For Authors

I. Publication Requirements & Guidelines

As part of the submission process, authors are required to ensure their submission’s compliance with all of the following requirements. Submissions that do not adhere to these guidelines may be returned to the authors without review.

  1. The author has full permission to copyright all text, figures, and tables submitted. Authors license GMR to edit and reproduce the submission with no time or number restrictions while maintaining copyright to their submission.
  2. The first author is a student enrolled in and in good standing with an accredited college. If not a student at Georgetown University, a copy of a letter of current enrollment or letter of good standing that is signed by appropriate faculty on school letterhead must be submitted, including year of anticipated graduation.
  3. The manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, and the authors listed are the sole authors of this work. Each author must believe that the manuscript represents honest work of the highest integrity, and statements made in the manuscript are true to current scientific knowledge. All manuscripts will be screened for potential plagiarism.
  4. The name, address, and telephone number of the corresponding author, who is responsible for communicating with the other authors about revisions and final approval of the proofs, is included on the title page.
  5. Each author must complete ICMJE authorship conflict of interest forms and attach them to their submission. A funding acknowledgement will be stated. Forms are available here.
  6. Potentially identifiable patient information should not be included and violations of HIPAA regulations will result in rejection. Written permission must be obtained and submitted to GMR for any identifiable information or images.
  7. If the study involved human subjects research, a copy of the approval letter or email of approval for the institutional review board (IRB) application should be attached, whether exempt, expedited, or full review.

II. Style Guide

  • The Georgetown Medical Review (GMR) publishes manuscripts on a wide range of scientific topics with a diverse readership. Submissions should therefore be written in plain English so the manuscript is intelligible to readers with other areas of expertise. Jargon and technical terms should be avoided or explained concisely when their use is necessary.
  • Abbreviations are strongly discouraged and should be kept to a minimum, except for units of measurement. The first time an abbreviation appears, the words for which it stands should be spelled out and precede the abbreviation in parentheses, e.g. World Health Organization (WHO).
  • Generic drug or medication names should be utilized. If proprietary brands are used in research, include the brand name and the name of the manufacturer in parentheses after the mention of the generic name in the Materials & Methods section.
  • Use Times New Roman 12-point font with double spacing for all sections in the main body of the manuscript. Tables and figures may use single spacing.
  • Pages should be sized as US Letter (8.5 x 11 inches) with 1-inch margins on all sides.
  • Text should be left justified. New paragraphs should indent with the first line.
  • Authors should number all pages of the manuscript consecutively, beginning with the title page.
  • The submission file must formatted as a Microsoft Word document (either .doc or .docx).
  • If your manuscript is accepted, GMR’s editors ensure the text and figures align with this style guide. Final proofs are sent to authors before publication and authors are welcome to discuss proposed changes with GMR’s editors. However, GMR reserves the right to make the final decision on style.
  • If you have additional questions, please reference the AMA Manual of Style (Chapter 2: Style) as an additional resource. Then, reach out to gmreditors@georgetown.edu with any further questions.

III. Types of Articles Accepted

Original Research

Original research articles present a full description of investigator-initiated research that has resulted in a medical or scientific advance. These manuscripts should present well-rounded studies reporting innovative advances that further knowledge about a topic of importance to the fields of biology, medicine, or health policy. Original research articles can either be submitted as a full manuscript (6000 word maximum) or a brief communication (2500 word maximum). Regardless of the submission format, Original Research should be thoroughly researched and contribute to the advancement of scientific medical thought. The conclusions of the original research article should clearly be supported by the results. Original research articles contain the following sections:

  • Title Page
  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Materials & Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion

Case Studies

Case studies should represent cases that are unique, involve a new or rare treatment methodology, or are otherwise medically and/or legally significant or interesting. Case studies are reports involving more than one and no more than five patients of a similar situation. Photographs should be included in order to elaborate on the written case report and any personal identifiers should be cropped out (see Institutional Review Board Approval and Informed Consent). Report quality will be determined by medical interest and the amount of detail provided by the case report itself with regards to the disease specifics and treatment. Case reports should strive to spark discussion, and should not be a case description without discussion or interpretation.

Commentaries

Commentaries are articles written about a particular topic in medicine or science that has had a profound impact, is controversial, or is an emerging new concept or approach to medical science and care. They can be conceptual and are intended to introduce a fresh perspective that generates thought and dialogue and contributes to sustaining the relevance of medicine and medical scholarship to current issues. Commentaries are relatively unstructured but should clearly indicate the topic or thesis being addressed, its significance, supporting background information, and identify implications and recommendations for change or action. Commentaries contain the following sections:

  • Introduction
  • Discussion
    • Specific section headers are up to the discretion of the submitting author(s)
  • Conclusions and Relevance

Review Articles

Review articles should represent a new or unique perspective on previously published material with no evidence of plagiarism. The goal of a submitted review article can vary, from supporting or refuting current thought or opinion to establishing a new line of thought synthesized from previously published data, information, or articles. To this end, review articles should contain, at minimum, five unique citations. Although there is no ideal amount of citations, it should be noted that review article quality will be partly determined by the breadth and diversity of prior research cited. Measures should be taken to include diverse viewpoints with numerous authors cited and no or limited citations of contributing authors.

IV. Guidelines by Section

Title Page

The title page should carry the following information:

  • Article Title
  • Author Names with superscripts indicating affiliation, i.e.:Kirsten Schuster, J.D.1, Edward Floyd, M.S.2
  • Institutional Affiliations of all authors in order of appearance in author names, i.e.:
       > 1 Georgetown University Law Center, 600 New Jersey Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001,
       > 2 Georgetown University School of Medicine, 3900 Reservoir Rd. NW, Washington, D.C. 20007
  • Contact information for corresponding author(s) including address, email, phone, and fax (if available). The corresponding author should indicate clearly whether his or her email address can be published. Corresponding author(s) should be identified with an asterisk by name in author listing; the medical student should be the corresponding author.
  • Key Phrases: relevant words or short phrases that aid search engines or indexes in finding your work. Use key phrases that are not present in the title. Maximum of six.
  • Disclaimers, if any
  • Word Count: Abstract and Body (excluding illustrations and references)
  • Table and Figure Count
  • Source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, or all of these
  • Conflict of Interest Statement

Abstract

Abstracts must accurately reflect the content of the article and should:

  • Include context or background for the study including description of literature search methodology.
  • Include purpose, basic procedures, main findings and principal conclusions.
  • Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study or observations.
  • Not include references, illustrations, or references to illustrations.
  • Be structured with similar headings as in the main article (example for a original research: introduction, materials & methods, results, discussion, and conclusions).
  • Be no longer than 250 words.

Visuals

Definitions:

  • A table provides textual or numeric information, often raw data, whose bulk would be difficult to comprehend in the form of prose.
  • A figure provides information in the form of an illustration, chart, graph, or other illustrative material.

Figures and Tables

Figures and tables should be submitted in separate electronic .xlsx or .pdf files labeled with the same name and number given in the text. There should not be embedded figures or tables in the text.

Figures and tables should be in an editable document format. Authors may “call out” the location in the text where they would like the graphics to appear by marking or typing in the text, e.g. “(Table 1.1 here.)”

Images should be formatted as a high resolution, .jpeg file. Tables should be in an editable document format. Authors may “call out” the location in the text approximately where they would like he graphics to appear by marking or typing in the text, e.g. “(Table 1.1 here.)”

Figures and tables should be consecutively numbered in the order of their first citation in the text. A “Table 1” with demographic information of the research population is strongly encouraged. Each figure/table should have a brief title followed by a caption that describes the graphic, its components, and any pertinent information needed to interpret it. Table footnotes should appear at the bottom of the table and should use subscripts a, b, c, etc. and not symbols. All graphs must have labeled axes and units. Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers.

Images, Illustrations, or Artwork

Photographs of potentially identifiable people must be accompanied by written consent to use the photograph. All tables and figures taken from another source and currently copyrighted cannot be published in the journal unless written permission from the copyright holder has been given, a copy of the consent form has been submitted to GMR, and the graphics are accompanied by a source note.

It is recommended to use photographs or images with a minimum of 300 dpi at the maximum size to ensure the integrity of the image is maintained if resizing is indicated. Similarly, any artwork or illustrations should be supplied in the RBG color spectrum, rather than the CYMK format. All images, illustrations, and photographs should be submitted as high resolution .jpeg files.

When referencing a figure or table in the text, refer to it as: “Fig. #” or “Figure #”, or “Table #”. Examples:

As seen in Figure 1A, the increase of mortality possessed a linear relationship to the amount of toxin ingested. However this strongly contrasted with the amount of anti-toxin administered (Fig. 1B).

References

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and for correct text citation. Number references in the order they appear in the text; do not alphabetize.

In text, tables, and legends, identify references with superscript Arabic numerals. When listing references, follow AMA style (Chapter 1: Reference) and abbreviate names of journals according to the journal list in PubMed.

List all authors and/or editors up to six; if more than six, list the first three followed by “et al.”

Note: Journal references should include the issue number in parentheses after the volume number.

Examples of reference style:

  1. Youngster I, Russell GH, Pindar C, Ziv-Baran T, Sauk J, Hohmann EL. Oral, capsulized, frozen fecal microbiota transplantation for relapsing Clostridium difficile infection. JAMA. 2014;312(17):1772-1778.
  2. Murray CJL. Maximizing antiretroviral therapy in developing countries: the dual challenge of efficiency and quality [published online December 1, 2014]. JAMA. doi:10.1001/jama.2014.16376
  3. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. CMS proposals to implement certain disclosure provisions of the Affordable Care Act. http://www.cms.gov/apps/media/press/factsheet.asp?Counter=4221. Accessed January 30, 2012.
  4. McPhee SJ, Winker MA, Rabow MW, Pantilat SZ, Markowitz AJ, eds. Care at the Close of Life: Evidence and Experience. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Medical; 2011
Submit a Manuscript

Any questions can be directed to gmreditors@georgetown.edu.