IMPORTANT NOTE TO ALL AUTHORS - 
Original Submission - if you submit your article incorrectly, you must resubmit correctly within 3 months or we will not accept resubmission of your article.
Revised Papers - the article must be submitted within 6 months of receiving the review and Editor comments or we will not accept submission of the revised article.

PLEASE NOTE

Before submitting an article online to the IMJ, please ensure your article is in the correct IMJ format. Below is a list of the different categories of articles we have in the Journal:

1. Original Papers – report original research of relevance to clinical medicine or general practice

2. Case Reports – report unusual cases in medicine

3. Short Reports – report experimental work or new methods

4. Occasional Pieces or Research Correspondence – include reviews of controversial or unusual aspects of medicine

5. Editorials – are mostly written by invitation, but we welcome reports on the organisation or assessment of medical practice

6. Letters to the Editor – short reports on medicine or letters taking up points made in articles recently published in the Journal

Guidelines for Formatting Your Article into the Different IMJ Categories

Your article must adhere strictly to the guidelines below or you will have to resubmit it.

1. Original Papers:

• Original papers have a 2,000 word limit. There is a limit of 25 references.
• This word limit includes the Abstract section but excludes the reference section.
• The entire article must be in narrative format; i.e. no bullet points, numbering etc.
• The only headings allowed are Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. The headings are to be in highlighted in bold.
• The Abstract section cannot be longer than 150 words.
• We only allow subheadings in the Results section. The subheadings are to be in italics. No underlining or bold.
• We allow a maximum of four illustrations, i.e. tables, figures, graphs, photos etc. You email your illustrations to the Editorial Office; you do not put them online.
• The Corresponding Author’s contact details must include a valid mailing address and an email address.
• The Reference section must be in the Vancouver style of referencing.
• Throughout the article, references must be in superscript numbering without brackets.

2. Case Reports:

• Case Reports have a 700 word limit. There is a limit of 10 references.
• This word limit includes the Abstract section but excludes the reference section.
• The entire article must be in narrative format; i.e. no bullet points, numbering etc.
• The only headings allowed are Abstract, Introduction, Case Report and Discussion. The headings are to be in highlighted in bold. No underlining.
• We do not allow subheadings.
• We allow a maximum of two illustrations, i.e. tables, figures, graphs, photos etc. You email your illustrations to the Editorial Office; you do not put them online.
• The Corresponding Author’s contact details must include a valid mailing address and an email address.
• The Reference section must be in the Vancouver style of referencing.
• Throughout the article, references must be in superscript numbering without brackets.

3. Short Reports:

• Short Reports have an 800 word limit. There is a limit of 10 references.

• This word limit includes the Abstract section but excludes the reference section.
• The entire article must be in narrative format; i.e. no bullet points, numbering etc.
• The only headings allowed are Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. The headings are to be in highlighted in bold. No underlining.
• We do not allow subheadings.
• We allow a maximum of one illustration, i.e. tables, figures, graphs, photos etc. You email your illustrations to the Editorial Office; you do not put them online.
• The Corresponding Author’s contact details must include a valid mailing address and an email address.
• The Reference section must be in the Vancouver style of referencing.
• Throughout the article, references must be in superscript numbering without brackets.

4. Research Correspondence/Occasional Pieces:

• These articles have a 1,500 word limit. There is a limit of 15 references.
• You can put in your own headings in these articles or adhere to the usual IMJ headings. The headings must be in bold. No underlining.
• The entire article must be in narrative format; i.e. no bullet points, numbering etc.
• We allow a maximum of two illustrations, i.e. tables, figures, graphs, photos etc. You email your illustrations to the Editorial Office; you do not put them online.
• The Corresponding Author’s contact details must include a valid mailing address and an email address.
• The Reference section must be in the Vancouver style of referencing.
• Throughout the article, references must be in superscript numbering without brackets.

5. Editorials:

• Editorials have a 1,000 word limit. There is a limit of 10 references.
• You can put your own headings into your Editorial. The headings must be in italics. No underlining.
• We do not allow any illustrations in Editorials.
• The entire article is to be in narrative format; i.e. no bullet points, numbering etc.
• The Corresponding Author’s contact details must include a valid mailing address and an email address.
• The Reference section must be in the Vancouver style of referencing.
• Throughout the article, references must be in superscript numbering without brackets.

6. Letters to the Editor:

• Letters to the Editor have a 500 word limit. There is a limit of 4 references.
• The letter must be in narrative format; i.e. no bullet points, numbering etc.
• The Corresponding Author’s contact details must include a valid mailing address and an email address.
• The Reference section must be in the Vancouver style of referencing.

Step by Step Guide to Creating a New IMJ Article Online

Follow ALL of these steps and you will successfully submit your article to the IMJ. If you miss a step, you may have to resubmit your entire article online.

Step 1: The first author must always be the submitting author. The paper is being submitted in his/her IMJ account, therefore his/her name automatically appears first in the listing of authors. So he/she should not add on their own name to the article as it is already on it.  Please note: the submitting author does not have to be the Corresponding Author. We have a section to put in the Corresponding Author’s details.

Step 2: Register yourself as an Author. Do not use any part of your name as your username or password.  Do not use the word Password as the password.  Use unique words and numbers.  Registrations are authorised manually between 9-5pm Monday to Friday.You will have to wait for your authorisation email if you register out of hours. 

Step 3: If you have co-authors, please ensure they are also registered as Authors before you start submitting your article. Do not use any part of name as username or password. Do not use the word Password as the password.  Please ensure the contact details in each registration are the contact details of the author who is being registered.  If you are registering your co-author, do not put in your contact details in their registration.

Step 4: Log in and go to the Publications tab. You must ensure all co-authors are properly registered and authorised before continuing.  Otherwise you will have to resubmit from scratch if you have left one out.

Step 5: Click on ‘Create New Article’ on the left hand side of the screen.

Step 6: Add all your co-authors to the article. Please add them in the order you want them to appear in on the actual article. Remember to go to the bottom of the screen to check all your co-authors are ticked before clicking to proceed.

Step 7: Type in the title in the relevant title section.

Step 8: Please choose the section you want your article to appear in; i.e. Original Paper, Case Report etc. You must scroll down the list to find the correct category or you will have to resubmit.

Step 9: Copy and paste your Abstract section from Word to Notepad (found in the Accessories program list on your computer) to the Abstract section of the website.

Step 10: Copy and paste the rest of your article from Word to Notepad to the Contents section of the website.

Step 11: Click Save to save your work so far. Then go to Publications – My Articles – and click Edit beside your article to continue working.

Step 12: Please ensure you do formatting, i.e. putting the headings in bold, separating the article into the relevant paragraphs, putting the references into superscript numbers without brackets throughout the article etc. You do this by using the toolbar in the Contents section.

Step 13: You do not have to submit your images online; i.e. tables, figures, graphs, x-rays, photos etc. You just write in the article ‘INSERT TABLE 1’ or ‘INSERT FIGURE 1’ where you want your images to be placed.

Step 14: Then you email just your images in a Word document to the Editorial office; [email protected] Do not email your entire article.

Step 15: In the Author’s Comments section, please put the Corresponding Author’s valid contact details including: full name, mailing address, email address and mobile number.

Step 16: Put the reference section of your article in the Reference section of the website.

Step 17: Click Save when finished. Go to Publications – My Articles – and click Edit beside your article to continue working.

Step 18: Go to Publications – My Articles – click on your article title to view your article and check it is in the IMJ format and is presentable. Click ‘Edit’ if you need to change anything.

Step 19: Click ‘Submit’ and your article is now submitted to the IMJ Editorial office.

Step 20: You can log online – go to Publication – My Articles to get an update on your article. It can say ‘Sent for Review’, ‘Approved’, ‘Rejected’ etc beside your article.

Step 21: You can also go to Publication – Revision Requests to see if the referee’s comments are there for you to revise your paper accordingly.

Step by Step Guide to Submitting a Revised Article Online

Follow ALL of these steps and you will successfully submit your article to the IMJ. If you miss a step, you may have to resubmit your entire article online.

Step 1: Log in and go to the Publications tab.

Step 2: Click onto Revision Request.

Step 3: Click onto ‘View Comments’ to see the referee’s comments and the changes to be made. Click ‘Close’ at the bottom of the screen when you have read the comments.

Step 4: Once your article has all the required referee changes made, click ‘Revise’. It should say ‘Revision Required’ beside your article.

Step 5: Type in the title you want to appear in the final published version.

Step 6: Please choose the section you want your article to appear in; i.e. Original Paper, Case Report etc. You must scroll down the list to find the correct category or you will have to resubmit.

Step 7: Copy and paste your Abstract section from Word to Notepad (found in the Accessories program list on your computer) to the Abstract section of the website.

Step 8: Copy and paste the rest of your article from Word to Notepad to the Contents section of the website.

Step 9: Click Save to save your work so far. Then go to Publications – My Articles – and click Edit beside your article to continue working.

Step 10: Please ensure you do formatting, i.e. putting the headings in bold, separating the article into the relevant paragraphs, putting the references into superscript numbers without brackets throughout the article etc. You do this by using the toolbar in the Contents section.

Step 11: You do not have to submit your images online; i.e. tables, figures, graphs, x-rays, photos etc. You just write in the article ‘INSERT TABLE 1’ or ‘INSERT FIGURE 1’ where you want your images to be placed.

Step 12: Then you email just your images in a Word document to the Editorial office; [email protected] Do not email your entire article.

Step 13: In the Author’s Comments section, please put the Corresponding Author’s valid contact details including: full name, mailing address, email address and mobile number.

Step 14: Put the reference section of your article in the Reference section of the website.

Step 15: Click Save when finished.

Step 16: A new version of your article appears. This new version should say ‘Revised Version’ beside it. Click ‘Submit’ beside this version.

Step 17: It now says ‘Submitted’ beside the new version of the article so it is now submitted to the Editorial Office.

Step 18: If you click onto Publication – My Articles – it now says ‘Revised’ next to your article.

Step 19: You can log online – go to Publication – My Articles to get an update on your article. It will say ‘Approved’ or ‘Rejected’ beside your article once a decision has been made.