American Journal of Medical Quality (AJMQ)

Instructions for Authors
Instructions for Authors (this page)

Purpose of the Journal

American Journal of Medical Quality (AJMQ)

The American Journal of Medical Quality is the official journal of the American College of Medical Quality. AJMQ is focused on keeping readers informed of the resources, processes, and perspectives contributing to quality health care services. This peer-reviewed journal presents a forum for the exchange of ideas, strategies, and methods in improving the delivery and management of health care.

Please note that the following criteria must met before submitting to the American Journal of Medical Quality: the material is original, the writing is clear, the study methods are appropriate, the data are valid, the conclusions are reasonable and supported by the data, the information is important, and the topic has general medical quality interest. A paper’s eligibility for publication will be assessed based on these basic criteria.

AJMQ performs single-blind peer review. This means that the reviewer’s name is unknown to the submitting author.

Submitting Manuscripts 

All manuscripts must be submitted online via the Journal’s Editorial ManagerTM, at https://www.editorialmanager.com/AJMQ/

First-time users: Please click the Register button on the Editorial Manager home page [editorial manager link] Enter the requested information to complete your registration. Upon successful registration, an email containing your user name and password will be sent to you. Please be sure to enter your email address correctly; if an error has been made or an incorrect email address has been provided, you will not receive this notification. 
Note: If you have already received an email containing your User ID and password, or if you are already registered, do not register again. You may log in to the site using the information previously provided to you. You may access your Author, Reviewer, and/or Editor accounts with the same log-in information. 

Authors: Click the log-in button on the Editorial Manager home page, enter your username and password, and click on Author Login. Click on the Submit Manuscript link to begin the submission process. Be sure to prepare your manuscript according to the requirements laid out in these author instructions. Following submission to the journal office, you will be able to track the progress of your manuscript through the system. 

If you experience any problems with Editorial Manager or have any questions, please contact the Editorial Office: [email protected]

Manuscripts are considered with the understanding that they have not been published previously in print or electronic format, and are not under consideration by another publication or electronic medium, except in the form of an abstract of not more than 400 words. Prior abstract presentations should be described in a footnote to the title. Submissions should be accompanied by a letter requesting evaluation for publication.

All manuscript text files must contain:

  1. A complete title page.
  2. An abstract.
  3. The text.
  4. Acknowledgments, if any.
  5. A comprehensive author contribution statement.
  6. Conflict of interest disclosures for all authors, even if there are no conflicts.
  7. Funding disclosures for all authors, even if there was no funding.
  8. References in AMA style.

Details on required elements are below.

All manuscripts should be submitted Word format (in AMA style). They should be double spaced with ample margins on all sides. Research articles should not be written in first person. Note that first person is only appropriate for Perspectives/Editorials and Letters to the Editor.

An original manuscript should be no more than 3,500 words, excluding abstract, tables/figures, and references. It may include up to 5 tables or figures (total), and up to 40 references. Perspectives or Editorials should be no more than 1300 words or 1000 words with 1 small table or figure, excluding references. A maximum of 10 references.

The title page should include the authors’ names, professional and/or academic degree information (bachelor’s or higher), and affiliations, the source of a work or study (if any), and a running title of approximately 45 characters. Please include the full mailing address and contact information (telephone, fax, e-mail address, and alternate address) for the corresponding author listed on your article. This information should appear on the title page or on a separate sheet. Include full names and e-mail addresses for all coauthors.

The title page should be followed by an abstract of not more than 150 words, which should be self-explanatory without reference to the text. Reference citations are not permitted in the abstract of a paper. Number pages consecutively. At the end of the paper, give the name and address of the individual to whom reprint requests should be directed.

Conflict of Interest

It is the policy of AJMQ to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles. A Declaration of Conflicting Interests statement needs to be included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that” The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest.”

For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations.

Failure to include this information will delay the review process. Each author's disclosure will be published.

Funding

AJMQ requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. The funding information should be included at the end of the manuscript, after the Conflict of Interest disclosure and before the references.

Research Ethics and Informed Consent

Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.

For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

Figures

Learn about the publication requirements for Digital Artwork: http://links.lww.com/ES/A42.
Create, Scan and Save your artwork and compare your final figure to the Digital Artwork Guideline Checklist (below). Upload each figure to Editorial Manager in conjunction with your manuscript text and tables. Each Figure must stand alone.

Tables

Each table must stand alone (ie, contain all necessary information in the caption), and the table itself must be understood independently of the text. Details of experimental conditions should be included in table footnotes. The text of the tables should be editable; that is, the tables should not be saved as images that cannot be altered or edited. NOTE:  Information that appears in the text should not be repeated in tables, and tables should not contain data that can be given in the text in one or two sentences.

Copyright Policy

Copyright on all published articles will be held by American College of Medical Quality. Each contributing author of a submitted manuscript must sign a statement expressly transferring copyright if the article is published. Copyright assignment is a condition of publication, and manuscripts will not be passed to the publisher for production unless copyright has been assigned.

Each author must complete and submit the journal's copyright transfer agreement, which includes a section on the disclosure of potential conflicts of interest based on the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" (www.icmje.org/update.html). The form is readily available on the manuscript submission page https://www.editorialmanager.com/AJMQ/ and can be completed and submitted electronically. Please note that authors may sign the copyright transfer agreement form electronically. 

Permissions

Authors are responsible for obtaining signed letters from copyright holders granting permission to reprint material being borrowed or adapted from other sources, including previously published material of your own or from Lippincott/Wolters Kluwer. This includes forms, checklists, cartoons, text, tables, figures, exhibits, glossaries, and pamphlets; concepts, theories, or formulas used exclusively in a chapter or section; direct quotes from a book or journal that are over 30% of a printed page; and all excerpts from newspapers or other short articles. Without written permission from the copyright holder, these items may not be used.
*Authors are responsible for any permission fees to reprint borrowed material 

Compliance with NIH and Other Research Funding Agency Accessibility Requirements

A number of research funding agencies now require or request authors to submit their author accepted manuscript (the article after peer review and acceptance but not the final published article) to a repository that is accessible online by all without charge. As a service to our authors, Wolters Kluwer will identify to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) articles that require deposit and will transmit the post-print of an article based on research funded in whole or in part by the National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, or other funding agencies to PubMed Central. The Copyright Transfer Agreement provides the mechanism.

Open access
Authors of accepted peer-reviewed articles have the choice to pay a fee to allow perpetual unrestricted online access to their published article to readers globally, immediately upon publication. Authors may take advantage of the open access option at the point of submission. Please note that this choice has no influence on the peer review and acceptance process. These articles are subject to the journal's standard peer-review process and will be accepted or rejected based on their own merit.

The article processing charge (APC) is charged on acceptance of the article and should be paid within 30 days by the author, funding agency or institution. Payment must be processed for the article to be published open access. For a list of journals and pricing please visit our Wolters Kluwer Hybrid Open Access Journals page.

Authors retain copyright
Authors retain their copyright for all articles they opt to publish open access. Authors grant Wolters Kluwer an exclusive license to publish the article and the article is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons user license. Please visit our Open Access Publication Process page for more information.

Creative Commons license
Open access articles are freely available to read, download and share from the time of publication under the terms of the Creative Commons License Attribution-Non Commercial No Derivative (CC BY-NC-ND) license. This license does not permit reuse for any commercial purposes, nor does it cover the reuse or modification of individual elements of the work (such as figures, tables, etc.) in the creation of derivative works without specific permission.

Compliance with funder mandated open access policies
An author whose work is funded by an organization that mandates the use of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license is able to meet that requirement through the available open access license for approved funders. Information about the approved funders can be found here.

Read and Publish Agreements

Wolters Kluwer currently has read-and-publish agreements with institutional consortia listed here.

Corresponding authors who are affiliated with the participating institution and who qualify as eligible authors* can publish their eligible articles open access in the eligible LWW journals at no direct cost to them. Please see your institution’s individual policy for guidance on eligible article types and license choice. To qualify for the APC waiver, the corresponding author must provide their participating institution’s name and institutional email address in the journal’s submission system. On acceptance, the corresponding author will be asked to place an open access order in the publisher’s payment portal where they will be able to request the APC be funded in accordance with this agreement. A $0.00 APC will then be applied.

*Eligible authors: Corresponding authors who are teaching and research staff employed by or otherwise accredited to one of the participating institutions as well as students enrolled or accredited to one of the institutions and who want to publish open access articles.

Compliance with National Institutes of Health Accessibility Requirements
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) requires authors to submit the “post-print” (the final manuscript, in Word format, after peer-review and acceptance for publication but prior to the publisher’s copyediting, design, formatting, and other services) of research the NIH funds to a repository that is accessible online by all without charge. As a service to our authors, LWW will identify to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) articles that require deposit and will transmit the post-print of an article based on research funded in whole or in part by the NIH to PubMed Central.

FAQ for open access
https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/lippincott-journals/lippincott-open-access/faq

Publication of Accepted Manuscripts

Authors will be notified in advance of the issue in which their article will appear. The corresponding author will be given the opportunity to download a final PDF of their article to share with coauthors.

Review of Proof

Authors will have the opportunity to review a page proof of their manuscript; this will come directly from the publisher. Alterations to page proof should be kept to a minimum and are subject to approval by the publisher. Editor makes final review of proofs for approval and may make corrections if necessary.

Reprints

Authors may order reprints when page proofs are returned. A purchase form with the cost of reprints is sent with the proofs.