All articles submitted for publication are peer-reviewed. The membership of the Editorial Board and the International Advisory Panel is available on the Contact page.

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS (May also be downloaded as .pdf)

A sample title page is available for download.

A Consent to Medical Publication form is available for download as a Word file.

Ethos

The Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps aims to publish high quality original research, reviews and case reports, as well as other invited articles, which pertain to the practice of military medicine in its broadest sense. It publishes material from all ranks, services and corps within the Defence Medical Services, both Regular and Reserve, but also welcomes submissions from beyond the Services. It is intended not only to propagate current knowledge and expertise but also to act as an institutional memory for the practice of medicine within the military.

General Information

All submitted material is peer reviewed and it is assumed that submission has been made solely to this journal. Previous presentation of submitted material or publication in abstract form is acceptable but should be declared when submitting the full manuscript to J R Army Med Corps. The Editor reserves the right to edit submissions into house style without further discussion with the author(s). The Editor cannot enter into correspondence about papers rejected for publication, and the Editors decision in these matters is final. All material published in the J R Army Med Corps becomes the property of the Journal Committee and subject to Crown Copyright. Copyright powers are exercised by the Editor on behalf of the Journal Committee.

Electronic submission

For all material intended for publication, submission must be in electronic format using MS Word software. There is no longer a requirement to provide paper copies of the manuscript or illustrations. Submissions will only be accepted by email to the Editorial Assistant at ramcjournal@hotmail.co.uk and should be copied to the editor at the time of submission on editor.jramc@googlemail.com. Limit individual file sizes to 5Mb and send no more than 10Mb in any one email. If large submissions are being made in a series of emails, describe the expected number and contents of emails to ensure receipt of all material. On acceptance of an article the Journal will arrange all necessary security clearances for publication.

Types of Paper

The journal publishes a variety of article types some of which, such as contributions to defined 'series' areas or Editorials, are generally invited submissions from the Editorial Board. Suggestions for possible topics and authors are welcome. Authors who feel they could contribute an article to an ongoing series are asked to contact the editor. Inexperienced or junior authors are welcome to contact the editor (editor.jramc@googlemail.com) to discuss potential articles and for advice on manuscript construction.

Original articles: detailing original research should normally be less than 3000 words. Review articles: providing concise inŽdepth reviews of established and new areas relevant to the practice of Military Medicine may be up to 5000 words. Case reports: should seek to educate rather than just fascinate. There is no particular word limit but it should contain an unstructured abstract, a pertinent literature review and have a demonstrable educational value. A high quality image to illustrate the case is recommended. No more than two tables or figures should be included. Case reports written by junior doctors are particularly welcomed. Letters: are welcomed by the editor. They should usually not exceed 300 words or contain more than 3 references. Letters should be typed doubleŽspaced with wide margins. Footnotes and Endpieces: One high quality image illustrating an interesting clinical or military medical phenomenon, historical vignette or subject of interest should be submitted with an accompanying legend of no more than 3-500 words .

Preparation of Manuscripts

Manuscripts should be typed using MS Word in double spacing with adequate margins all round. Each table should be numbered in Arabic numerals and appear on a separate page. Titles and legends for tables should appear on a separate sheet after the reference list. Use Times New Roman font in 12 pitch. Headings should be limited wherever possible to 3 levels as follows:

Level A    Bold

Level B    Bold italic

Level C    Italic

Manuscripts should conform to the Journal's style. Abbreviations should be kept to a minimum and must always be explained on first appearance. Drugs should be referred to by their approved name.

Title Page: this should include the full title of the article and a running title (of less than 45 characters including spaces) for page headings. The names, ranks and affiliations of all authors should be included. Identify the corresponding author (to whom all correspondence and page proofs will be sent) and their address, telephone and fax numbers and email address. Submissions will not be accepted without a current email address. An example of the expected format of the Title Page is downloadable from the Instructions to Authors section of the Journal website (download the sample title page). A second title page containing only the title of the manuscript, a word count (excluding abstract and references) and two suggested reviewers for the article. These two reviewer suggestions should included their current rank (if applicable), job title and contact details including an email address.

Abstract: all articles, except letters, should begin with a structured abstract of no more than 300 words using the headings: objectives, methods, results, and conclusions. The results section should include important numerical or statistical values. For review articles and case reports the abstract should be unstructured and may be briefer.

Main Text: should be arranged into at least four sections. The Introduction should outline the background to the topic under discussion and explain the rationale of the paper. The Methods should contain sufficient detail of the experimental design to allow the reader to replicate the study. Statistical methods should be described and may be included in a separate subsection. Results should be concise, without repetition of detail from the methods section nor replication of data within tables and figures (and vice versa). SI units should be used throughout (except that blood pressure should continue to be expressed in millimetres of mercury). The Discussion should address the current literature on the topic and a critical appraisal of results against that literature undertaken. Authors should make clear which comments are deductions from the study and which are informed speculation. Conclusions: A separate conclusions or summary section may be included if desired. New information or references should not normally appear in the conclusion section. Acknowledgements should be given where appropriate and included after the main body of the text. It is recognised that these subsections may not be entirely applicable to every article, particularly review articles, and a common sense approach should be adopted in such cases. References should be referred to by arabic numerals (not superscript) in square brackets in the order in which they appear in the text and listed in numberical order in a separate section at the end of the text. Do not use MS Word's footnote facility as this causes problems with editing and typesetting. References must be in the Vancouver style listing all authors unless there are more than six, in which case list the first three followed by et al.

References should be listed in the following styles:

Journal articles:

Allen MJ, Barnes MR. Exercise pain in the lower leg. J Bone Joint Surg 1986; 68: 818-23.

Chapter in a book:

Davies ML, Garner JP. Abdominal trauma. In : Greaves I, Porter K, Garner JP (eds) Trauma Care Manual 2^nd Edn. London: Hodder Arnold, 2009;Ch 13.

Book:

Felician DV, Mattox KL, Moore EE. Trauma 6^th Edn. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008.

Particular attention should be paid to providing correctly referenced papers. Submissions that do not comply with these requirements will be returned to the authors for correction prior to entering the review process.

Figures and Illustrations

Images should be submitted electronically in .TIF or .GIF formats, although high quality .JPEG files of at least 300dpi are permissible. Images should be sent as individual files titled by figure number and not embedded in the text. Legends for figures, illustrations and tables should appear on a separate page after the reference list and should contain enough information to allow the figure or table to be comprehensible without reference to the text.

Proofs

The corresponding author of each paper accepted for publication will receive page proofs prior to publication and it is the author's responsibility to check and correct them. Only minor corrections can be made at this stage, and corrections other than printing errors and very minor alterations may be charged to the author. Authors who do not correct their proofs in the allotted time will be assumed to have abrogated their responsibility for corrections and additionally will risk delay in publication. Proof corrections should be returned to the Editorial Assistant, Headquarters Army Medical Services, FASC, Slim Road, Camberley, Surrey, GU15 4NP, preferably by email. The corresponding author will be sent a .pdf file of the article 6Ž8 weeks after publication in lieu of reprints, and it is their responsibility to distribute the file to any co-authors.