What is the UTMJ looking for?
All manuscripts submitted to the UTMJ should be original work, not published previously or currently under consideration elsewhere, written for a general medical audience. Manuscripts should be well-written, coherent, focused, and demonstrate scientific rigour, sound methodology and strong ethical conduct. The UTMJ publishes articles that cover all areas of basic, clinical, translational, and epidemiological medical research, as well as medical education, medical ethics, and the history of medicine.
What types of articles does the UTMJ accept?
The UTMJ accepts:
- Original research articles
- Review articles
- Perspectives and Commentaries
- Case reports
- Medical Education
- History of Medicine
- Economics and Health Policy
- Book reviews
- Letters to the Editor
- Philosophy of Medicine
Further details about frequently published article types are provided below. A template for submission with instructions specifying required formatting is available here.
Original Research Articles:
The UTMJ will consider original research articles including (but not limited to) observational studies, surveys, clinical trials, case-control studies, epidemiological studies, intervention studies, evaluations, and qualitative studies. Topic areas include (but are not limited to) all areas of basic, clinical, translational, and epidemiological medical research, as well as medical education, medical ethics, and the history of medicine.
Abstract Length: Up to 300 words.
Manuscript Length: Up to 5000 words (excluding reference list, figure captions and table captions).
Review Articles:
The UTMJ considers literature reviews (narrative, systematic, and meta-analytical) on all areas of basic, clinical, translational, and epidemiological medical research, as well as medical education, medical ethics, and the history of medicine.
Abstract Length: Up to 300 words.
Manuscript Length: Up to 5000 words (excluding reference list).
Perspectives and Commentaries:
The UTMJ will consider perspectives, commentaries, opinions, and point-counterpoint articles on controversial and/or current issues in all areas of basic, clinical, translational, and epidemiological medical research, as well as medical education, medical ethics, and the history of medicine.
Manuscript Length: Up to 5000 words (excluding reference list).
Case Reports:
The UTMJ welcomes clinical reports describing the signs and symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, or other clinical parameters of unusual or interesting cases.
Manuscript Length: Up to 3000 words (excluding reference list). Authors must adhere to the ethical guidelines outlined in the sections below.
Book Reviews:
The UTMJ welcomes reviews of current and historical books on all areas of basic, clinical, translational, and epidemiological medical research, as well as medical education, medical ethics, and the history of medicine. To facilitate coordination and avoid duplication, we recommend that authors contact editors.utmj@utoronto.ca before writing a book review for the Journal.
Manuscript Length: Up to 3000 words.
Letters to the Editor:
Correspondence relating to (or in response to) previously published articles is welcomed.
How should I submit my manuscript?
Articles can be submitted online. All submissions must be in the English language. In addition, please provide the name and highest degree obtained for all authors of the manuscript. For further details regarding manuscript preparation, section headings, and word counts, please see the sample template.
Informed consent
From "Ethical Considerations in the Conduct and Reporting of Research: Privacy and Confidentiality" by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors:
Patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that an identifiable patient be shown the manuscript to be published. Authors should disclose to these patients whether any potential identifiable material might be available via the Internet as well as in print after publication.
Nonessential identifying details should be omitted. Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance, and editors should so note, that such alterations do not distort scientific meaning.
When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the published article.
Conflict of Interest
From "Ethical Considerations in the Conduct and Reporting of Research: Conflicts of Interest" by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors:
When authors submit a manuscript, whether an article or a letter, they are responsible for disclosing all financial and personal relationships that might bias their work. To prevent ambiguity, authors must state explicitly whether potential conflicts do or do not exist. Authors should do so in the manuscript on a conflict-of-interest notification page that follows the title page, providing additional detail, if necessary, in a cover letter that accompanies the manuscript.
Authors should identify Individuals who provide writing or other assistance and disclose the funding source for this assistance.
Investigators must disclose potential conflicts to study participants and should state in the manuscript whether they have done so.
Human and Animal Testing
From "Ethical Considerations in the Conduct and Reporting of Research: Protection of Human Subjects and Animals in Research" by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors:
When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.
