Submit a Clinical/Scientific Article

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

Please review and follow all Editorial Policies prior to submitting a clinical/scientific article (i.e., clinical case report, clinical image article, original research, or review article).

All materials must be submitted via email, preferably in Word, to the attention of the editor-in-chief, BC Medical Journal, journal@doctorsofbc.ca. If you have any questions not answered below, please contact us at journal@doctorsofbc.ca or 604 638-2815.

Manuscripts should not have been submitted to any other publication. Manuscripts are subject to copyediting and editorial revisions, but authors remain responsible for statements in the work, including editorial changes; for accuracy of references; and for obtaining permissions.

The journal will communicate with the corresponding author during the manuscript submission, peer-review, and publication process. The corresponding author will be asked to respond to editorial queries, check page proofs for accuracy, and should be available to respond to any questions or possible media enquiries that arise after publication.

The BCMJ endorses the “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (Updated January 2024), and encourages authors to review the complete text of that document at www.icmje.org/recommendations.

Manuscript components

Clinical/scientific articles should be 2000–4000 words in length, including tables and references. Manuscripts should contain no more than five tables and/or figures.

Survey studies must have a response rate of at least 50% for the manuscript to be reviewed by the BCMJ Editorial Board for publication consideration. Manuscripts with less than this response rate will not be reviewed. We recognize that it is not always possible to achieve this rate, so you may ask the editor-in-chief in advance to waive this rule, and if the circumstances warrant it, they may agree to have the manuscript reviewed.

Clinical images should include an image with a case description or image description (200–300 words) with a maximum of five references. Images must be high resolution; if unsure, send highest resolution possible (up to 5 MB) and we will advise if necessary. Include a patient consent form from www.bcmj.org/author-form

The first page of the manuscript should include the following:

  • Title, and subtitle, if any.
  • Name, address, email, and phone number of the corresponding author.
  • Preferred given name or initials and last name for each author, with relevant academic degrees.
  • All authors’ professional/institutional affiliations, sufficient to provide the basis for an author note such as: “Dr Sang is an associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of British Columbia and a staff gynecologist at Vancouver General Hospital.”
  • A structured or unstructured abstract of no more than 150 words. If structured, the preferred headings are “Background,” “Methods,” “Results,” and “Conclusions.”
  • Three key words or short phrases to assist in indexing.
  • Competing interests, if any.

Formatting:

  • Avoid unnecessary formatting (we strip all formatting from manuscripts).
  • Double-space all parts of the manuscript.
  • Use continuous line numbering.
  • Number all pages consecutively.
  • Ensure in-text references are in correct numerical order.
  • Ensure the reference list is in correct numerical order and is complete.

References to published material

Keep references to fewer than 30. Authors are responsible for reference accuracy. References must be numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text. Avoid using auto-numbering as this can cause problems during production.

Include all relevant details regarding publication, including correct abbreviation of journal titles, as in the List of Journals Indexed for MEDLINE; year, volume number, inclusive page numbers, and DOI if available; full names and locations of book publishers; inclusive page numbers of relevant source material; full web address of the document, not just the host page, and date the page was accessed.

Examples:

  1. Gilsanz V, Gibbons DT, Roe TF, et al. Vertebral bone density in children: Effect of puberty. Radiology 2022;166:847-850. doi: 10.1148/radiology.166.3.3340782. (NB: List up to four authors or editors; for five or more, list first three and use et al.) 
  2. Mollison PL. Blood transfusion in clinical medicine. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Scientific Publications; 2020. pp. 78-80. 
  3. O’Reilly RA. Vitamin K antagonists. In: Colman RW, Hirsh J, Marder VJ, et al. (eds). Hemostasis and Thrombosis. Philadelphia, PA: JB Lippincott Co; 2017. pp. 1367-1372. 
  4. Canadian Cancer Society. Canadian cancer statistics 2019. 2019. Accessed 22 April 2024. https://cdn.cancer.ca/-/media/files/research/cancer-statistics/2019-stat.... (NB: The access date is the date the author consulted the source.)

A book cited in full, without page number citations, should be listed separately under Additional or Suggested reading. Such a list should contain no more than five items.

References to unpublished material

These may include articles that have been read at a meeting or symposium but have not been published, or material accepted for publication but not yet published (in press).

Examples:

  1. Maurice WL, Sheps SB, Schechter MT. Sexual activity with patients: A survey of BC physicians. Presented at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, Winnipeg, MB, 5 October 2023. 
  2. Kim-Sing C, Kutynec C, Harris S, et al. Breast cancer and risk reduction: Diet, physical activity, and chemoprevention. CMAJ. In press.  

Personal communications are not included in the reference list, but may be cited in the text, with type of communication (oral or written), communicant’s full name, affiliation, and date (e.g., oral communication with H.E. Marmon, director, BC Centre for Disease Control, 12 November 20214.

Material submitted for publication but not accepted should not be included.

Tables and figures

Tables and figures should supplement the text, not duplicate it. Keep length and number of tables and figures to a minimum (ideally, no more than a total of five tables and/or figures). Include a descriptive title and units of measure for each table and figure. Obtain permission and acknowledge the source fully if you use data or figures from another published or unpublished source.

Tables:

  • Submit tables as Word or Excel files so that they may be formatted for style. Please do not use shadowing or other special effects.
  • Number tables consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each.
  • Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading.
  • Explain all nonstandard abbreviations in footnotes.
  • Ensure each table is cited in the text.

Figures (illustrations):

  • Images must be high resolution; if unsure, send highest resolution possible and we will advise if necessary.
  • Number figures consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each.
  • Place titles and explanations in legends, not in or on the illustrations themselves.
  • Provide internal scale markers for photomicrographs.
  • Ensure each figure is cited in the text.

Permissions

It is the author’s responsibility to obtain written permission from both author and publisher for material, including figures and tables, taken or adapted from other sources. Permissions should accompany the manuscript when submitted.

Units

Report measurements of length, height, weight, and volume in metric units. Give temperatures in degrees Celsius and blood pressures in millimetres of mercury. Report hematologic and clinical chemistry measurements in the metric system according to the International System of Units (SI).

Abbreviations

Except for units of measure, we discourage abbreviations. However, if a small number are necessary, use standard abbreviations only, preceded by the full name at first mention, e.g., in vitro fertilization (IVF). Avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract.

Drug names

Use generic drug names. Use lowercase for generic names, uppercase for brand names, e.g., venlafaxine hydrochloride (Effexor). Drugs not yet available in Canada should be so noted.

Checklists

When submitting a clinical/scientific article, authors must follow and complete the applicable checklist of information to include.
Links to checklists are provided below as well as on the Author Form.

Author Form

When submitting a clinical/scientific article, all authors must complete the BCMJ’s six-part online Author Form. 

1. Authorship. All authors must certify that they qualify as an author of the manuscript. To be listed as an author in the BCMJ, the following four conditions must be met:

  • Substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; and
  • Drafting the manuscript or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; and
  • Final approval of the version to be published; and
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Order of authorship is decided by the co-authors.

2. Copyright. All authors must agree to have their manuscript published in the BCMJ in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. Copyright of published manuscripts will be held by the article’s authors or their institutions. 

3. Disclosure. All authors must disclose if they have accepted any of the benefits listed on the form related to the content of the manuscript. Disclosure represents a commitment to transparency, helps reviewers determine whether the manuscript will be accepted for publication, and may be used for a note to accompany the text. 

Note: Consent. If the manuscript is a case report or if an individual patient is described, written consent from the patient (or their legal guardian or substitute decision maker) must also be obtained on the Patient Consent Form.

4. Artificial Intelligence (AI)–Assisted Technology. Authors must disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)–assisted technologies (e.g., large language models, chatbots, or image creators) in the production of the manuscript. Authors who use such technology should describe how they used it in both a cover letter and an acknowledgment section in the manuscript.

5. Checklists. When submitting a clinical/scientific article, authors must complete the applicable checklist of information to include. Links to the online checklists are provided above, as well as in the Author Form.

6. Peer Review. Authors must supply two to three recommended reviewers on the Author Form.