Menopause International Guidelines for Authors
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These instructions comply with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (for further details, see the ICMJE site)
1. Aims and scope
Menopause International is a highly-cited resource of news, research and opinion. Aimed at those involved in the study and treatment of menopausal conditions across the world, it is a vital resource for all practitioners in this field of menopausal health. The official journal of the British Menopause Society, Menopause International has a broad scope, tackling all the issues in this field, including the current controversies surrounding postmenopausal health and an ageing and expanding female population.
2. Editorial policy
Original, previously unpublished contributions will be considered for publication on the understanding that they are submitted exclusively to Menopause International. If any form of publication elsewhere (including electronic media) of any of the material in the submitted manuscript, other than an abstract of not more than 300 words, has occurred or is planned, the author must identify such in the covering letter and must include a copy of the other publication.
Covering letter
To help the Editors in their preliminary evaluation, please indicate why you think the manuscript is suitable for publication.
Peer review
All manuscripts submitted for publication undergo peer review. Referees are chosen for their knowledge of the topic. If a manuscript is considered not to be acceptable as submitted, but could be made acceptable with revision, it will be returned to the corresponding author with a detailed appraisal. This action should not be interpreted as any sort of commitment to accept the paper. Revisions must be received within 30 days. A letter replying to the referees’ points, item by item, must be included, together with a copy of the revised manuscript highlighting the changes. The revised manuscript is evaluated by the Editors, and may be sent back to the referees. The manuscript may be accepted for publication if the revisions are considered to answer all concerns.
Ethics approval
All research submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee, where appropriate.
Patient consent
Any article containing identifiable patient information must be accompanied by a statement of consent to publication.
If there is any doubt about whether or not information is identifiable, the Editors are happy to discuss this before an article is submitted.
Reviewers will also be asked to take careful account of issues relating to patient confidentiality when reviewing articles.
Case studies are not the only kinds of article to which this rule will be applied, but they will be subject to additional scrutiny. Not only should submissions be accompanied by a statement of consent, but the Editors also expect to be informed about the measures that have been taken to anonymise the details that could have led to parties being identified. They also reserve the right to work with the authors to make additional anonymising changes as they or the reviewers see fit. The Editors may also ask authors to remove personal information that, whilst interesting and colourful, does not add to the substance of an article, but does increase the likelihood of parties being identified. The exception to this will be where the patient has indicated in writing that she/he wants to be identified, has read the material, has discussed the consequences of being identified, and has agreed to the disclosure of all the personal information contained in the article.
In order to ensure that valuable and novel issues are aired, the Editors will sometimes consider publishing cases studies that contain potentially identifiable information where it has been impossible or clearly undesirable to seek consent from relevant parties. However, given the strong preference for consent having been sought and obtained the reasons for not seeking consent must be compelling, and the public interest arguments for publishing the case must be powerful. In cases where consent has not been obtained, the authors must provide a statement from a Medical Director or equivalent that the hospital or medical centre is happy for the case to be published.
Competing interests and other declarations
All authors are required to declare any conflicts of interest when submitting papers for publication. Declarations of funding sources, a guarantor and a statement of contributorship are also required.
Permissions
All previously published material must be accompanied by the written consent to reproduction of the copyright holder. An acknowledgement of permission should be included at the relevant point in the paper, and a full reference to the original place of publication should be included in the reference list.
Copyright
Authors of accepted manuscripts will be required to allocate copyright to the publisher prior to publication.
3. Types of articles
Please note that all word counts include the abstract, acknowledgements and references. Please take care not to exceed the word limit.
Original articles: a full-length report of original basic or clinical investigation (2000–3000 words, up to 30 references). A structured abstract of no more than 250 words with the following sections is required: Objective, Study design, Main outcome measures, Results, Conclusions. The rest of the paper should be structured in conventional style: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References.
The Introduction should describe the questions addressed by the report and must state the objective of the research. The literature review should be relevant, but not detailed. The Methods section should describe the research methodology in sufficient detail that others could reasonably be expected to be able to duplicate the work. However, if the methodology has been previously published, the appropriate reference should be cited, and a full description is not required. Methods of statistical analysis should be identified and, when appropriate, the basis for their selection stated. Statistical software programs used should be cited in the text. P values should be expressed to no more than three decimal places. Reports in which statistical difference is lacking must provide some indication of the study’s power to detect such differences, and this information must be included in the abstract. The Results section should present the findings in appropriate detail. Tables and figures may be used, but duplication between text and tables or figures is to be avoided. The Discussion section should be used to critically appraise the implications of the findings and to compare them with those of other studies. Repetition of the results section should be avoided.
Submission of randomized controlled trials requires inclusion of a checklist and flowchart in accordance with the CONSORT guidelines and the registration number of the trial and the name of the trial registry.
Review articles: a comprehensive review of prior publications relating to an important clinical subject (2000–3000 words and 30–50 references). An unstructured abstract of no more than 250 words is required. The Introduction should indicate why the topic is important and should state the specific objective of the review. The Conclusion should include the clinical implications and observations regarding the need for additional research. The review should include a summary of Practice Points and, if applicable, Auditable Standards. Systematic reviews should follow the QUOROM guidelines. Meta-analysis of observational studies should follow the MOOSE guidelines.
Short reports: must not exceed 600 words with no more than one table or illustration and five references. An unstructured abstract of no more than 100 words is required. The text should be structured in four parts: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion.
Research in progress: a description of the design of ongoing important clinical trials. Suggested length is no more than 3000 words and 30 references. An unstructured abstract of no more than 250 words is required.
Case reports: a brief description of up to three cases of a particular condition that is unusual and instructive. Suggested length is no more than 1000 words and 10 references. An unstructured abstract of no more than 100 words is required.
Clinical practice: a description of methods of diagnosis and treatment. Suggested length is 500–1000 words and 5–10 references. An unstructured abstract of no more than 100 words is required.
Practice observed: an article for light reading, usually a case report, pertinent to the discipline. Wit and satire may be appropriate for this section. Suggested length is 250 words.
News and views: a short dissertation expressing opinions, experiences or a statement regarding a topic of current interest of no more than 500 words in length with no more than five references.
Letters to the Editors/Correspondence: a question or challenge to an article published recently in Menopause International. Letters must be received within six weeks of publication of the article to which they refer.
As I see it: a commentary on a topic which may be controversial, confusing or just of personal to the author.
Book review: an independent review of a recent book relevant to postmenopausal health. This can be a traditional medical textbook or a book from the lay press that is considered useful for the readership of Menopause International. These may be invited reviews, but the Editors are happy to receive uninvited submissions.
4. How to submit a manuscript
Manuscripts must be submitted to Menopause International exclusively. Submissions should be sent to the Editors by email:
[email protected].
All manuscripts submitted must be accompanied by an Author Statement which must be signed by all authors. The form can be scanned and sent by email, along with a copy of the submitted manuscript. Alternatively, it can be sent by fax or by mail to: Menopause International, RSM Press, 1 Wimpole Street, London W1G 0AE, UK. Fax: +44 (0)20 7290 2929.
All submissions must be in English.
To allow for blinded peer review, details of authorship (for each author: qualifications, job title, appointment at the time of the research, postal and email address) and acknowledgements must not be included in the main manuscript, but must be supplied separately.
When submitting a manuscript, the title page, main text, tables, figures and acknowledgements must be saved and uploaded as separate files:
File formats
Text files must be saved in .doc or .rtf format. Other suitable formats include .tif for photographic images, .xls for graphs produced in Excel, and .eps for other line drawings.
5. How to prepare a manuscript
Formatting
Manuscripts should be prepared using word processing software on single-sided A4 paper, in double-spaced, unjustified text with margins of not less than 25 mm.
Please use minimum font size of 12 points (6 cpi) and number all pages.
Footnotes are not permitted.
Title page
The first page should contain:
Authors must identify sources of funding and potential competing interests. The standard form provided for this purpose should be completed and enclosed with the manuscript.
The title should be concise and informative, accurately indicating the content of the article. The short title should be no more than six words long.
Tables
Tables should not duplicate information given in the text. The tables feature of the word processor should be used to prepare them. They should be numbered in the order in which they are referred to in the text and appear on separate pages at the end of the typescript. A brief title should be placed above each table.
Figures
All figures should be numbered in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. All figures must be accompanied by a figure legend. If figures are supplied in separate files, the figure legends must all be listed at the end of the main text file.
Line drawings should be produced electronically and clearly labelled using a sans serif font such as Arial. Graphs may be supplied as Excel spreadsheets (one per sheet). Other line drawings should be supplied in a suitable vector graphic file format (e.g. .eps)
All photographic images should be submitted in camera-ready form (i.e. with all extraneous areas removed), and where necessary, magnification should be shown using a scale marker. Photographic images must be supplied at high resolution, preferably 600 dpi. Images supplied at less than 300 dpi are unsuitable for print and will delay publication. The preferred file format is .tif.
References
Only essential references should be included. Authors are responsible for verifying them against the original source material. RSM Press uses the Vancouver referencing system: references should be identified in the text by superscript Arabic numerals after any punctuation, and numbered and listed at the end of the paper in the order in which they are first cited in the text. Automatic numbering should be avoided. References should include the names and initials of up to six authors. If there are more than six authors, only the first three should be named, followed by et al. Publications for which no author is apparent may be attributed to the organization from which they originate. Simply omit the name of the author for anonymous journal articles – avoid using ’Anonymous’. Punctuation in references should be kept to a minimum, as shown in the following examples:
- Handy CB. Understanding organisations. 3rd edn. London: Penguin, 1985
- Hart E. Ghost in the machine. Health Serv J 1991;101:20–1
Unpublished data, personal communications, statistical programs, papers presented at meetings and symposia, abstracts, letters, and manuscripts ‘submitted for publication’ cannot be listed in the bibliography. Information from such sources may be cited, if absolutely necessary, in the text with the sources given in parentheses. Papers accepted by peer-review publications but not yet published may be listed in the bibliography with the words ‘in press’ substituted for year, volume and pages.
Abbreviations
Symbols and abbreviations should be those currently in use. Authors should not create new abbreviations and acronyms. The RSM’s book Units, Symbols and Abbreviations provides lists of approved abbreviations.
Units
All measurements should be expressed in SI units.
Statistics
If preparing statistical data for publication, please read the statistical guidelines.
6. Proofs and eprints
Proofs will be sent by email to the designated corresponding author as a PDF file attachment and should be corrected and returned promptly; corrections should be kept to a minimum.
A PDF eprint of each published article will be supplied free of charge to the author for correspondence; hardcopy offprints may be ordered from the publisher when the proofs are returned.
