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Instructions for Authors

For guidelines on BMJ Journals policy and submission please click on links below.
Manuscript Formatting
Editorial policies
Patient consent forms
Licence forms
Peer Review Process
Online First process

Editorial policy

Emergency Medicine Journal is committed to education and the publication of high quality research and educational material covering the breadth of emergency care. The requirements of clinicians vary within different settings and in different countries. EMJ seeks to satisfy these diverse needs. It is this principle that underlies the future planning of the journal and guides the editorial board and reviewers in making their judgements on whether papers submitted to the EMJ should be accepted or rejected.

Our policy is to provide a broad mix of articles that will be of educational value to doctors, nurses, paramedics and other clinicians involved in emergency care. EMJ will seek innovative and attractive ways to deliver a comprehensive programme of professional development.

Our priorities are to:

1. Publish up-to-date research in clinical care and education.
2. Place an emphasis on the evidence base for care.
3. Educational papers and materials.
4. Harness the latest technologies to promote access to a full range of educational resources.
5. Continue to develop specialist areas of publication that deal with pre- hospital and community emergency care.
6. Develop areas of legal, ethical, ethnic and historical issues that are relevant to emergency care.
7. Publish contentious issues that are of educational importance.
8. Ensure that a fair, independent peer review system is in place.
9. Adhere to the highest ethical standards concerning research conduct.

EMJ editorial policy is to use the terms Emergency Medicine or Emergency Department instead of Casualty or A&E. This terminology reflects UK practice. Please clarify if you are happy for your article to be amended in this way. If this is not possible for reasons relevant to your country and your local usage we will respect that.

Open Access

Authors can choose to have their article published Open Access for a fee of £1,950 (plus applicable VAT).

Colour figure charges

During submission you will be asked whether or not you agree to pay for the colour print publication of your colour images. This service is available to any author publishing within this journal for a fee of £250 per article. Authors can elect to publish online in colour and black and white in print, in which case the appropriate selection should be made upon submission.

Article types and word counts

• Original articles
• Review
• Short Reports
• BETs
• Editorials
• Commentary
• Reflections on Prehospital Care
• Letters
• Rapid Responses
• Images in emergency medicine
• Cases from HEMS
• Supplements

The word count excludes the title page, abstract, tables, acknowledgements and contributions and the references.

Emergency Casebooks are no longer accepted in the EMJ; please consider submitting your article to BMJ Case Reports.

Original articles

For full length accounts of original research, often shorter articles are better. Additional information may be placed on the web site as a data supplement.

You also have the option to publish the abstract of your paper in your local language. If you wish to do this, please upload a Word copy of your abstract to your manuscript on Scholar One and save it as 'supplementary material'.

Abstract: 250 words
Word count: up to 3000 words
Illustrations and tables: up to 6
References: 25
Peer review: all papers are reviewed by at least one reviewer. If there is uncertainty about acceptance after review, papers are reviewed by the editors.

Reviews

EMJ will expect a 'Methods' section in review articles that explains the process of literature retrieval and appraisal. Additional information may be placed on the website as a data supplement.

You also have the option to publish the abstract of your paper in your local language. If you wish to do this please upload a Word copy of your abstract to our manuscript on Scholar One and save it as 'supplementary material'.

Word count: up to 3000 words.
Illustrations and tables: up to 6 tables.
References: up to 40.
Peer review: all papers are reviewed by at least one reviewer. If there is uncertainty about acceptance after review, a joint decision is made by the editorial team.

Short report

Short reports of experimental work, new methods, or a preliminary report can be accepted as two page papers; maximum length 750 words including abstract, tables, and legends. Maximum 10 references. Additional information may be placed on the web site as a data supplement.

Word count: up to 750 words.
Illustrations and tables: up to 3.
References: up to 10.
Peer review: all papers are reviewed by at least one reviewer. If there is uncertainty about acceptance after review, a joint decision is made by the editorial team.

BETs

BestBETs are reviews that are published in a set format which is as follows:

1. Title
2. Reported By:
3. Checked by:
4. Clinical Scenario
5. 3-part question
6. Search Strategy
7. Evidence Table, Columns on:
   • Author together with county and year of publication
   • Patients group
   • Study Type
   • Outcomes measured
   • Key Results
   • Study weaknesses
8. Comments
9. Clinical bottom line
10. References

The Clinical Bottom Line is written to answer the question: "Having found and appraised all the evidence available to me and presented in the evidence table, what would I do if faced with the same clinical situation again?"

All Bets should be submitted via the bestbets website www.bestbets.org
We do not accept Bets submitted via ScholarOne.

Word count: up to 1000 words.
Illustrations and tables: 1 table or figure.
References: up to 25.

Editorials

Editorials are written or commissioned by the editors, but suggestions for possible topics and authors are welcome.

Word count: up to 500 words.
Illustrations and tables: at editorial discretion.
References: up to 20, ideally 10.

Commentary

EMJ commentaries are produced to accompany a paper being published in the EMJ. The purpose may vary and authors of this type of article will often be given a brief by the editorial team. The main objectives may be any or all of the following; to highlight the importance of the article, to critique the article or the research method, to provide a balancing view if the article is controversial.

Word count: up to 500 words.
Illustrations and tables: 1 table or figure.
References: up to 8.
Commentaries are reviewed by the editors-in-chief.

Reflections on Prehospital Care

This section allows prehospital practitioners to succinctly report a clinical case they have attended and to reflect on what they learnt from dealing with it. Generally the case description will make up less than half of the whole report.

Word count: up to 750 words
References: up to 5 and/or 1 photograph
Papers are reviewed by one of the editors.

Letters

The editors welcome letters, which should not exceed 300 words or contain more than three references.

Papers are reviewed by one of the editors.

Rapid Responses

Letters in response to articles published in EMJ are welcome and should be submitted electronically via the website. Contributors should go to the abstract or full text of the article in question. At the top right corner of each article is a "contents box". Click on the "eLetters: Submit a response to this article" link.

Letters relating to or responding to previously published items in the journal will be shown to those authors, where appropriate.

Papers are reviewed by one of the editors.

Images in emergency medicine

Images can be accompanied by up to 200 words and a single reference.

Cases from HEMS

Cases from HEMS are commissioned only with a maximum length of 750 words, including abstract, tables, and legends. Additional information may be placed on the web site as a data supplement.

Word count: up to 750 words.
Illustrations and tables: up to 3.
References: up to 10.

Supplements

The BMJ Publishing Group journals are willing to consider publishing supplements to regular issues. Supplement proposals may be made at the request of:

1. The journal editor, an editorial board member or a learned society may wish to organise a meeting, sponsorship may be sought and the proceedings published as a supplement.
2. The journal editor, editorial board member or learned society may wish to commission a supplement on a particular theme or topic. Again, sponsorship may be sought.
3. The BMJPG itself may have proposals for supplements where sponsorship may be necessary.
4. A sponsoring organisation, often a pharmaceutical company or a charitable foundation, that wishes to arrange a meeting, the proceedings of which will be published as a supplement.

In all cases, it is vital that the journal's integrity, independence and academic reputation is not compromised in any way.

When contacting us regarding a potential supplement, please include as much of the information below as possible.

• Journal in which you would like the supplement published
• Title of supplement and/or meeting on which it is based
• Date of meeting on which it is based
• Proposed table of contents with provisional article titles and proposed authors
• An indication of whether authors have agreed to participate
• Sponsor information including any relevant deadlines
• An indication of the expected length of each paper Guest Editor proposals if appropriate

 

For further information on criteria that must be fulfilled, download the supplements guidelines (PDF).

Plagiarism detection

BMJ Group is a member of CrossCheck by CrossRef and iThenticate. iThenticate is a plagiarism screening service that verifies the originality of content submitted before publication. iThenticate checks submissions against millions of published research papers, and billions of web content. Authors, researchers and freelancers can also use iThenticate to screen their work before submission by visiting www.ithenticate.com.

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