experienced hands.
In older patients dislocation is often associated with other injuries like rotator cuff tears.
SAMPLE SELF-EVALUATION QUESTIONS
True/false format:
1. True (A) or false (B)? (Ignore blocks C,D,E)
The ‘R’ in the mnemonic SALTR stands for ‘ragged physis’.
ANSWER (B)
CHECK LIST FOR AUTHORS AND GUEST EDITORS
GUEST EDITOR
General practitioner co guest editor arranged
FIVE main and THREE `More about...' articles decided
Authors contacted
Authors' names, addresses and e-mails provided
Manuscripts edited and returned
Guest Editorial provided (about 800 words)
Galleys checked and returned
AUTHOR/S OF MAIN ARTICLES
Self-evaluation questions
In a Nutshell done
Figures supplied
Tables supplied
References/bibliography (15 maximum)
Short CV of author/s
Personal details supplied
AUTHOR/S OF `MORE ABOUT...' ARTICLES
References/bibliography (15 maximum)
Personal details supplied
Submission Preparation Checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
- Named authors consent to publication and meet the requirements of authorship as set out by the journal.
- The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration.
- The text complies with the stylistic and bibliographic requirements in Author Guidelines.
- The manuscript is in Microsoft Word or RTF document format. The text
is single-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font, and contains no unnecessary formatting.
- Figures are high resolution/quality (not compressed) and in an acceptable format (preferably TIFF or PNG). These must be submitted as 'supplementary files' (not in the manuscript).
- For figures or tables that have been published elsewhere, the author has obtained written consent to republication from the copyright holder.
- The URLs to access references online are provided where available.
- An abstract has been included where applicable.
Copyright Notice
The Continuing Medical Education journal (CME) reserves copyright of the material published.
Material submitted for publication in CME is accepted provided it has not been published elsewhere.
CME does not hold itself responsible for statements made by the authors.
Privacy Statement
CME is committed to protecting the privacy of the users of this journal website. The names, personal particulars and email addresses entered in this website will be used only for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available to third parties without the user’s permission or due process. Users consent to receive communication from CME for the stated purposes of the journal. Queries with regard to privacy may be directed to publishing@hmpg.co.za.
