International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare

Author Guidelines

Aims and Scope

The International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare is a fully refereed journal that publishes manuscripts relating to evidence-based practice. It publishes papers containing reliable evidence to assist health professionals in their decision-making, and to inform health professionals, students and researchers of outcomes, debates and developments in evidence-based healthcare.

The journal is divided into several sections that may, or may not be present in each quarterly issue. These are: Evidence Synthesis (translation), Evidence Transfer (dissemination), Evidence Utilisation (implementation and evaluation), Commentary and Letters to the Editor.

The journal welcomes submissions from all authors seeking to publish in the above areas. The journal also publishes research conducted by the Joanna Briggs Institute and its international collaborating centres, affiliated centres and groups.

Submissions may be made at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijebh

Evidence Synthesis

These papers are typically derived from systematic reviews that appropriately reference the source review, meta-analysis or meta-synthesis to answer a specific question involving a broad and systematic search of literature. It is expected that the authors of a paper based on a published systematic review would be the authors of the source review. The paper is to differ from the complete systematic review in that the purpose of the paper is to clearly communicate the findings of a review that are of relevance and impact to practice that would refer to the more detailed review processes and appendices in the source review.

The paper should be presented under the following headings: Background, Aims, Search strategy, Methods of the review, Results, Discussion, Conclusion including Implications for practice and Implications for research. It is recommended that papers should not exceed 7,500 words (excluding appendices and tables).

Evidence Transfer

These papers may relate to issues surrounding the dissemination, distribution and uptake of research evidence to improve health outcomes. Papers may relate to the format and delivery of information as well as issues surrounding acceptance of evidence to inform healthcare delivery.

These papers should be presented under the following headings: Background, Aims, Methods, Results and Conclusions.

It is recommended that papers should not exceed 5,000 words.

Evidence Utilisation

These papers relate to issues surrounding the utilisation or implementation of evidence in a practice or care setting.

These may be reports of projects with large or small samples. Authors should ensure that the paper provides information of interest to readers regarding the elements of the project that assisted in sustainable practice change as well as the elements that may not have been as successful. Evidence utilisation projects that do not identify patients/clients and are regarded as clinical improvement programs/clinical audits and are not expected by the editorial team to obtain formal ethical approval, however, authors are advised to check the individual requirements of their facilities.

These papers should be presented under the following headings: Background, Methods (including sampling), Results, Discussion (including barriers and facilitators and their significance) and Conclusion.

Papers may also relate to evaluation projects of evidence-based projects, or evaluation of the effectiveness of getting evidence into practice.

It is recommended that papers should not exceed 5,000 words.

Commentary

These papers may address methodological issues in the synthesis of evidence, what may be regarded as evidence, validity of differing forms of evidence as well as issues and debates surrounding evidence-based practice. This section may also include literature reviews. These differ from systematic reviews as they may be based upon a limited search of the literature and are more limited in scope than a systematic review.

It is recommended that papers should not exceed 5,000 words.

Letters to the Editor

These may discuss recent Int J Evid Based Healthc articles. Letters will be published at the editor’s discretion.

Clinical reports may also be submitted to this section. Health professionals and/or managers who are involved with change processes, based on research evidence, in practice settings may author these ‘clinical papers’.

Letters should not exceed 1,500 words.

Submission of Manuscripts

Manuscripts should be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijebh. Authors must supply an email address, as all correspondence will be by email.

Three (3) files should be supplied: (i) the manuscript, (iii) acknowledgements (iii) the covering letter (in Word or rich text format (.rtf)). Both acknowledgements and the covering letter should be uploaded as files not for review.

A traditional title page containing author details is not required, as Manuscript Central will capture this information during the submission process.

All articles submitted to the Journal must comply with these instructions. Failure to do so will result in return of the manuscript and possible delay in publication.

• Submissions should be double-spaced.
• All margins should be at least 30 mm.
• All pages should be numbered consecutively in the top right-hand corner, beginning with the title page.
• Do not use Enter at the end of lines within a paragraph.
• Turn the hyphenation option off; include only those hyphens that are essential to the meaning.
• Specify any special characters used to represent non-keyboard characters.
• Take care not to use l (ell) for 1 (one), O (capital o) for 0 (zero) or ß (German esszett) for Greek beta.
• Use a tab, not spaces, to separate data points in tables. If you use a table editor function, ensure that each data point is contained within a unique cell (i.e. do not use carriage returns within cells).
• Graphics must be uploaded as separate, high-resolution (at least 300 d.p.i) files, saved as .eps or .tif. Digital images supplied only as low-resolution files cannot be used.

Covering letter

Papers are accepted for publication in the journal on the understanding that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. This must be stated in the covering letter. The covering letter must also contain an acknowledgement that all authors have contributed significantly, and that all authors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript.

If tables or figures have been reproduced from another source, a letter from the copyright holder (usually the publisher), stating authorisation to reproduce the material, must be provided with the covering letter.

In keeping with the latest guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, each author's contribution to the paper is to be quantified.

Authors must state that the protocol for the research project has been approved by a suitably constituted Ethics Committee of the institution within which the work was undertaken and that it conforms to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in Tokyo 2004), available at http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm

All investigations on human subjects must include a statement that the subject gave informed consent. Patient anonymity should be preserved.

Any experiments involving animals must be demonstrated to be ethically acceptable and where relevant conform to national guidelines for animal usage in research.

Authors must declare any financial support or relationships that may pose conflict of interest.

Copyright

Authors publishing in the Journal will be asked to sign an Exclusive Licence Form. In signing the form it is assumed that authors have obtained permission to use any copyrighted or previously published material. All authors must read and agree to the conditions outlined in the form, and must sign the form or agree that the corresponding author can sign on their behalf. Articles cannot be published until a signed form has been received. Authors can download the form from http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jbr.

Style

Manuscripts should follow the style of the Vancouver agreement detailed in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' revised 'Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication', as presented at http://www.ICMJE.org/

The journal uses Australian spelling and authors should therefore follow the latest edition of the Macquarie Dictionary. Please write in a clear, concise, direct style. All measurements must be given in SI units. Abbreviations should be used sparingly; use only where they ease the reader's task by reducing repetition of long, technical terms. Initially use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter use the abbreviation only.

Drugs should be referred to by their generic names. If proprietary drugs have been used in the study, refer to these by their generic name, mentioning the proprietary name, and the name and location of the manufacturer, in parentheses.

Papers should contain a maximum of four (4) heading levels.

Parts of the Manuscript

All manuscripts should be presented in the following order: (i) abstract and key words, (ii) text, (iii) references, (iv) appendices, (v) tables (each table complete with title and footnotes) and (vi) figures. Footnotes to the text are not allowed and any such material should be incorporated as parenthetical matter. Acknowledgments are to be submitted as a separate document to allow for de-identification of the paper for blind peer review.

Abstract and key words

All articles must have a structured abstract that states in 500 words or fewer the purpose, basic procedures, main findings and principal conclusions of the study. Divide the abstract with the headings: Aim, Methods, Results and Conclusions. The abstract should not contain abbreviations or references. Five key words (for the purposes of indexing) should be supplied below the abstract in alphabetical order.

Acknowledgements

The source of financial grants and other funding must be acknowledged, including a frank declaration of the authors' industrial links and affiliations. The contribution of colleagues or institutions should also be acknowledged. Personal thanks and thanks to anonymous reviewers are not appropriate.

References

The Vancouver system of referencing should be used (examples are given below). In the text, references should be cited using superscript Arabic numerals in the order in which they appear. If cited in tables or figure legends, number according to the first identification of the table or figure in the text.

In the reference list, cite the names of all authors when there are six or fewer; when seven or more, list the first three followed by et al. Do not use ibid. or op cit. Reference to unpublished data and personal communications should not appear in the list but should be cited in the text only (e.g. Smith A, 2000, unpublished data). All citations mentioned in the text, tables or figures must be listed in the reference list.

Names of journals should be abbreviated in the style used in Index Medicus.

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references.

We recommend the use of a tool such as Reference Manager for reference management and formatting. Reference Manager reference styles can be searched for here: http://www.refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp

Journal article
1. Fernandez R, Griffiths R, Murie P. A comparison of late night and early morning removal of short-term urethral catheters. JBI Rep 2003; 1: 1–16.
Book
2. Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and Leadership Skills for Nurses, 2nd edn. Albany, NY: Delmar Publishers, 1996.
Chapter in a book
3. Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, eds. Hypertension: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, and Management, 2nd edn. New York: Raven Press, 1995; 465–78.

Appendices
These should be placed at the end of the paper, numbered in Roman numerals and referred to in the text. If written by a person other than the author of the main text, the writer's name should be included below the title.

Tables
Tables should be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate, information contained in the text. Number tables consecutively in the text in Arabic numerals. Type tables on a separate page with the legend above. Legends should be concise but comprehensive - the table, legend and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Column headings should be brief, with units of measurement in parentheses; all abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.

Figures
All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) are classified as figures. Figures should be cited in consecutive order in the text. Figures should be sized to fit within the column (84 mm) or the full text width (175 mm). Magnifications should be indicated using a scale bar on the illustration. Line figures should be sharp, black and white graphs or diagrams, drawn professionally or with a computer graphics package. Lettering must be included and should be sized to be no larger than the journal text.

Figure legends

Type figure legends on a separate page. Legends should be concise but comprehensive - the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.

Proofs

It is essential that corresponding authors supply an email address to which correspondence can be emailed while their article is in production.

Notification of the URL from where to download a Portable Document Format (PDF) typeset page proof, associated forms and further instructions will be sent by email to the corresponding author. The purpose of the PDF proof is a final check of the layout, and of tables and figures. Alterations other than the essential correction of errors are unacceptable at PDF proof stage. The proof should be checked, and approval to publish the article should be emailed to the Publisher by the date indicated, otherwise, it may be signed off on by the Editor or held over to the next issue.

Offprints

A free PDF offprint will be supplied to the corresponding author. Free access to the final PDF offprint of your article will be available via Author Services only. Please therefore sign up for Author Services if you would like to access your article PDF offprint and enjoy the many other benefits the service offers.

A minimum of 50 additional offprints will be provided upon request, at the author’s expense. These paper offprints may be ordered online. Please visit http://offprint.cosprinters.com/, fill in the necessary details and ensure that you type information in all of the required fields. If you have queries about offprints please email offprint@cosprinters.com

Online Guidelines
The International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare is also available online via Wiley Online Library at http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jbr. Full-text online articles include reference links to cited articles and external databases, and full a search facility, so that you can find the information you are looking for. Keep up to date with the latest tables of contents emailed directly to your desktop by registering for free at: http://wileyonlinelibrary.com.

Author Services enables authors to track their article, once it has been accepted, through the production process to publication online and in print. Authors can check the status of their articles online and choose to receive automated emails at key stages of production so they do not need to contact the production editor to check on progress.

Visit http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor for more details on online production tracking and for a wealth of resources, including FAQs and tips on article preparation, submission and more.