Please read the guidance carefully before you write your paper. Papers should fit the aims of the journal for review, and must fulfil the technical requirements for inclusion.
Section One – Aims of the Journal
The journal has a vision for high quality, multidisciplinary primary care that goes beyond medical treatments. It requires competent organisations, systems and team-working as well as quality one-to-one consultations. It considers environments that support healthy individuals, families and communities as well as care pathways for named diseases. Practitioners often need to work in partnership with others, including those concerned with social care, mental health, public health and voluntary care.
The journal will promote generalist practice - medical and non-medical. Generalists differ from specialists by dealing with all aspects of people’s health and disease. People sometimes present with a simple diagnosis. But often they have multiple inter-connected concerns. Things like continuity of care, reflective practice and team-working help bubble to the surface things that matter, but at first sight are invisible.
Papers should be practically useful. Each should contain a message or insight that will help practitioners, managers or policy-makers to improve quality. Case studies and complex interventions will be particularly welcome when they reveal the dynamic nature of primary care. The first test for a paper you submit is the ‘so what?’ test.
We welcome research and audit, as well as thoughtful analysis. We encourage you as an author to think of yourself as a reflective inquirer and story-holder. This means your paper should describe a question that you are trying to answer, and also why this question is important both to you and to a bigger story. Combined quantitative, qualitative and participatory inquiries are ideal because these provide different kinds of insight into complex situations and together can reveal more than any discrete insight can, on its own We expect you to include good data and describe its limitations. We expect you to be familiar with the writings of others.
Section Two – Requirements of a Manuscript
This section describes what we expect from your manuscript. We will return it unread if these are not fulfilled. Read Section Three that describes how your paper will be scrutinised by our reviewers. We suggest you ask friends to critique your paper before you submit, using our reviewer guidelines.
For each paper you must include the following information in one Microsoft Word file.
You should also send a covering Letter.
E-mail the file and covering letter to LJPC@rcgp.org.uk. To reach the correct editor, you must type into the Subject Box the Theme under which you wish your paper to be assessed (see Section Four).
Manuscripts
Manuscripts should be laid out in the following order:
1. Authors details Submit a front page that lists all authors, with their designations and contact details (e-mail, and contact telephone number), employing organisation and Primary Care Trust area. Provide the postal address of the person to be guarantor (who ensures that all ethical issues have been addressed) and the person to contact for all communication about the paper.
2. Word Count List the word counts: Text, Boxes, Appendices, Abstract, Why this Matters to Me and Key Message(s).
3. Abstract, Maximum 300 words. To make sure your paper attracts the right readers: Use the following structure: Background; Setting; Question; Methods; Results; Conclusions/Discussion. Use short sentences. Be sure the abstract reflects the content of the paper. Try writing the abstract before you write the text. Examine the abstract as carefully as you will the text – often it is the only thing that is read.
4. Key Words Please provide up to 5 key words using MeSH headings. (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html)
5. Key Message(s). Maximum four bullet points, 100 words To help readers see the practical implications of your work: Write positive, unambiguous sentences. Make things seem reasonable and realistic, avoiding overly ambitious claims.
6. Why this matters to me. Maximum 300 words. This should help readers to see something of you as a person: Explain to the reader what motivated you to write this - why this is an itch you want to scratch.
7. Ethical committee approval State which ethical committee gave approval, or explain why this was not needed.
8. Text, Boxes, Tables and Appendices
a. To make sure that your ideas are presented succinctly: Word limit is 2k. You can include a further 5k words in additional material (a maximum of four boxes/tables and an appendix). The editors may shorten (or invite you to shorten) your copy.
b. To make sure your writing is easy to follow: Have in mind one key message from the paper and build the paper around this. Consider using the IMRaD formula – Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. If this structure does not work for you, use another established structure.
c. Be clear that your data is relevant to your argument: Papers often include data that arise from your research methods (e.g. surveys/interviews /measurements); they may come from other sources (e.g. audit of national or local databases). Make sure that you clearly name the source and explain its relevance and limitations. Authors should obtain permission to reproduce tables, figures and texts from other sources. It is important that authors mention that the paper will be published online and will be available free to all when seeking permission to reproduce data from other sources.
d. Supplying tables and figures: Tables and figure labels should preferably be submitted in the Arial font and font size should be 11. Figures and tables should appear in the text near the place of first mention. We advise that you are economical with the use of tables and figures.
9. Conflict of interest
10. References Use Vancouver referencing (numerical numbers in superscript), but please do not link the references in your paper.
11. Acknowledgements You may wish to acknowledge individuals or organisations that have assisted with project.
Style and Format
To fit the journal style: Avoid excessive use of capitals, italics and other punctuation that make readers feel they are being shouted at. Use electronic page numbers. Please note that authors are responsible for the accuracy of their references.
To ease copying into the journal. Range left (unjustified) with hyphenation cancelled. Put one space between each paragraph. MANUSCRIPTS SHOULD BE DOUBLE SPACED AND ARIAL FONT 11 SHOULD BE USED.
Papers for London Landscape
Reviews This should be a short article (no more than 700 words) reviewing a book or social event e.g. a film, festival or play. It should reflect upon the impact it had on you and its relevance to healthcare. Art and book reviews can include a maximum of five references. Please state clearly the name and location of any event.
Book reviews should Include your name & contact details, the name of the book, its author, publisher and ISBN. If you have written a book that you feel would be suitable for our readership and would like it reviewed, please contact us.
Life in London We would welcome reflective pieces about life in London. These pieces should bring to life the richness of the life of a primary care practitioner in London. Submissions should be under 1000 words long with a maximum of ten references.
Multidisciplinary Team-working We are keen to highlight multidisciplinary team-working.
Covering Letter and Signed Agreement of Contract
Write a brief covering letter aiming to persuade an editor to put your paper into the peer reviewing process. For example you might want to point out the ways in which your paper advances the ambitions of the journal.
By having your paper published you are entering into a contract with the journal. All material submitted must be written exclusively for London Journal of Primary Care. The same paper should not be submitted elsewhere. After publication it cannot be subsequently published elsewhere without permission.
If your paper is accepted for publication we will send you a form which ALL authors must sign and date. You should return the completed form by post to the Editor in Chief after each author has confirmed that they have seen and approved the submitted version and no-one has a conflict of interest. Also each must agree to assign copyright to the journal and agree one person to be guarantor for the paper, including all ethical considerations and the validity of the data presented.
Section Three – Guidelines for Reviewers
This section provides guidelines for reviewers. We suggest that authors also read this before you start writing and ask friends to critique the paper before submission using these reviewer guidelines.
In your critique please bear in mind the following areas (if you wish you can structure your report with these headings):
1. Originality and Relevance – does this paper ask and attempt to answer an important question that has not been fully answered before in this context, and that helps to understand quality practice?
2. Healthy Communities and Generalism – does this paper have a message for communities as well as individuals, or for generalists as well as specialists?
3. Readability – does it have a clear message that is developed in an appealing way?
4. Presentation - Is the paper suitably presented? Does it conform to the Journal’s conventional format? Does the author need any advice on removing repetitious or redundant materials? Unless the meaning is unclear, there is usually no need to make individual corrections to or query the written English.
5. Different Sections:
a. Introduction – does this demonstrate knowledge of other writers and of the story so far? Does it pose a clear question?
b. Methods – are these appropriate to the inquiry question?
c. Results – are they valid in respect of the inquiry approach used?
d. Discussion – do conclusions remain close to the results? Do they provide useful pointers to next steps?
Section Four – System for Handling Manuscripts
Papers will be published throughout the year on-line. The twice-yearly hard copy will include the ‘best of the web’ (not necessarily from the previous six months).
The data that authors provide will produce statistics about the ‘family’ that use the journal. Designations of authors and their home base will reveal the changing pattern of authorship and the geographic areas involved. Readers will be able to quickly identify papers that relate to a particular theme or a specific part of London. The On-Line Discussion facility is intended to encourage debate about issues. It is a core aim of the journal to stimulate vibrant dialogue and critique about issues that matter.
In time we expect the website to become a valuable resource for anyone who wants to see a rich picture of London health and social care. Papers from outside London are very welcome, and we ask you to include in your introduction a brief description of ways in which your context is similar or dissimilar to London.
Send the four electronic files (Section Two) to LJPC@rcgp.org.uk using one of the following headings in the subject box
Ethics Mental Health Clinical Systems and Organisations Learning Non medical Epidemiology Consultation International London Landscape General Enquires
From there it will be passed to the relevant editor for an initial view. The editor might
If submitted to the peer review process two reviewers will read your paper and estimate it by the criteria of Section Three. These comments will be reviewed by the relevant editor who will bring his/her recommendations to the alternate monthly editorial team meeting. From that arises an e-mail to you that may accept, reject or ask for revisions. This can take several months, but will often be quicker. If approved for publication it will be sent to Radcliffe Publishing Ltd for posting on the website (as soon as your letter of agreement to contract has been received).
The editorial team, with advice from the editorial board, will decide which papers are included in the print copies. Often it will be the higher quality papers that are published. Sometimes it will be the papers that best reveal the issues of the time.