Guide for Authors

Official Publication of The Association of Professors of Medicine

The editors of The American Journal of Medicine® welcome concise articles devoted to internal medicine and its specialties. Articles must be contributed solely to The American Journal of Medicine® and become the property of the publisher. Statements contained therein are the responsibility of the author(s). The publisher reserves copyright and renewal on all published material, and such material may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher.

• Submission Guidelines at a Glance

• Manuscript Submission Checklist

MANUSCRIPTS

• Address manuscripts to Joseph S. Alpert, MD, Editor-in-Chief, The American Journal of Medicine, 1840 East River Road, Suite 120, Tucson, Arizona 85718. All submissions should be formatted for US Letter (8.5 X 11 inches). All manuscripts must be submitted through the Journal's online submission and review system at http://www.ees.elsevier.com/ajm .

• Accepted manuscripts may be published in the print version of The American Journal of Medicine or in AJM Online. Abstracts for the online version of AJM will be printed in the Journal, but the full text will appear online with the other articles from that issue. Online articles are fully searchable through Medline, Science Direct, and other services.

• A cover letter, signed by the first author and corresponding author, should accompany the manuscript. It should include the name, mailing address, telephone and FAX numbers, and e-mail address of the corresponding author.

• In the cover letter and on the title page, indicate the type of manuscript you are submitting: Clinical Research Study, Review, Updates in Office Management, Images in Dermatology, Images in Radiology, Diagnostic Dilemma, ECG Image of the Month, Brief Observation, Clinical Communication to the Editor, Letter to the Editor, Editorial, Commentary, Medical Humanities, Physical Findings, Clinical Effectiveness, or APM Perspectives. Suggestions for potential reviewers are welcome. Case reports focusing on one patient should be submitted as Clinical Communications to the Editor. Research studies that involve fewer than 100 subjects should be submitted as Brief Observations. The editors reserve the right to change the article type. Please refer to the specific word limits, formatting guidelines and instructions for each article type before submission.

• The cover letter must attest that the manuscript represents original work, and that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. The cover letter should also state all authors meet criteria for authorship and that the authors will sign a statement attesting authorship, disclosing all potential conflicts of interest, and releasing the copyright should the manuscript be acceptable for publication.

• Potential conflicts of interest for all authors should be discussed in a separate document. An electronic cover letter from the corresponding author is acceptable. Authors of research articles should disclose any affiliation with any organization with a financial interest, direct or indirect, in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript (ie, consultancies, employment, expert testimony, honoraria, retainers, stock) that may affect the conduct or reporting of the work submitted. If uncertain as to what might be considered a potential conflict of interest, authors should err on the side of full disclosure. Because reviews and editorials are based on selection and interpretation of the literature, the Journal expects that authors of such articles will not have any financial interest in a company (or its competitor) that makes a product discussed in the article. Information about potential conflict of interest will be made available to reviewers and will be published with the manuscript at the discretion of the editors.

• Each author must have participated in the writing of the manuscript, and have seen and approved the submitted version. Further, each author should have been involved in the conception and design of the study, or the analysis of the data.

• Potential authors who have questions about these issues should contact the editorial office at editors@amjmed.org.

• All correspondence between the Journal's editorial office and the authors will be sent to the corresponding author only.

TEXT

• Use the Style Guide of the American Medical Association as a reference.

• Limit use of acronyms or abbreviations to those that are generally accepted (ie, DNA, MRI, STD, HIV, units of measurement, etc.)

• Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units (meter, kilogram, liter) or their decimal multiples. Temperatures should be given in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be given in millimeters of mercury.

• Cite in numerical order every reference, figure, and table. (Order of mention in text determines the number given to each.)

• Acknowledgments, including grant support, should be placed at the end of the text.

• Please put the manuscript number on all revisions and include it in all correspondence.

REFERENCES

·         Number in order of mention.

·         Provide complete concluding page numbers for all journal references and specific page numbers for all book references. Indicate all abstracts and letters.

·         Follow general arrangement, abbreviations, and punctuation as given in Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. For periodicals, follow INDEX MEDICUS, listing all authors when four or fewer; when five or more, list only first three and add et al.

·         Personal communications are discouraged. If included, they must be noted parenthetically in the text, dated by month and year, and accompanied by a written acknowledgment.

·         Please note that no periods are used after authors' initials.

TABLES

·         Start each table at top of new page.

·         Give each table a title. Number them (in arabic numerals, Table 1, 2, etc.) in the order in which they are mentioned in the text.

·         Provide a footnote to each table, identifying all abbreviations used.

FIGURES AND FIGURE LEGENDS

·         All figures should be submitted electronically through the online submission system.

·         Photographs should be tiff files of 300dpi or greater. High-quality jpg files are also acceptable.

·         Please note that artwork of published articles will not be returned.

·         Use black ink for all charts (line drawings). Make decimals, broken lines, etc., strong enough for reproduction.

·         All lettering should be of approximately equal size.

·         Use arrows to designate special features.

·         Titles should be included in the figure legend, not in the figure.

·         Number figures in order in which they are mentioned in the text, using arabic numerals (Figure 1, 2, etc.).

·         Identify at the end of each legend all abbreviations used in the figure.

·         Indicate staining method and magnification for all photomicrographs.

·         If figure legends are submitted separately from the figures, they should be listed in order on a single page.

·         Submit written permission from publisher and author to reproduce any previously published figures.

RAPID REVIEW

The editors will try to make a preliminary decision concerning the potential suitability of a manuscript for the Journal within a few days, and to obtain peer review expeditiously. Electronic submission of manuscripts will facilitate this process.