For Authors

PLEASE READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT

Please read all author instructions and editorial policies before submitting and ensure that all required files are submitted in the correct style and format. Manuscripts cannot be considered for publication without the completion of all required documents. While Scholastica will allow you to press “submit” with any number of files, the peer review process will stop with the Editor when it is identified that the Submission Checklist is not complete.

Submission Checklist

• Cover Letter
• Blinded Manuscript File
• Title Page with Author Information
• Separate files for each image, table, figure
• Publication Agreement for every author (link below)
• Conflict of Interest Statement for every author (link below)

Article Types

The Journal of the Mississippi State Medical Association (JMSMA) is currently accepting manuscripts in the following categories:

• Brief Report
  A brief report is a manuscript that describes a work in progress or describes a study with small numbers that creates equipoise, indicating the need for future research. An abstract is not necessary. Brief reports should be limited to 2500 words and 5 authors.
• Case Report
  Case reports should describe a patient that was treated by the authors. The patient course can represent outpatient and/or inpatient treatment. The case report abstract should be unstructured and have no section headings. Informed consent from the patient should be obtained by the authors. A statement of consent should be included in the text. Proof of informed consent is not required at the time of submission but may be requested. A case report should meet one of the following criteria to merit publication:
  • A previously unknown disease
  • A previously unreported association of two diseases
  • A new presentation or feature of a known disease
  • A new diagnostic modality for a known disease
  • An unexpected course or outcome of a known disease
  • An unexpected response to treatment of a known disease
  • A new treatment for a known disease
  • A treatment previously only used in animal models
    Case reports are limited to 1000 words. The unstructured abstract should be 300 words. Case reports are limited to 5 authors. Case reports should follow CARE guidelines.
• Clinical Images
  Clinical images should describe a patient who was treated by the authors. These can include clinical photographs, plain radiographs, CT, MRI, ultrasound, EKGs and other images. All identifying information should be removed prior to submission. While an informed consent document is not required for submission of completely anonymized images, authors are required to obtain consent for any image with potentially identifying information using this form. A statement of consent should be included in the text. Proof of informed consent is not required at the time of submission, but may be requested. An abstract is not required. Authors are requested to submit the manuscript with three headings:
  • Case presentation (describe the patient presentation, as appropriate),
  • Image(s) and
  • Discussion (discuss the diagnosis, clinical course and/or outcome, any diagnostic or therapeutic pearls, and any additional information from the case that would be valuable to Mississippi’s physicians).
    The entire manuscript is limited to 500 words (excluding references) and 5 authors.
• Editorials
  Editorials are commentaries written by the editors or by their invitation that focus on one or a series of articles in the JMSMA or on topics of special importance to our readership. There is no abstract. Maximum specifications: 1500 words and no more than 1 table and/or figure with reduction in word count. Editorials are limited to 1 author.
• Letters to the Editor
  Letters discussing a recent JMSMA article should be submitted within 4 weeks of the article’s publication in print. Letters received after 4 weeks will rarely be considered. Letters should not exceed 750 words of text and 5 references, 1 of which should be to the recent JMSMA article. Letters to the editor are limited to 1 author.
• Commentaries
  Commentaries discuss a topic relevant to JMSMA readership. A commentary should explore any subject that can affect the health of Mississippians or impact healthcare in Mississippi. Commentaries should not exceed 750 words of text.
• Original Research
  An original research article thoroughly describes a scientific study completed by the authors. These may represent observational or interventional studies - cohort studies, before and after studies, case series, case-control studies, cost-effectiveness analysis, decision analysis, and randomized controlled trials as well as implementation science projects. Original scientific manuscripts should be less than 5000 words and follow the appropriate reporting guidelines (eg. STROBE, CONSORT, STaRI, etc.)
• Physician’s Bookshelf
  To be considered for Physician’s Bookshelf, the manuscript must be a physician-written book review of a recent book. Book reviews should not be of books that have withstood the test of time. Meaningful reviews include a summary of the book and what the book means to the author.
• Special Articles
  These in-depth, scholarly communications describe in thorough, well-referenced, systematic, or evidence-based manner any important topic in internal medicine, public health, research, ethics, health policy, or health prevention that is of interest to our readership and the wider health care community. A narrative abstract of 200 words or fewer is required. Maximum length: 3000 words of text (not including acknowledgment, tables, figures, or references) with no more than a total of 8 tables and/or figures and no more than 30 references.
• Reviews (systematic or scoping)
  This is a comprehensive and strategic review of all research on a specific subject.
  Systematic Reviews should be less than 5000 words. The manuscript should have no more than 5 tables/figures and 50 references. The manuscript is limited to 10 authors.
• Top 10 Facts Series
  The purpose of this series of articles is to provide referenced information on clinical management of medical conditions in a concise fashion. The submissions should be directed toward practitioners who do not have specialty training on the specific topic as a matter of general information. Articles should consist of 10 numbered paragraphs. Each of the paragraphs will begin with a fact that physicians need to know and a brief explanation of why. Facts will be referenced for each of the 10 points. Top 10 Facts is limited to 1000 words and 5 tables/figures. These should not be review articles. Each of the 10 facts should be clearly referenced. If there are specialty society guidelines in the area being discussed, the essential features of the recommendations should be included in the official guidelines cited in the references. Top 10 Facts are limited to 5 authors.
• Up to Date Series
  The purpose of this series of articles is to provide brief reviews on topics of general interest to the practicing physicians of Mississippi in areas where recent developments in diagnosis or treatment have occurred. Articles should be practical and useful to physicians in office or hospital practice. Suggested organization of manuscripts is Introduction, Diagnosis, Recent developments, Conclusion, and References. These articles are limited to 2000 words and 8 references. Figures are great as are “callouts,” i.e., boxes with key points to remember emphasizing the “take home” messages. If there are specialty society guidelines on the topic, the essential features of the recommendations should be summarized in the text and the official guidelines should be cited in the references. UpToDate series is limited to 5 authors.

Submission Requirements

• JMSMA adheres to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.
• Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the AMA Manual of Style, 11th edition.
• Submission items should include separate files for a cover letter, title page, abstract, manuscript plus references, legends for tables and figures, and a contribution of taxonomy statement (CRediT).
• The preferred order of files for electronics submission is as follows: cover letter, response to reviews (revised manuscripts only), title page, manuscript file(s), table(s), figure(s), and a contribution of taxonomy statement (CRediT).
• Files should be labelled with appropriate and descriptive file names (e.g., SmithText.doc, Fig1.eps, Table3.doc).
• Upload text, tables and graphics as separate files. Do not import figures or tables into the text document.

Manuscript Format and Author Instructions

• The peer review process at JMSMA is double blind. To preserve blinding, the authors should submit a Manuscript File that has all identifying information removed.
• The title should be included at the top of the first page.
• Spell out all abbreviations, no matter how obvious.
• Manuscript text is 12 point Times New Roman font.
• Entire manuscript is double-spaced including references.
• All pages should be numbered.
• Every line should be numbered consecutively and starting over at 1 on each page.
• All submissions must contain references. References must be double spaced on a separate sheet of paper.
• References must follow the American Medical Association Citation Style Guide.
• For each reference: remove DOI, delete spaces between publication year, volume, issue, and page numbers, and italicize the journal names.
• Follow EQUATOR Reporting Guidelines
• All manuscripts (including figures) must be submitted to JMSMA through Scholastica submission website.
• Email or print submission is not accepted.

Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest may exist when an author (or the author’s institution or employer) has financial or personal relationships or affiliations that could influence (or bias) the author’s decisions, work, or manuscript. All authors are required to complete and submit a disclosure of potential conflict(s) of interest. Authors should also include conflict of interest disclosures in the Acknowledgment section of the submitted manuscript. Authors are expected to provide detailed information about all relevant financial interests, activities, relationships, and affiliations (other than those affiliations listed in the title page of the manuscript) including, but not limited to, employment, affiliation, funding and grants received or pending, consultancies, honoraria or payment, speakers’ bureaus, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, royalties, donation of medical equipment, or patents planned, pending, or issued.

Authors without conflicts of interest, including relevant financial interests, activities, relationships, and affiliations, should indicate such on the publishing agreement/ disclosure form and include a statement of such interests in the Acknowledgment section of the manuscript. If there are no such interests, include the following instead: “Authors report no conflicts of interests. Failure to include this information in the manuscript may delay evaluation and review of the manuscript. Authors should err on the side of full disclosure and should contact the editorial office if they have questions or concerns.

For all accepted manuscripts, the corresponding author will have been asked to confirm that each coauthor’s disclosures of conflicts of interest and relevant financial interests, activities, relationships, and affiliations and declarations of no such interests are accurate, up-to-date, and consistent with the disclosures reported in the Acknowledgment section of the manuscript because this information will be published in the Acknowledgment section of the article. The policy requiring disclosure of conflicts of interest applies for all manuscript submissions, including letters to the editor.

Additional Required Files

In addition to manuscript files, every author is required to submit:

• Disclosure of Potential Conflict of Interest
• Publication Agreement

Proscribed Terms

• Avoid the term “providers” when describing health care professionals. Instead use specific and accurate terms (i.e., physicians, nurses, Physician assistants, Nurse practitioners, etc.).
• Use nonproprietary names of drugs, devices, and other products, unless the specific trade name of a drug is essential to the discussion.

Data Sharing

The JMSMA requires the following as conditions of consideration for publication of a clinical trial report in our journal:

• Whether individual de-identified participant data (including data dictionaries) will be shared.
• What data, in particular, will be shared.
• Whether additional, related documents will be available (e.g., study protocol, statistical analysis plan, etc.).
• When the data will become available and for how long.
• By what access criteria data will be shared (including with whom, for what types of analyses, and by what mechanism).

See Data Sharing Statements for Clinical Trials: A Requirement of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

Editorial and Peer Review Process

All submitted manuscripts are reviewed by the JMSMA managing editor or an associate editor with 3-5 days of receipt. Manuscripts are evaluated according to the following criteria: material is original and timely, writing is clear, study methods are appropriate, data are valid, conclusions are reasonable and supported by the data, information is important, and topic has interest to the JMSMA readership. All authors must disclose any financial conflicts of interest and sources of funding, must complete a copyright form and must attest that their manuscript is not currently submitted to another journal or previously published and that any research is compliant with human and animal research requirements. From these basic criteria, the editors assess a paper’s eligibility for publication. Manuscripts with insufficient priority for publication are rejected promptly. Manuscripts considered for publication are sent for peer review by associate editors or qualified outside reviewers with expertise in the related field for peer review. Peer review is double-blinded. Once assigned, peer reviewers are expected to return the manuscript within 14 days. Peer reviewer identities are kept confidential from the authors and author identities are kept confidential from the reviewers. The existence of a manuscript under review is not revealed to anyone other than peer reviewers and editorial staff. Peer reviewers are required to maintain confidentiality about the manuscripts they review and must not divulge any information about a specific manuscript or its content to any third party without prior permission from the journal editors. Identifying information remains confidential. In most cases, at least two (2) reviewers will provide feedback. Based on the peer reviewer comments, the editor makes a decision to accept, revise or reject. If the decision is to revise, authors receive feedback from the reviewers and are expected to incorporate changes within 45 days. The editor makes the final decision regarding manuscript publication.

Publication Details

After a manuscript has gone through peer review and been accepted for publication, the manuscript must be reviewed by the JMSMA copyeditor. Copyediting ensures that the manuscript fits the style of the journal, with regard to grammar, punctuation, language, numbering, and references. With prompt response from the authors, copyediting can be completed in a timely manner. There are no additional charges for copyediting. There are no additional files that need to be uploaded for publication.

All authors are required to complete and submit a Publishing Agreement that is part of the Journal’s electronic Authorship Form. In this agreement, authors will transfer copyright or a publication license; or indicate that they are employed by a federal government; or indicate that they are an employee of an institution that considers the work in the manuscript a work for hire, in which case an authorized representative of that institution will assign copyright or a publication license on the author’s behalf.

Ethical Standards: Privacy, Informed Consent, and Human and Animal Experimentation Privacy and Informed Consent

The Journal of the Mississippi State Medical Association protects the rights and the privacy and confidentiality of all patients and research participants. Any studies, reports or discussions of patients will not include any identifying information such as names, hospital numbers, photographs or other recognizable data unless explicit written informed consent for publication is obtained. Authors may use the JMSMA informed consent form to document appropriate consent. Any identifying information about patients or research participants should include a statement such as, “Additional informed consent was obtained from all individuals for whom identifying information is included in this article.”

Methods and Human/Animal Rights Protection

Methods should be detailed enough to enable the study to be assessed for validity and trustworthiness. Please include a statement of approval by the appropriate human-subjects or animal-protection review boards, or an exemption/waiver. Per these requirements, the JMSMA requires authors of manuscripts that report studies involving human participants to state explicitly in the Methods section of the manuscript that an appropriate independent ethics committee or IRB approved the study protocol or project or determined that the investigation was exempt from such approval and why. This includes adult participants and from parents or legal guardians for minors or incapacitated adults and how such consent was obtained (i.e., written or oral.) The name(s) of the ethics committee(s) or IRB(s) should be specified in the Methods section.

Process for Handling Cases Requiring Corrections, Retractions, and Editorial Expressions of Concern

A correction is required when a small error is identified that does not significantly affect the publication or results of a study. Correction notices should be published as soon as possible, detailing the changes made and citing the original publication. Corrections for non-scientific articles do not require new digital article versions. Errors within scientific studies must have a different process. Scientific errors that do not change any aspect of the study design, methods, or results may be resolved with a correction notice and a new digital article version. Scientific errors that affect study design, methods, or results should be considered for retraction. Retractions are decisions referred to the publications committee.

Retractions are considered if the errors are serious enough to invalidate a paper’s results and/or conclusions may require retraction. Other reasons for retraction may include, but are not limited to, scientific misconduct, dishonesty, and plagiarism.

Editorial expressions of concern (EEoC) allow journal editors to share with the readers concerns about a published article. JMSMA follows ICMJE and COPE guidance on issuing EEoC.

Questions?

Email Kandice Williams at kwilliams@msmaonline.com