Guidelines for Authors

These instructions comply with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (for further details, see http://www.icmje.org/index.html#reference)

Scope
Obstetric Medicine will publish papers on all aspects of medicine affecting the pregnant woman, including conditions that pre-exist and arise de novo in pregnancy, and the long-term implications of pregnancies, including those complicated by disease, for maternal health. Categories of papers published in the journal will include:
• Editorials (commenting on topical issues or relating to articles being published in the journal)
• Review articles
• Original articles (which must include original data)
• Case reports and case series
• Letters to the Editors
• Book reviews
• ‘Journal Watch’

All original work submitted to Obstetric Medicine, including original articles, review articles and cases, will undergo peer-review.

Editorials
Editorials will be commissioned by the Editors. They should be a maximum of 1000 words plus up to 10 references in length.

Review Articles
Review Articles are of a substantial and topical nature, and are usually invited. They should be a maximum of 3000 words plus up to five tables or figures and up to 30 references.

Original Articles
Original Articles describe substantial original research that falls within the scope of the journal. They should be a maximum of 3000 words plus up to five tables or figures and up to 30 references.

Case Reports and Case Series
Case articles describe clinical cases that have significant original observations, are instructive, include adequate methodological details and provide conclusions. They should be a maximum of 1000 words plus two tables or figures and up to 10 references.

Letters to the editor
Letters arise normally but not exclusively from papers published in this and other scientific journals. They should be a maximum of 300 words plus up to 5 references.

Book Reviews and Journal Watch
Contributions to these sections will be commissioned by one of the Editors. They should be a maximum of 300 words.

Preparation and submission of manuscripts
Obstetric Medicine will only consider manuscripts submitted via the online manuscript submission and peer review site, which can be found at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/obmed. Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with these guidelines. All submissions must be in English.

Title The title should be short and informative, indicating the contents concisely and adequately.

Abstract An abstract of no more than 250 words must accompany all Review Articles, Original Articles and Cases.

References Only essential references should be included. Authors are responsible for verifying all references against the original source material. Obstetric Medicine uses the Vancouver numerical referencing system: references should be cited in the text by superscript Arabic numerals after any punctuation, and numbered and listed at the end of the paper in the order in which they are first cited in the text. Automatic numbering should be avoided. References should include the names and initials of up to six authors. If there are more than six authors, only the first three should be named, followed by et al. Publications for which no author is apparent may be attributed to the organization from which they originate. Simply omit the name of the author for anonymous journal articles: avoid using ’Anonymous’. Punctuation in references should be kept to a minimum.

Abbreviations Symbols and abbreviations should be those in common usage.

Units All measurements should be expressed in SI units.

Tables Tables should not duplicate information given in the text. They should be numbered in the order in which they are mentioned in the text, be given a brief title, and should be prepared using the Table feature of the word processor.

Figures All figures should be numbered in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. Photographic figures should be submitted in ‘camera-ready’ form at high resolution. Line drawings should be clearly labelled and should also be saved at high resolution. Charts may be supplied as Excel spreadsheets (one chart per sheet). Where necessary, magnification should be shown using a scale marker. Any previously published illustrations should be accompanied by the written consent to reproduction of the copyright holder and an acknowledgement should be included in the figure legend. The full reference should also be included in the reference list.

Conflicts of interest Details of any conflicts of interest should be listed at the end of the manuscript. Where no conflicts exist, this should be stated.

Contributorship Details of the contribution of each author should be listed at the end of the manuscript. Contributions are considered to be: (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and (3) final approval of the version to be published.

Ethical policy on patient confidentiality
Obstetric Medicine expects that a statement of consent from the persons concerned must accompany any article containing identifiable patient information. If there is any doubt about whether or not information is identifiable, the Editors are happy to discuss this before an article is submitted. Reviewers will also be asked to take careful account of issues relating to patient confidentiality when reviewing articles.

Other information
Proofs and Eprints Proofs will be sent by email to the designated corresponding author as a PDF file attachment and should be corrected and returned promptly; corrections should be kept to a minimum. A PDF Eprint of each published article will be supplied free of charge to the author for correspondence; hardcopy offprints may be ordered from the publisher when the proofs are returned.


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