INSIDE WVSMA
West Virginia State Medical Association Manuscript Guidelines
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Education , Outcome Studies , Cost-Effective Analysis , Interventional Studies , Randomized Controlled Trials , Screening , and Diagnostic Test Studies
Guidelines :
• 3,000 words or less ( does not include abstract , references , or tables )
• 30 references or less
• No more than six authors
• No more than five visuals ( figures and tables combined ). Each visual must be accompanied by a descriptive caption near the area it references .
Manuscript Components :
• Title page ( includes title , short title , author names , titles and affiliations , and corresponding author , including mail and email addresses )
• Funding or IRB approval statement
• Abstract ( structured headings ) 250 words or less
• Introduction
• Materials and methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
REVIEW ARTICLE
Accumulative results of multiple articles on a subject of interest to a general medical readership
Guidelines :
• 3,500 words or less ( does not include abstract , references , or tables )
• No more than three tables that include a descriptive caption above the table and should appear in the manuscript near the area it references
• 60 references or less
• No more than four authors
Manuscript Components :
• Title page ( includes title , author names , titles and affiliations and corresponding author , including mail and email addresses )
• Funding or IRB approval statement , if applicable
• Abstract ( unstructured ) 250 words or less
• Methods used to select , locate , and extract data from existing publications
• Section headings are topic dependent ( See the table in Writing for the Clinical Literature : Step-Wise Guide for the Novice Author )
• Summary ( 300 words or less )
CASE REPORT
Reports that are unique , present challenges , and provide learning points for a general medical readership . Submissions that do not add to the literature or present anything unique will be rejected without peer review .
Guidelines :
• 1,500 words or less ( does not include abstract , references , or tables )
• 20 references or less
• No more than four authors
• No more than four visuals ( figures and tables combined ). Each visual must be accompanied by a descriptive caption near the area it references .
• No identifying information about the patient or written consent from the patient will need to be provided
Manuscript Components :
• Title page ( includes title , short title , author names , titles and affiliations , and corresponding author , including mail and email addresses )
• Abstract ( unstructured ) 250 words or less
• Case presentation
• Discussion
• Conclusion
FOR ALL SUBMISSIONS :
• Please submit your manuscript to a plagiarism checker and state in your cover letter that no more than 10 % plagiarism was detected .
• Cover letter : Must include title ; statement of value or uniqueness of manuscript to the literature ; disclosure of conflicts of interest ; plagiarism check statement ; andattestation that the paper has not been submitted or published elsewhere .
• Submit a line-numbered Word document and an unnumbered PDF file at 1.5 spacing . Eachfile must include tables with titles and figures with captions in place within the applicabledocument area .
• Image filesmust bein . jpg format ( 300 dpi )
• Superscripts must follow punctuation in the body of the manuscript without the use ofparenthesesor brackets .
• References : AMA Manual of Style
• Permission for use of copyrighted material or patient data or photos
• Mention of race : Race is a social construct and must be treated as such in medical publishing . Whenever the race of patients is included in submissions , authors must explain the reasoningfor including race and how race was determined . If race is mentioned unnecessarily and considered as a biological construct in the submission , the submission will be desk rejected or at minimum returned for major revisions
SUBMIT YOUR MANUSCRIPT TO WVSMA . ORG / SUBMIT-AN-ARTICLE
48 • www . wvsma . org