Instructions for Authors

Les instructions aux auteurs sont disponibles en français.

Overview

The Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine (CJEM) is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles of interest to Emergency Medicine care providers in rural, urban, community, and academic settings. CJEM focuses on emergency medicine content relevant to clinical practice, emergency medical services, research, medical education, administration, and continuing professional development and knowledge exchange. CJEM is indexed by the National Library of Medicine and is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP).

Scope and Content

We welcome submissions for any of the following categories. CJEM will make the final determination regarding category.
  • Original Research
    • EM Advances
    • ED Administration
    • Pediatric EM
    • Toxicology
    • EMS
    • Community EM
    • Education
  • State of the Art
  • Brief Educational Reports
  • Case Reports
  • Knowledge Applied to Practice
    • CJEM Journal Club
    • Diagnostic Challenge
    • Tips from the Trenches
    • Images
  • International EM
  • Editorials/Commentaries
  • Clinical Practice Guidelines
  • Resident Issues
  • Humanity

In addition, CJEM publishes letters to the editor and media reviews.

CJEM publishes articles in English or French; however, French language articles will be considered only if the bulk of the work was performed in Canada and the primary author is Canadian. Such submissions will be reviewed, edited, and published in French with an English abstract. Translation to French is provided for most editorials, abstracts of Original Research, issues of national significance, and CAEP position statements or guidelines.
 
CJEM provides high quality content in an easy-to-read format; brevity and use of the active voice are encouraged. Accepted articles will be edited for clarity, brevity, and style.

Manuscript Preparation

Authors should conform to the general guidelines laid out in “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.”1 CJEM uses the Canadian Oxford Dictionary (2nd ed.) for spelling; The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.) for grammar, style, and punctuation; and Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary (32nd ed.) for spelling of medical terms.

Formatting

Manuscripts should be double-spaced throughout. Authors should use a consistent 12-point font, preferably Times New Roman. Right margins should be unjustified (ragged). Do not include any special formats including small caps, paragraph adjustment, page numbering, running header, or embedded citations, all of which make the editorial process more difficult. 
 
Manuscripts must include the following:

 
Title page: The title page should include the article title, the authors’ name(s) as they should appear in print, and the affiliations and degrees of all authors. The name, address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address for the corresponding author should be provided. The title page must also include a word count and running header of no more than 150 characters. All papers must include an explicit statement on the title page declaring whether or not the authors have any financial or other conflicts of interest related to the submission (see Conflict of Interest below).
 
Abstracts: Structured abstracts (Objectives, Methods, Results, Conclusions) of up to 250 words are required for Original Research articles. Structured abstracts of up to 250 words are also required for State of the Art systematic reviews (Objectives, Data Source, Study Selection, Data Extraction, Data Synthesis, Conclusions). Case Reports should include an unstructured abstract of up to 200 words that summarizes the main points of the case. Abstracts are not required for other submissions including Editorials/Commentaries, Knowledge Applied to Practice, Resident Issues, or Humanity articles. For papers written in English, the abstracts will be translated into French by the editorial office and vice versa.
 

Laboratory Results: All results should be reported using SI units, including molar rather than mass-based units for concentration in most cases.
 
References: References should be formatted based on the examples provided at the end of these “Instructions for Authors.” Within the text, references should be numbered in the order they appear using standard text and angular brackets (e.g., <1>) rather than using superscript numbers. DO NOT LEAVE ANY special word-processing software formatting commands for sections or references embedded in the documents being submitted. References should cite surname and initials for up to three authors. Fourth and subsequent authors should be cited as “et al.”
 
A manuscript not meeting these requirements will be returned without review.

Manuscript Submission

All manuscripts (including tables and figures) must be submitted electronically via Manuscript Central’s ScholarOne tracking system at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cjem.
 
Cover Letter: All submissions should be accompanied by a brief cover letter. Within the cover letter, the corresponding author should disclose potential conflicts of interest and financial support, specify each author’s contribution to the work, and indicate that all co-authors have had the opportunity to review the final manuscript and have provided their permission to publish the manuscript.
 
Tables: Tables must be prepared in MS Word or equivalent using the Table feature, and be part of the main manuscript document. Tables cannot be used if they are in PowerPoint or Excel, or if they are supplied as images. Each table should appear on a separate page at the end of the article after the references. Each table should have a title and be numbered in order of callout within the text. Excessive use of horizontal lines and all shading should be avoided. Non-standard abbreviations and units of measure should appear in the table or legend.
 
Figures:  Each individual figure should be uploaded as a separate digital file. Figures must be clearly numbered in order of callout, and file names must match the figure numbers in the text. Photographs should be saved as TIF files, 300 dpi, and five inches in width. Black and white photographs should be saved in greyscale and colour photographs should be saved in CMYK. Line drawings should be saved as TIF, JPG, or EPS files, 600 dpi, and five inches in width. Black and white line drawings should be saved in greyscale and colour line drawings should be saved in CMYK. Authors who wish to publish a figure in colour in the printed edition will be responsible for the cost of doing so. However, colour figures will be put online in colour at no additional charge. Avoid unnecessary embellishments (e.g. 3-D bars for data with only two dimensions, internal gridlines, pie charts), but consider using the potential richness of a visual representation of the data to its fullest (e.g. scattergrams or boxplots rather than simple histograms, survival curves for time-to-event data). Flow charts must not exceed seven inches in width. A legend must be supplied for each figure including a descriptive title and sufficient information to render the figure to be self-explanatory. The figure legend(s) should appear in the main manuscript document, on a separate page after the Tables and in order of callout.
 
If figures, tables, illustrations, or other material have been taken or adapted from a previous publication, the authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce these items and providing said written permission to CJEM at the time of submission. If patients could possibly be identified by photographs or descriptions within the manuscript, authors are responsible for obtaining written consent from the patients to publish their photographs or descriptions. Further questions or comments regarding manuscript submission can be sent to cjem@rogers.com.

Previous Publication

In accordance with “Uniform Requirements,”1 manuscripts will be considered only if they have not been previously published nor are they under consideration by another journal. Authors are referred to “Uniform Requirements” for detailed guidelines on previous publication and exceptions.

Review and Editorial Processes

All submissions are initially reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief or one of the Senior Associate Editors. Articles judged unsuitable for CJEM will be returned to the authors following this step, typically within two weeks. Those meeting screening criteria will be forwarded for blinded peer review, with the exception of Letters to the Editor and Images. Peer review comments will be forwarded to a Decision Editor, who will decide whether the article should be categorized as “Accept,” “Revise and Accept,” “Revise and Resubmit,” or “Reject.” The Decision Editor will compose a response letter to the author. In most cases, authors can expect a decision within 8 weeks of original manuscript submission. 
 
To revise your manuscript, log into http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cjem and enter your Author Centre, where you will find your manuscript title listed under “Manuscripts with Decisions.” Under “Actions,” click on “Create a Revision.” Your manuscript number will be appended to denote a revision. You will be unable to make your revisions on the originally submitted version of the manuscript. Instead, revise your manuscript using a word processing program and save it on your computer. Please also highlight the changes to your manuscript within the document, ideally by using the track changes mode in MS Word or by using bold or coloured text. Once the revised manuscript is prepared, you can upload it and submit it through your Author Centre.

When submitting your revised manuscript, you will be able to respond to the comments made by the reviewer(s) in the space provided. In this space, please address each of the suggestions and cite where in the manuscript the change has been made. If no change was made, please explain why. In order to expedite the processing of the revised manuscript, please be as specific as possible in your response to the reviewer(s).

All revisions will be reviewed by the Decision Editor, who may consult with the original or new peer reviewers, to determine whether review comments have been addressed. The Decision Editor, along with the Editor-in-Chief or a Senior Associate Editor, will make a final decision regarding publication. Accepted articles will be edited, and authors will have the opportunity to review and approve revisions prior to publication. Manuscripts submitted to CJEM will be treated with respect and confidentiality.
 
Published manuscripts become the property of CAEPand may not be published elsewhere without permission.

  

Conflict of Interest

All authors are required to sign a conflict of interest disclosure form indicating any financial interests or other potential conflicts of interest they have relating to the manuscript. Such conflicts might arise from personal relationships or from institutional relationships. CJEM has adopted the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors policy on disclosure of conflicts, including the glossary which provides a definition of conflict of interest and other terms surrounding potential conflicts (available at http://www.icmje.org/coi_glossary.html). Each author of a work must complete and submit a conflict of interest form found at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf. If the corresponding author declares on behalf of all the other authors that no conflicts exist, then a single form to that effect from the corresponding author will suffice. Completed conflict of interest declarations should be uploaded at the time of manuscript submission. If sent by mail or e-mail to the journal, they must be received before a decision (other than rejection) can be rendered.

Manuscript Categories

Original Research

(2000–3000 words excluding abstract, tables, figures, and references)
 
These articles present primary data arising from original research. Effective September 2007, all clinical trial reports submitted to CJEM must be registered with an accepted clinical trials registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov2 or the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)1, and the registration number should be included in the manuscript. Researchers initiating studies should register as soon as Ethics Board approval has been obtained. Although CJEM encourages researchers to use ClinicalTrials.gov as their registry site2, any recognized international registry will be accepted. Discussion about the role of trials registries can be found in an editorial by Laine et al.3
 
Authors of randomized clinical trials should conform to the criteria specified in the CONSORT statement.4 Cardiac arrest studies should follow the Utstein criteria when appropriate.5
 
Authors of retrospective medical record reviews should, where appropriate, incorporate the design elements discussed by Gilbert et al.6 CJEM has established minimal criteria for publication of medical record reviews based on these criteria. Authors reporting the performance of a diagnostic test should follow the STARD initiative.7
  • A structured Abstract must be included (see above).
  • The Introduction should succinctly discuss study background, importance and the a priori study question, objectives or hypothesis.
  • The Methods section should include a description of the overall study design as planned, the study setting, time period, population studied (with eligibility criteria and unit of analysis if different from individual patients), a description of the intervention, the primary and secondary outcome measures, and the statistical analysis employed.For investigations involving human subjects, the nature and timing of the consent that was obtained must be specified. There should be sufficient detail to allow a knowledgeable reader to replicate the study, at least in theory. Authors must explicitly name the ethics committee or investigational review board which approved the research.
  • The Results section should present primary and secondary results, without undue repetition of data reported in tables and figures. Any substantial deviations from the study as planned usually appear in this section. Measurements and rates should be reported using the appropriate number of significant digits, based on the precision of the measure (e.g. “After providing informed consent, 11 (13%) of 82 subjects withdrew from the study before being administered the intervention.” rather than “(13.4%)”).
  • The Discussion section should highlight the important study findings and their implications especially in the context of previous work, but without exhaustively summarizing the prior literature. In addition, the Discussion should identify limitations of the research and how any biases may affect the interpretation of the findings.
  • Conclusions should be stated in one paragraph and must be supported by the study findings. Avoid extending your conclusion beyond what your data show.
  • Most papers will benefit from at least one and not more than five tables or figures.

State of the Art

(3000–4000 words excluding abstract, tables, figures, and references)
 
This section is devoted to quantitative or qualitative systematic reviews of the scientific literature. Narrative or non-systematic reviews will not be considered for publication. All articles or data sources should be selected systematically for inclusion and critically evaluated, and the selection process should be described in the paper. Authors of systematic reviews should refer to the PRISMA statement whether or not they incorporate a meta-analysis in the review.8 Authors of systematic reviews are encouraged to follow the 27-item PRISMA checklist (available at prisma-statement.org), and to provide a flow diagram describing the selection of studies.

Brief Educational Reports

(1000 words or less with one figure or table and no more than 10 references)
 
For this section, CJEM will consider original scholarly submissions that are not original research but do discuss educational advances in emergency medicine. Authors should define how the submission is innovative, builds on existing literature and adds to the scholarship of education. Submissions should be structured as follows: Background, Purpose or Rationale, Description of the Innovation, Discussion, and Summary. Sufficient detail allowing readers to reproduce the innovation is required. If necessary, forms or other tools required to set up the innovation may be accepted for on-line publication. A unstructured abstract of less than 200 words is also required.

Case Reports

(1000–2000 words excluding abstract, tables, figures, and references)
 
Case Reports will only be considered if they:
  • identify a previously undescribed finding or phenomenon
  • describe a therapy that could lead to future research or a change in practice

All cases for consideration should have a “take home” clinical message pertinent to Canadian Emergency Physicians.

Authors should conform to the general guidelines laid out in “Uniform Requirements.”1 Manuscripts submitted to “Case Reports” should include:

Knowledge Applied to Practice

CJEM Journal Club: (600-1200 words excluding tables, figures, and references)
“CJEM Journal Club” is devoted to evidence-based article reviews. The aims of this section are to demonstrate the use of the critical review format, to review articles of interest to emergency physicians, and to determine the relative validity and usefulness of these articles. To assist readers in keeping abreast of the relevant EM literature, timely reviews of important articles/topics will be a factor in the decision to accept. Review articles must address three key questions: 

  • What are the results?
  • Are the results valid?
  • Will the results help me care for my patients?
The preferred review methodology, including critical review forms, is described in “Users Guide to the Medical Literature,” a series published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.9 Authors wishing specific guidance should consider making use of the critical appraisal tools found at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine www.cebm.net,10 or peruse articles published in ACP Journal.11

Diagnostic Challenge: (500–1000 words excluding tables, figures, and references)
Authors may submit brief case summaries accompanied by one or two images that will stimulate diagnostic deliberation by the reader and form a foundation for discussion. Diagnosis and explanation should be distinct from the case presentation.

Tips from the Trenches: (1000–1500 words excluding tables, figures, and references)
The purpose of this section is to publish very brief reports of clinical techniques or “pearls.”

Images: (250 words or less excluding references)
This section should include interesting, high-quality clinical images with accompanying text that briefly reviews the important features of the related case. 

International EM

(1000–1500 words excluding tables, figures, and references)


This is a forum for descriptive articles on emergency medicine experiences in countries other than Canada. Articles should contain elements of human interest or of disease or practice patterns that are unique or unusual and of interest to Canadian emergency physicians. Accompanying visual images are strongly encouraged. .

Editorials/Commentaries

(1000–1500 words excluding references)

Although normally by invitation, authors may submit a focused discussion on major current problems of emergency physicians or on controversial matters with significant implications for emergency medicine. Commentaries may also be sought to accompany an original research article in a given issue, generally by invitation of the editors.

Clinical Practice Guidelines 

Authors planning to submit clinical practice guidelines should communicate directly with the Editor-in-Chief, and will be expected to follow CJEM’s clinical practice guidelines. In order to be considered for publication, guidelines should be endorsed by a national organization and may be abridged or edited due to space constraints. 

Resident Issues

(750–1000 words excluding references)

Humanity

(1000 words or less excluding references)

Submissions should reflect the challenges of working in medicine. Generally they should be humorous or provide some human interest and add to our understanding of the physician experience, particularly in Canada.

Letters

(Letters will be limited to 400 words and five references)

Letters should be addressed to the Editor, and should be submitted electronically via Manuscript Central’s Scholar One tracking system at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cjem. Letters will be considered for publication if they relate to topics of interest to emergency physicians in urban, rural, community, or academic settings, or if they are in response to (and relevant to) a recent CJEM publication. Letters are generally not peer reviewed but may be edited for brevity and clarity. Letters responding to a previously published CJEM article should be submitted within eight weeks of the article’s publication. Authors whose work is discussed will typically be given an opportunity to respond.

Contacting CJEM Editors

Authors with questions regarding a submission or prospective authors who wish to discuss a paper in the development stage are encouraged to contact the Editor-in-Chief or the appropriate Section Editor by e-mail at cjem@rogers.com.
 
Further information can be obtained from the Editor-in-Chief or the Managing Editor at cjem@rogers.com.

Additional Resources

Authors are encouraged to submit articles in many areas of research. Common methodological guidelines for reporting different types of studies have been summarized below. Authors should generally follow these reporting guidelines for a given study design, in an effort to improve the overall quality of the medical literature. Please be advised that this list should not be considered comprehensive for all possible study designs.

Table 1: Additional Resources
STUDY DESIGN REPORTING GUIDELINE

Randomized Controlled Trial -
Superiority design

 CONSORT Statement12
 
Randomized Controlled Trial -
Non-Inferiority/Equivalence design		 Modified CONSORT Statement13
 
Systematic Review PRISMA Statement8
 
Diagnostic Test Performance Study STARD Statement7
 
Systematic Review of Diagnostic Tests QUADAS Statement14
 
Meta-analysis of Observational Studies MOOSE Statement15
 
Economic Evaluations CHEC Criteria16
 

References

  1. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. Available at: http://www.icmje.org/urm_main.html (accessed December 20, 2011).
  2. The US National Institutes of Health. ClinicalTrials.gov. Available at: http://clinicaltrials.gov (accessed July 2012).
  3. Laine C, Horton R, DeAngelis CD, et al. Clinical trial registration: looking back and moving ahead. CMAJ2007;177(1):57-8, doi: 10.1503/cmaj.070753.
  4. The CONSORT Group. The CONSORT statement. Available at: http://www.consort-statement.org/ (accessed December 20, 2011).
  5. Cummins RO, Chamberlain DA, Abramson NS, et al. Recommended guidelines for uniform reporting of data from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: the Utstein Style. Task Force of the American Heart Association, the European Resuscitation Council, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and the Australian Resuscitation Council. Ann Emerg Med 1991;20(8):861-74.
  6. Gilbert EH, Lowenstein SR, Koziol-McLain J, et al. Chart reviews in emergency medicine research: Where are the methods? Ann Emerg Med 1996;27(3):305-8.
  7. Bossuyt PM, Reitsma JB, Bruns DE, et al. Towards complete and accurate reporting of studies of diagnostic accuracy: the STARD initiative. Clin Chem 2003;49:1-6. Available at: http://www.stard-statement.org/
  8. Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, et al., The PRISMA Group (2009). Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: The PRISMA Statement. Open Med 2009;3(3):123-30. http://www.prisma-statement.org/
  9. Hunt DL, McKibbon KA. Locating and appraising systematic reviews. Ann Intern Med 1997;126(7):532-8.
  10. Higgins JPT, Green S, editors. Systematic reviews seek to collate all evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria in order to address a specific research question. They aim to minimize bias by using explicit, systematic methods." Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions Version 5.1.0 [updated March 2011]. The Cochrane Collaboration, 2011. Available at: http://www.cochrane-handbook.org/
  11. American College of Physicians. The American College of Physicians Journal Club. Available at: http://annals.org/journal.aspx
  12. Begg C, Cho M, Eastwood S, et al. Improving the quality of reporting of randomized controlled trials. The CONSORT statement. JAMA 1996;276(8):637-9. http://www.consort-statement.org/consort-statement/
  13. Piaggio G, Elbourne DR, Altman DG, et al. Reporting of noninferiority and equivalence randomized trials: an extension of the CONSORT statement. JAMA 2006;295(10):1152-60. Available at: http://www.consort-statement.org/extensions/designs/non-inferiority-and-...
  14. Whiting PF, Weswood ME, Rutjes AWS, et al. Evaluation of QUADAS, a tool for the quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2006; 6:9, doi:10.1186/1471-2288-6-9.Available at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2288/6/9 (accessed July 2012).
  15. Stroup DF, Berlin JA, Morton SC, et al. Meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology: a proposal for reporting. JAMA 2000;283(15):2008-12, doi: 10.1001/jama.283.15.2008.
  16. Evers S, Goossens M, de Vet H, et al. Criteria list for assessment of methodological quality of economic evaluations : consensus on health economic criteria. Int J Tech Assess Health Care. 2005;21(2):240-5.