If you would like to submit an article for possible inclusion in JMVH, please read the below, and submit your article through the submission form. You will also be required to download and complete the JMVH Author Copyright. Please note that there are no submission or article processing charges.
If your article is a clinical study, please also provide a copy of your ethics approval during your submission.
SUBMIT YOUR ARTICLE FOR POSSIBLE INCLUSION NOW.
Editorial Office: Please address all correspondence to:
Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health
227 Collins Street
Hobart TAS 7000
Email: editorial@jmvh.org
Tel: +61 3 6234 7844
URL: www.jmvh.org
Submission of manuscripts
Electronic submission of manuscripts is mandatory.
Manuscript requirements
Manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health must conform with the Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals (www.icmje.org).
- Research and practice related
- Informative and commentary
| Research and practice related | Informative and commentary |
| Original Articles Short Communication Review articles Reprinted Articles Case Studies |
Editorials Letters to the editor Biographies History Obituaries Book reviews Commentary A view from the Front |
Each issue may not contain all categories of articles. The word limit does not include text in the abstract, references, figures and tables. The requirements for submission categories, which are peer reviewed, are summarised below:
|
Category |
Maximum word count |
Maximum number of |
|
|
Tables and/or figures |
References |
||
| Editorials |
1000 |
1 |
3 |
| Original research |
3500 |
6 |
30 |
| Short communication |
1500 |
3 |
10 |
| Review article |
5000 |
8 |
60 |
| Case studies |
1000 |
3 |
10 |
| Letters to the editor |
800 |
2 |
10 |
| History |
3000 |
6 |
20 |
| Commentary |
1500 |
3 |
10 |
| View from the Front |
2000 |
5 |
20 |
| Obituaries |
200 |
1 |
4 |
Original Article
This category is the primary mode in the journal for communication of findings from original research studies.
Short communications
This category is for communicating the findings from small-scale research studies however other subject material will be considered.
Review articles
Authors who wish to submit a review should first contact the editors to determine its suitability for publication in the Journal. The editors encourage authors to submit systematic reviews for publication.
Reprinted articles
This section will include full length copies of articles reprinted with permission from other journals. These articles must be keynote and valuable contributions to health issues in the military and veterans’ areas. Readers are invited to email details of papers that should be considered for this category. Any proposal should be accompanied by a short commentary (maximum 200 words) outlining why this historical paper was important in shaping some aspect of military or veteran health practice. The commentary will be published with the keynote article.
Case studies
This category is primarily designed to present details of interesting or unusual clinical cases and a summary is required with a limit of 100 words. The text should be presented using the following headings; background, history, examination findings, special investigations, discussion including differential diagnosis. The article should succinctly illustrate important points.
Letters to the Editor
Letters may comment on material that has recently been published in the journal or may address new topics, such as use of new equipment or instrumentation in the field or a new technique applicable to preventive medicine. Where the subject matter is directed towards a previous publication the editors will usually send the letter first to the authors of the original paper so that their comments may be published at the same time as the letter. Letters based on conversations or oral presentations will not be considered.
Editorials
Submissions are encouraged for publication in this category and these will be subjected to the peer review process. Topics of interest must fall within the scope of the Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health. Guest editorials may be invited from time to time by the editor; suggestions for topics for editorials should be directed to the editor.
Biographies
Biographical accounts of the work of individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the health and care of military personnel and veterans will be considered for publication. If you wish to submit a biographical article the editor should be consulted prior to preparation of the article. The editorial board may solicit such articles directly.
History
Articles describing notable themes related to health and care of military personnel and veterans are invited for publication. The scope is broad and could include, for example, the conduct and outcome of military operations, effect of climate, improvements in trauma care, surgical techniques and mental health. The article should focus on health care delivery and practice as the main theme and may compare changes from earlier practice to those in use today. The editorial board may invite such articles directly however if you wish to submit a manuscript the editor should be consulted in advance. The style of this category will be the same as that applied to a review article.
Obituaries
The editorial board will accept obituaries for individuals who have served as health professionals within the Australian Defence Force. These have been very successful in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) to provide information to the wider health readership. Guidance for preparing an obituary can be found on the BMJ web site, www.bmj.com (e.g. BMJ 1995;311:680-681 (9 September) and BMJ1995;311:143-144 (15 July)). Obituaries should be submitted within one month of death and will be subject to editing if required.
Book reviews
Book reviews will be reviews of publications which have a direct focus on military and veterans’ health for educational, informative, reference or other reasons.. The author/s would be expected to be independent, have considerable experience and/or a track record and a direct involvement in the field which is addressed by the publication.
Commentary
Commentaries will be short articles which provide incisive, informative and balanced comment on current health issues. The editors may invite commentary on a research paper published in the same edition of the Journal. All commentary articles will be peer reviewed and the article style will be that of an editorial.
A view from the front
This category will consider submissions from health individuals at the front line of health care and health delivery to serving personnel and veterans. These articles should be topical, recent, may contain an individual’s personal view of a health delivery system and will be subject to peer review.
Submitting a series or several articles
If an author plans to submit a series of articles for review, or several articles on closely related subject matter or the same research project, additional approval should be sought before submission of the first article. The editorial board will assess the relevance of the planned articles and availability of suitable reviewers before allowing review.
The editorial board may choose to limit the number of articles published within a series to two per year if deemed necessary.
If you wish to submit more than one article on a particular research project or closely related subject matter, please email editorial@jmvh.org with the full details before submitting to Scholar One.
Disclaimer
While the Editorial Board makes every effort to ensure that no inaccurate or misleading data, opinions or statements are published in the Journal, all data, results and opinions appearing in articles and advertisements are the responsibility of the contributor/s and/or the advertiser concerned. Accordingly, the Editorial Board and their respective employees, officers and agents accept no liability whatsoever for the consequences of any such inaccurate or misleading data, results, opinions or statements. While every effort is made to ensure that all data are accurately presented, new methods and techniques should only be considered in conjunction with published literature from manufacturers.
Ethics approvals
All studies that involve participation of humans, information on participants or which would otherwise be considered to require ethical approval related to the principles set forth in the Helsinki Declaration should be conducted in accordance with such principles. Studies of this nature must contain a statement indicating that approval has been granted by a properly constituted Human Research Ethics Committee. Please include the ethics approval number or waiver within your manuscript.
All studies involving experiments with animals must contain a statement indicating that the protocol was approved by an appropriately constituted ethics committee or institutional review board in compliance with guidelines established by that country’s government. A statement must be included that indicates that all animals received humane care in compliance with these guidelines.
Confidentiality
Confidentiality must be maintained in relation to all participants. All presented data must be de-identified. If a participant is able to be identified from illustrations, photographs, case studies or other study data then release forms or copies of permission for publication must be submitted with the manuscript.
All potentially identifying information (including patient likenesses, identification numbers, names and initials) must be removed from images, tables, graphs, charts and text before the manuscript is submitted.
If a reference is made in the text to personal communication (oral or written) as a source of information, a signed statement of permission is required from each source before the manuscript is submitted. The year of receipt of these statements should be provided in the text. Use of personal communication as a reference will only be accepted in special instances.
Informed consent
A statement must be included indicating that informed consent was obtained from all participants if data were obtained from or were related to human participants.
Appropriate Approvals
All submissions to the JMVH must first have received the appropriate approvals from any sponsors.
Currently serving ADF members must have Director General approval.
Copyright
Copyright © 2022 by the Australian Military Medicine Association (AMMA). All rights reserved. It is a condition of publication that authors assign copyright of their articles, including abstracts, to AMMA. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and the Journal, to the broadest audience in print and electronic forms as appropriate. Authors may use the article elsewhere after publication without seeking prior permission provided an acknowledgment is included indicating that the JMVH was the original source of publication. An accepted article must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere and must not be published elsewhere in similar form in any language without the permission of the Journal.
Rights and permissions
Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from copyright owners (and authors as applicable) to reproduce copyright material from other sources including direct quotations, tables and illustrations for inclusion in a submitted article. A copy of all permissions must be provided with your submitted manuscript. All approvals must be acknowledged and complete details of the source of the material must be included in the manuscript. Any permission or related fees that may be required by the copyright owner are solely the responsibility of the authors requesting the use of this material.
Copying JMVH articles
The JMVH is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Offprints
A copy of the final paper will be provided to the corresponding author in pdf format. A copy will be available from the journal website www.jmvh.org for interested individuals to download. These copies are made available for single, personal use only and are not available for commercial or other use.
Citing articles from the JMVH
JMVH retains copyright to all material published in the journal. Authors may refer to information in articles published in the JMVH however a complete reference to the original article in the JMVH must be cited.
Authorship and acknowledgments
Each author must indicate their contribution to preparation of the manuscript (Authors Process form). The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all individuals who do not satisfy the criteria for authorship are noted in the acknowledgements section together with a brief description of their contribution.
Sole submission
Authors must indicate that the work is original and has not been published or submitted for publication in another journal (Authors Process form) as the same or similar material. This includes submission by the authors and their colleagues in the interval before this work is published. Submission by authors of similar material to advertising, news media or other forms of publication must be indicated when the Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health receives your manuscript and a copy of that material should be provided with your manuscript.
Funding
Authors are responsible for recognising and disclosing financial and other conflicts of interest that may bias or could be perceived to bias their work. They should acknowledge in the manuscript all financial support for the work and other financial or personal connections to the work.
Conflict of Interest
All conflicts of interest must be disclosed during the online submission. These may include, but not be limited to, specific or “in kind” interests, incentives and relationships in respect of the manuscript (e.g. grants, funding, honoraria, stock ownerships, royalties, payment of expenses). This section applies to all authors.
Peer review
Two or more referees are assigned to review each submission (except for Book Reviews and Reprinted Articles). Acceptance of original articles is based on significance, originality, scientific quality and interest to the Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health readership. If the submission is accepted for publication, editorial revisions may be made to aid clarity and understanding without altering the meaning. Authors are given the opportunity to nominate reviewers whom they believe are expert and impartial in their area of interest. Nominated reviewers who have been involved in the creation of the manuscript, or who belong to the same institute as the authors, will not be accepted.
Clinical trial registration
We define a clinical trial as “Any project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention and comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome (ICMJE definition). These should be registered, including early phase uncontrolled trials (phase I) in patients or healthy volunteers (WHO Recommendation)”.
The Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health requires all clinical trials to be registered with a registry that is accessible to the public (at no charge); is searchable using standard, electronic (internet) means; is open to all prospective registrants at minimal or no cost; validates registered information; identifies trials with a unique number; and includes basic information related to the researchers and the trial.
If you are submitting a randomised controlled trial, add the registration number of the trial and the name of the trial registry in the acknowledgements section of your manuscript. Other trial registers that currently meet all of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and World Health Organization (WHO) requirements can be found at https://www.icmje.org/faq.pdf.
Registries that meet these criteria include:
- Australian Clinical Trials Registries (https://www.australianclinicaltrials.gov.au/clinical-trial-registries)
- US National Library of Medicine (sponsor) (www.clinicaltrials.gov)
- The International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number registry (www.controlled-trials.com)
- Clinical Trials Register (https://sites.google.com/a/york.ac.uk/yhectrialsregisters/home/clinicaltrials) The National (UK) Research Register (www.update-software.com/national)
EU Clinical Trials Register (https://www.clinicaltrialsregister.eu/)
Language
All manuscripts must be written in English. Spelling and phraseology should be to standard English and should be consistent throughout the manuscript. Contributors with a non-English native language are encouraged to seek the help of a competent linguist who is familiar with medical terminology prior to submission. It is the author’s responsibility to have the language revised before submitting the work for publication. Only minor language revisions are provided after submission.
Review process
Receipt of all submitted papers is acknowledged by email. Manuscripts are initially assessed by the editors and then sent for external review to experts in the field. The corresponding author will be notified by email when a decision is reached. To aid in the peer review process we invite authors to suggest potential reviewers, with their contact details, in the cover letter. These reviewers must be considered an expert and impartial in the area covered in the manuscript. Nominated reviewers who have been involved in the creation of the manuscript, or who belong to the same institute as the authors, will not be accepted.
Software and format
The manuscript must be supplied in Microsoft Word format.
Reviews should commence with an abstract and then be organised such that the information is presented in a logical sequence with informative headings and sub-headings related to the content.
Author’s Cover Letter
This letter to the supervising editor is to introduce your paper and outline its relevance to the Journal. This covering letter is not shown to the reviewers for a blind review.
Title page
The manuscript should be submitted with a separate title page which includes the following information:
- Concise title of manuscript
- Name, address, title, highest qualification, affiliation and contact details (email, postal address, telephone and fax) for each author
- Identify corresponding author
- Identify (email) address for correspondence (corresponding author)
- Short running title (maximum 50 characters including spaces)
- Word count (text of paper only – excludes abstract, references, figures and tables)
- This page is not shown to reviewers for a blind review
Main Document
All identifying information must be removed from this document to enable a blind review. The main, text portion of the submission can be submitted as one document, with tables at the end of the document. Please note, figures or images must be uploaded as separate files. Within the Main Document, there should be the following headings:
Abstract
The abstract for original articles should be structured under the following headings: Background, Purpose, Material and Methods, Results, Conclusion. The Background must be a maximum of two sentences. Maximum length of the summary should be 250 words with three to five key words or phrases included below the abstract or summary.
Introduction
It should be assumed that the reader does not have a comprehensive knowledge in the field and you should therefore provide a concise account of the background (including relevant literature references) and reasons for this study.
Materials and methods
Descriptions of any techniques and methods must provide sufficient detail such that a reader can replicate the procedures. Methods that have been published elsewhere should not be described in detail and should be referenced to the original work. A full description of the statistical methods used should be provided.
Results
Description of results, while concise, should permit repetition of the procedures and direct comparison with similar data by others. Data should not be repeated unnecessarily in the text, figures and tables and appropriate selection of significant figures for numerical data presentation should be applied. Significance should be expressed as values of probability. Where appropriate, results should be presented as figures rather than tables of data.
Discussion
The discussion should not simply reiterate the results presented; the authors should present their analysis and conclusions with reference to the current knowledge base related to this work. Any assumptions on which conclusions may be based should be stated and there should be some discussion of strengths and weaknesses of the research.
Acknowledgements
These should be brief and should include references to sources of support including financial, logistical and access to material not commercially available. Any individuals named must be given the opportunity to read the paper and approve their inclusion in the acknowledgements before the paper is submitted.
References
A list of references should be provided starting on a new page. Only published references or those genuinely in press should be included. Vancouver referencing should be used, more information below.
Tables (including legends to tables)
Tables are to be placed at the end of the manuscript in order of appearance in the text with one table per page. Captions to tables should be short and concise, not exceed one sentence and be on the same page as the table. A reference to each table should be included in the main text to direct the reader to the correct table which should be located at the end of the document.
Illustrations
These are to be submitted as a separate electronic file for each image in .jpg or .png format
Language
A standard English dictionary should be used (e.g. Oxford English Dictionary 2007) for spelling or hyphenation of non-medical terms and Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary (WB Saunders, Philadelphia) is recommended for medical terms. A source for general style including grammar, punctuation and capitalisation is the Style manual for authors, editors and printers, Sixth edition 2002 (John Wiley and Sons, Australia).
Numbers.
Use numerals for all units of measure and time and for all sets of numbers (e.g. 1 m, 2 hours, 5 years, 4%, 2 of 6 observations). Spell out the numbers one through nine only for general usage (e.g. “we had two opportunities”). Spell out numbers beginning a sentence.
Abbreviations.
Abbreviations should be kept to a minimum to avoid confusion with readers who may not be familiar with the subject material. Only standard abbreviations, as listed in a style manual or accepted internationally for use within a subject area, may be used without definition. Terms used frequently within a manuscript may be abbreviated however these should be spelled out at first citation with the abbreviation in parenthesis. Abbreviations in speciality areas must conform to accepted use in that area.
Layout.
Headings and sub-headings should be consistent throughout the article and conform to the style used in articles previously published in the journal. No text should be underlined. Prepare the manuscript with double-spacing and allow margins of 2.5 cm.
Tables
Tables should be on separate pages at the end of the paper (following the References section) and be capable of interpretation without reference to the text. They should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals (e.g. Table 1). A concise, descriptive caption must be provided for each table. Units in which results are expressed should be given in brackets at the top of each column and not repeated on each line of the table. Ditto signs are not acceptable. An indication should be provided in the manuscript as a guide to indicate where the table should be inserted.
Image files
All images must be submitted as separate files. Images embedded in word processing files are not acceptable. Each image must be referred to in the text and an indication should be provided in the text as to the preferred position of the image. Lettering and lines should be of uniform density and the lines unbroken. Image size and layout should be constructed so that each can be placed within a single column or page width, JPG, PNG or EPS file types accepted.
Illustrations.
These should be referred to in the text as figures (e.g. Figure 1) and numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals. Photographs and illustrations will only be accepted as digital images and should be either composed or cropped before submission to ensure there is no unwanted material in the frame. Digital files judged to be unacceptable in the review process must be resubmitted by the authors.
Graphs, charts and figures.
All graphs, charts and figures must be submitted in electronic format and should be prepared by a suitable software package. These should be referred to in the text as figures (e.g. Figure 1). Images of hand drawn material will generally not be accepted. Symbols which are to appear in the figure (and not in the caption) should be chosen from the following available types: ● ❍ ■ ❏ ▼ ▲ ♦ ◊ + Δ
Footnotes
The following symbols should be used in the order given to reference footnotes: *, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡
References
The list of references should appear at the end of the manuscript. References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. References in text, tables and legends should be identified by Arabic numbers and appear in the text in superscript, for example text 1 or text 2-4 or text 5,6-7. Where punctuation (e.g. comma, period) follows a reference number then the punctuation should appear after the reference.
The format of references should follow the “Vancouver” referencing style as described in the Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals (www.icmje.org). The Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health varies in two respects from these guidelines: Surnames and initials of no more than the first three authors [et al.] are cited and the first and last page numbers of a reference are cited in full.
Journal names should be abbreviated as accepted in Index Medicus (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/archive/20130415/tsd/serials/lji.html) and a period is not used after journal name abbreviations (e.g. J Mil Vet Health). A list providing detailed examples of references for many types of publication is available at:
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html
Where appropriate, cite the type of reference (e.g. letter, editorial, abstract or supplement).
Authors should verify references against the original documents and are responsible for checking that none of the references cite retracted articles except in the context of referring to the retraction. For articles published in journals indexed in MEDLINE, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors considers PubMed (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/) the authoritative source for information about retractions. Authors can identify retracted articles in MEDLINE by using the following search term, where pt in square brackets stands for publication type: Retracted publication [pt] in pubmed.
An example of the reference system is as follows: 1. Quail G. Asthma in the military. Aust Mil Med 2000; 9(3):129-137.
Units of measurement
The International System of Units (SI) must be used. For values less than zero enter a zero before the decimal point e.g. 0.123. The style should include a solidus e.g. mg/L.
Abbreviations
Use of abbreviations should be minimised. Spell out non-standard abbreviations at their first mention in the text followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Avoid uncommon abbreviations and jargon.
- Author’s Process Form completed by all authors
- Separate Title Page
- Cover Letter
- Copy of permission to publish material from other sources (copyright holders)
- All individuals named in Acknowledgements have read the paper and approved their inclusion.
- Copy of all permissions to reproduce material from other sources
- All tables located at the end of the main document after references. Graphs, images, charts to be uploaded as separate documents as “Figure” designation.
- All illustrations or images as separate files, referred to in text of paper and position in paper identified
- All tables, images, graphs, charges are referred to in text of paper and position in paper identified
- Permission obtained for use of Personal communication as a reference
- Copies of any part of the manuscript that may have been published previously
- Copies of any advertising or other material that includes any of the submitted material or data
- Statement on ethics approval/s included
- References are formatted using Vancouver style.
Upload file requirements
The software files must be named so that each is uniquely identified and attributable to your submission. All files submitted should be named to include the following information in the order below:
- Corresponding author surname
- Corresponding author initials
- Title of paper (may be abbreviated)
- Supplementary identifier to indicate contents of file (e.g. for a figure, include figure and unique identifier which can be related to that figure).
Examples:
- Quail G Asthma in the military Main Document.doc
- Quail G Asthma in the military Figure 1.eps
- Quail G Asthma in the military Title Page.doc
