Authors

(1) Does your institution have an open access agreement with BMJ? If it does, then this may cover all or part of the APC for your article. Check BMJ’s open access agreements page to find out whether your institution is a member and what discounts you may be entitled to.

(2) Have you received funding from a funder with an open access mandate or policy that covers paying APCs? If so, BMJ expects that the APC will be paid in full.

If neither (1) nor (2) above apply then consider

(3) Are all the authors of your article based in low-income countries*? If so, you are eligible to apply for a full or partial waiver from BMJ.
Visit our author hub to learn more about our waivers policy and how to request one.

Please note that regardless of the funding situation, authors can still choose to publish with us at no cost, and articles will be made available to our subscribers.

*This list is reviewed annually and is based upon HINARI Core Offer Groups A and B, and the World Bank Country and Lending Groups.

For further support when making your submission please refer to the resources available on the BMJ Author Hub. Here you will find information on writing and formatting your research through to the peer review process and promoting your paper. You may also wish to use the language editing and translation services provided by BMJ Author Services.

BMJ requires that all those designated as authors should meet all four ICMJE criteria for authorship.

• • Original research
  • Letter
  • Archimedes
  • Images in neonatal medicine
  • Editorial
  • Viewpoint
  • Review
  • Supplement

Please include the research type in your title to make the nature of your study clear.The body of the report should be double spaced. The tables should be single spaced and the tables and figures should be at the end of the submission after the references.

In keeping with ICMJE guidance, it is essential that RCTs are prospectively registered: under no circumstances will retrospectively registered trials be considered.

The journal prefers titles to follow the format ‘field of study: study design’. For example, ‘Early micronutrient intake and cognitive function: a cohort study’.

The abstract of an experimental or observational study must clearly state in sequence and in not more than 250 words (i) the main purpose of the study, (ii) the essential elements of the design of the study, (iii) the most important results illustrated by numerical data but not p values, and (iv) the implications and relevance of the results.

We require a structured abstract of up to 250 words for reports of randomised controlled trials and meta-analyses, and we encourage it for other studies, where appropriate. The following headings should be used for original research:

• Objective
• Design
• Setting
• Patients
• Interventions
• Main outcome measures
• Results: give numerical data rather than vague statements that drug x produced a better response than drug y. Favour confidence intervals over p values, and give the numerical data on which any p value is based.
• Conclusions: do not make any claims that are not supported by data in the paper in the abstract.

• All research reports involving human subjects must contain a statement about ethics committee approval (or equivalent) at the end of the methods section.
• Illustrations should be used only when data cannot be expressed clearly in any other way. When graphs are submitted the numerical data on which they are based should be uploaded to ScholarOne as a supplementary file.

Please include the key messages of your article after your abstract using the following headings. This section should be no more than 3-5 sentences and should be distinct from the abstract; be succinct, specific and accurate.

• What is already known on this topic – summarise the state of scientific knowledge on this subject before you did your study and why this study needed to be done
• What this study adds – summarise what we now know as a result of this study that we did not know before
• How this study might affect research, practice or policy – summarise the implications of this study

This will be published as a summary box after the abstract in the final published article.

It is a journal requirement that the EQUATOR checklist relevant to the study is supplied. Research checklists should be uploaded during the submission process; if these are not applicable to your research please state the reason in your cover letter.

Further details of RCTs and systematic reviews.

Qualitative research should use the COREQ checklist.

Word count: up to 2500 words (excluding title page, abstract, tables, figures, and references)
Structured abstract: up to 250 words
Tables/Illustrations: up to 5
References: up to 40
Additional material may be considered as data supplements.

• Selection of a clinical scenario
• Definition of the clinical question
• Search for answers
• Appraise the evidence
• Create a critically appraised topic (CAT)
• Summarise as a best evidence topic (BET)

Viewpoints should be argument-led but evidence-based. They reflect on issues broader in scope than a specific clinical entity. These issues may be clinical, but Viewpoints can also cover issues in: public health; health policy and law; workforce, education and training; research and research methods; global health; ethics. These articles should not present original research data.

Research reviews that systematically synthesise evidence (e.g. Systematic reviews, Meta-analysis, Scoping reviews, Mixed methods reviews, etc) are classified by the journal as Original research and must be submitted as such.

Reviews are often commissioned. Please contact the Commissioning Editor or the relevant section editor to discuss ideas. They are listed on the Editorial Board.

• The journal editor, an editorial board member or a learned society may wish to organise a meeting, sponsorship may be sought and the proceedings published as a supplement.
• The journal editor, editorial board member or learned society may wish to commission a supplement on a particular theme or topic. Again, sponsorship may be sought.
• The BMJPG itself may have proposals for supplements where sponsorship may be necessary.
• A sponsoring organisation, often a pharmaceutical company or a charitable foundation, that wishes to arrange a meeting, the proceedings of which will be published as a supplement.