MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

Manuscripts submitted for review by the North Carolina Medical Journal must be submitted electronically (via e-mail) as Microsoft Word attachments. Please include a cover letter and send your submission to: ncmedj(at)nciom(dot)org. The cover letter should indicate that the article is not under consideration for publication elsewhere and has not previously been published in any form.

If your manuscript is accepted for publication, it will not be published until the authors submits the following three forms (completed and signed).
(1) Author's Form
(2) Conflict of Interest Disclosure Statement
(3) Conflict of Interest Notification Page

All manuscripts submitted for review must contain a brief structured abstract including the following (when relevant): Objective; Study Design; Data Source(s)/Study Setting; Data Collection Methods; Intervention; Principal Findings; Limitations; Conclusions; Relevance. Papers submitted without a structured abstract may be considered incomplete and returned to the author.

Please keep in mind that the Journal's readers are not specialists in a single field, but represent a broad spectrum of involvement in healthcare practices, management, and policy development. Be brief, clear, simple, and precise.

MANUSCRIPT REVIEW AND EDITING

Each submission is evaluated by at least two qualified reviewers. Decisions to publish are made by the editors based on reviewers' comments, the editors' own evaluations, and the content of future issues. We edit accepted manuscripts for clarity, style, and conciseness. Authors are sent the edited articles for their review and approval before publication. Manuscripts not accepted will not be returned.

Copyright to published articles is held by the North Carolina Medical Journal and the North Carolina Institute of Medicine. However, authors may copy and distribute their own contributions in any way they see fit. Any article reprinted from the North Carolina Medical Journal must carry a credit line indicating that it appeared in the North Carolina Medical Journal and is reprinted with permission.


GUIDELINES
Prepare papers according to the AMA Style Guide 10th Edition.¹

ASSURANCES
In appropriate places in the manuscript, please provide the following items:

• If applicable, a statement that the research protocol was approved by the relevant institutional review boards or ethics committees and that all human participants gave written informed consent



• The identity of those who analyzed the data.

LENGTH OF TEXT
The text of the manuscript should be no longer than 3500 words, including abstract.

ELECTRONIC FILES AND FIGURES
All text, references, figure legends, and tables should be in one double-spaced electronic document (WORD doc). You may either insert figures in the text file or upload your figures separately.

Illustrations may be submitted as EPS or TIF files (no JPEG), preferably at 300 dpi. Include hard-copy versions as 35mm slides or glossy prints. Label illustrations with author's name, number them sequentially according to their position in text, and indicate orientation of image, if needed. Type figure legends on a separate sheet of paper. Do not use figures (e., pie charts, bar graphs) that require color to distinguish elements. Tables should be typed, double-spaced. All tables must have titles and consecutive Arabic numbers. It is permissible to send low-resolution images for peer review, although we may ask for high-resolution files at a later stage.

TITLE PAGE
Manuscripts should be submitted with a title page that includes each author's full name, degrees, title, places of work, and contact information. In addition, please list three to five keywords, using MESH terms, to describe your study.

ABSTRACT
Provide an abstract of not more than 250 words. It should consist of five paragraphs, labeled Background, Methods, Results, Limitations, and Conclusions. They should briefly describe, respectively, the problem being addressed in the study, how the study was performed, the salient results, and what the authors conclude from the results. Papers submitted without a structured abstract may be considered incomplete and returned to the author.

TABLES
Double-space tables (including any footnotes) and provide a title for each. Extensive tables or supplementary material may be published on the Journal’s Web site only or may be deposited with the National Auxiliary Publications Service.

MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS
Medical and scientific illustrations will be created or redrawn in-house. If an outside illustrator has created a figure, the Journal reserves the right to modify or redraw it to meet our specifications for publication. The author must explicitly acquire all rights to the illustration from the artist in order for us to publish it.

JOURNAL STYLE

References
Keep references to a minimum (preferably no more than 15). Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and for correct text citation. Number references in the order they appear in the text; do not alphabetize. In text, tables, and legends, identify references with superscript Arabic numerals. When listing references, follow AMA style^1(pp28-51) and abbreviate names of journals according to the journals list in PubMed (See PubMed Journal Abbreviations). Note: List all authors and/or editors up to 6; if more than 6, list the first 3 followed by “et al.”

Examples of Reference Style:

1. Carrat F, Bani-Sadr F, Pol S, et al; for the ANRS HCO2 RIBAVIC Study Team. Pegylated interferon alfa-2b vs standard interferon alfa-2b, plus ribavirin, for chronic hepatitis C in HIV-infected patients: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2004;292(19):2389-2848.

2. Lynfield R, Ogunmodede F, Guerina NG. Toxoplasmosis. In: McMillan JA, Feigin RD, DeAngelis CD, Jones MD Jr, eds. Oski’s Pediatrics: Principles and Practice. 4th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2006;1351-1362.

Numbered references to personal communications, unpublished data, or manuscripts either “in preparation” or “submitted for publication” are unacceptable. If essential, such material can be incorporated at the appropriate place in the text.

References should also include a PubMed ID number (eg, PMID: 16307457).

Units of Measurement
Authors should express all measurements in conventional units. Figures and tables should use conventional units, with conversion factors given in legends or footnotes.

Abbreviations
Except for units of measurement, abbreviations are strongly discouraged. Except for units of measurement, the first time an abbreviation appears, it should be preceded by the words for which it stands.

Drug Names
Generic names should be used. When proprietary brands are used in research, include the brand name and the name of the manufacturer in parentheses after the first mention of the generic name in the Methods section.

Reference
1. Iverson C, Flanagin A, Fontanarosa PB, et al. American Medical Association Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors. 9th ed. Baltimore, Md: Williams & Wilkins; 1998.

For more information please contact:
Christine Nielsen, MPH
Managing Editor
North Carolina Medical Journal
630 Davis Drive, Suite 100
Morrisville, NC 27560
919.401.6599 ext. 25
919.401.6899 fax
E-Mail: ncmedj (at) nciom (dot) org