Journal Author Guidesreputable journals' Instructions-for-Authors

Instructions for Authors — JMIR Medical Education

Source: https://www.jmir.org/author-information/editorial-policies

Skip to Main Content Skip to Footer Accessibility settings Select options Articles Help Career Center Login Register Journal of Medical Internet Research Journal of Medical Internet Research 11541 articles JMIR Research Protocols 5897 articles JMIR Formative Research 4570 articles JMIR mHealth and uHealth 3110 articles JMIR Public Health and Surveillance 1970 articles JMIR Medical Informatics 1956 articles Online Journal of Public Health Informatics 1772 articles JMIR Mental Health 1305 articles JMIR Human Factors 1250 articles JMIR Medical Education 897 articles JMIR Serious Games 840 articles JMIR Aging 751 articles JMIR Cancer 625 articles JMIRx Med 612 articles JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting 587 articles Interactive Journal of Medical Research 564 articles iProceedings 510 articles JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies 409 articles JMIR Dermatology 390 articles JMIR Diabetes 363 articles JMIR AI 334 articles JMIR Cardio 284 articles JMIR Infodemiology 259 articles JMIR Nursing 210 articles Journal of Participatory Medicine 182 articles JMIR Perioperative Medicine 152 articles JMIR Biomedical Engineering 114 articles JMIR Bioinformatics and Biotechnology 82 articles Asian/Pacific Island Nursing Journal 64 articles JMIR XR and Spatial Computing (JMXR) 53 articles JMIRx Bio 52 articles JMIR Neurotechnology 37 articles Medicine 2.0 26 articles JMIR Data JMIR Metascience and Research Integrity JMIR Challenges JMIR Preprints Journal Information Focus and Scope Editorial Board Author Information Resource Center Article Processing Fees Publishing Policies Get Involved Top Articles Institutional Partners Indexing and Impact Factor Browse Journal Year: Select... 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 Latest Announcements Authors Themes Issues Blog Digital Health News Submit Article Journal of Medical Internet Research Journal of Medical Internet Research 11541 articles JMIR Research Protocols 5897 articles JMIR Formative Research 4570 articles JMIR mHealth and uHealth 3110 articles JMIR Public Health and Surveillance 1970 articles JMIR Medical Informatics 1956 articles Online Journal of Public Health Informatics 1772 articles JMIR Mental Health 1305 articles JMIR Human Factors 1250 articles JMIR Medical Education 897 articles JMIR Serious Games 840 articles JMIR Aging 751 articles JMIR Cancer 625 articles JMIRx Med 612 articles JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting 587 articles Interactive Journal of Medical Research 564 articles iProceedings 510 articles JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies 409 articles JMIR Dermatology 390 articles JMIR Diabetes 363 articles JMIR AI 334 articles JMIR Cardio 284 articles JMIR Infodemiology 259 articles JMIR Nursing 210 articles Journal of Participatory Medicine 182 articles JMIR Perioperative Medicine 152 articles JMIR Biomedical Engineering 114 articles JMIR Bioinformatics and Biotechnology 82 articles Asian/Pacific Island Nursing Journal 64 articles JMIR XR and Spatial Computing (JMXR) 53 articles JMIRx Bio 52 articles JMIR Neurotechnology 37 articles Medicine 2.0 26 articles JMIR Data JMIR Metascience and Research Integrity JMIR Challenges JMIR Preprints Journal Information The page you're looking for is not found...

Author Information

Submission Preparation Checklist

Instructions for Authors

All journals published by JMIR Publications, including the Journal of Medical Internet Research and other JMIR Publications journals, are innovative, international, peer-reviewed health science journals that aim to publish articles relevant for health care professionals, system developers, and system users alike.

Authors can access a full-length submission preparation checklist here.

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 print or electronic publisher. A complete report following a presentation at a meeting or the publication of preliminary findings elsewhere (e.g., in an abstract) will be considered. Material that has been published as a preprint can be considered; any previous or simultaneous publication on the Internet must be disclosed in the cover letter. Include copies of potentially redundant or duplicative material that has been previously published, or is currently being considered elsewhere; provide links to duplicative material on the Internet. Point out possible overlaps with previously published or simultaneously submitted articles in your cover letter. Note that "duplicate submission or publication is not necessarily unethical, but failure to disclose the existence of duplicate articles, manuscripts, or other related material to editors and readers (covert duplication) is unethical and may represent a violation of copyright law." (AMA Manual of Style, 10th edition, p. 148). A content overlap of just 10% may be considered duplicative. For more information:

What should be included in a cover letter?

JMIR Publications requires that all authors / coauthors have an ORCID (a unique researcher identifier) at the time of publication. Application for an ORCID is free of charge and only takes a few minutes - please go to ORCID.org to apply for one. We also recommend that corresponding authors contact all of their coauthors and encourage them to obtain an ORCID during the manuscript preparation process. While they can be added after submission, ORCIDs are required in case of acceptance.

Please review our Fee Schedule prior to submission to confirm the article processing fee for each JMIR Publication journal and the article types published in each journal.

Our requirements for submitted manuscripts are in accordance with the recommendations drawn up by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. For general information about the structure and content of a biomedical manuscript, authors should become familiar with the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals before reading our specific instructions for authors below.

The following instructions for authors are valid for all JMIR Publications journals. Additional journal-specific instructions may also apply so please also be sure to look for those below. Author instructions are subject to revision so please refer to them frequently before submitting your manuscript.

Submit a cover letter. Prepare a cover letter containing all essential information for the journal staff and editors using information provided here: What should be included in a cover letter?

Prepare a paper for submission. Review the full-length submission preparation checklist that includes additional guidance on JMIR Publications policies. The submission preparation checklist is primarily applicable to article types that contain original research data. We are currently updating the Word docx template to facilitate submission preparation.

Papers should be written in accordance with the American Medical Association Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors, 11th Edition (Oxford University Press; 2020)

All JMIR Publications journals require adherence to and upload of reporting guidelines and checklists for specific article types, such as randomized trials, systematic literature reviews, and scoping literature reviews. For these article types, a completed checklist must be uploaded in a multimedia appendix.

Here is the format for Original Papers (to see detailed information about word count and related information, and for requirements for other article types see What are the article types for JMIR journals?):

The following format ("IMRD Format") must be used for article types that contain original research data:

Title (What are JMIR's guidelines for article titles?)

Abstract (Guidelines for writing abstracts)

Keywords (Choosing keywords)

Introduction (e.g. theory, hypotheses, prior work)

Methods (e.g. with the subheadings, Study Design, Recruitment, Analysis, Ethical Considerations, etc. Note that special ethical considerations, including regarding informed consent, are required when studies involve potentially vulnerable populations)

Results (e.g. user statistics, evaluation outcomes). If your study consists of different stages/parts, subheadings in this section should mirror subheadings in the methods section to describe these parts.

Discussion (e.g. with the subheadings "Principal Results", "Limitations", "Comparison with Prior Work", "Conclusions")

Acknowledgements (How should the "Acknowledgments" section be formatted?)

Funding Statement (Note that funding sources must be declared, preferably in a separate section that Acknowledgement)

Conflicts of Interest (How does JMIR Publications define a Conflict of Interest (COI)?)

Data Availability (What is the JMIR Publications data sharing policy?)

Author Contributions (What is the "Authors' Contributions" section? How should I write mine?)

Abbreviations

[optional] Multimedia Appendix of supplementary files (e.g. a PowerPoint presentation of a conference talk about the study, additional screenshots of a website, mpeg/ Quicktime video or audio files, or Excel, Access, SAS, or SPSS files containing original data)

References

Please use further subheadings within the main "Introduction," "Methods," "Results," and "Discussion" sections. For example, if you describe three different methods, use three subheadings within the "Methods" section. Also, use matching subheadings in the "Results" section if you report the results from each of the described methods.

Please read our Guidelines for Reporting Statistics for additional details on data reporting, including P values.

Authors who are not sure how to report their quantitative results should consult this book: How to Report Statistics in Medicine: Annotated Guidelines for Authors, Editors, and Reviewers, Second Edition (American College of Physicians, 2006)

Submit your paper, create a user account as author and submit the paper in the author section of your user homepage.

As a service to our authors, we offer the possibility to have a submission considered in other JMIR Publications journals. This means that the manuscript and peer-review reports may be transferred to another JMIR Publications journal, if the paper is not found suitable for publication in this journal. For more information, see JMIR Publications cascading peer-review policy.

Policy information

Redundant/duplicate submission or publication

According to COPE, plagiarism is defined as “When somebody presents the work of others (data, words or theories) as if they were his/her own and without proper acknowledgment”. JMIR Publications policy on plagiarism is available here: How does JMIR Publications define plagiarism? Scientific, research, or publication misconduct are subject to investigation according to COPE guidance.

For additional information, please consult our Author Hub for Author-related FAQs.

For additional assistance or information, you can also file a ticket with the Helpdesk.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice

The Journal of Medical Internet Research is a member of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) and JMIR Publications is in the process of converting its journal-level COPE membership into a publisher-level membership for JMIR Publications journals. The entire publication process from submission, review, to publication in all JMIR Publications manuscripts, adheres to COPE guidelines, and suspected cases of misconduct (e.g., including plagiarism) will be investigated using COPE Flowcharts. Authors are expected to review COPE guidelines to ensure their studies and publications adhere to guidance therein. In addition, all JMIR Publications journals adhere to the guidelines stated in the WMA Helsinki Declaration. Authors may also refer to this discussion regarding ethical issues in qualitative research on the Internet.

JMIR Publications also provides guidance on authorship, retractions, corrections, and publishing malpractices (such as misconduct). For more information on JMIR Publications' ethics policies, read more about how the journal handles ethical issues and please also visit our Knowledge Base (KB), here.

Research Involving Human Subjects

All JMIR Publications journals require that all studies on human subjects have approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) or equivalent body. IRB approval/exemption along with gender and age of all subjects should be clearly stated in all papers involving studies on humans and/or uploaded as supplementary material. The editors reserve the right to request such documentation.

Similarly, authors must acknowledge that informed consent was obtained for studies on humans after the nature and possible consequences of the studies are explained. All JMIR Publications journals require authors to provide a statement that informed consent was obtained from participants in any research involving human subjects. In all JMIR Publications journals, authors of manuscripts describing studies of internet and digital tools and technologies are required to verify that they complied with informed consent guidelines when necessary and have adhered to local, national, regional, and international law and regulations regarding protection of personal information, privacy, and human rights.

When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate IRB (Institutional Research Board, also known as REB) approval/exemption and 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 (5). 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 institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.

Consistent with best practices in research, informed consent and the ability of participants to opt out should usually be provided. However, for certain types of research, informed consent cannot be obtained (e.g. analyses of social media postings, A/B testing of websites etc). In these cases, the investigator should comment on the criteria proposed by Eysenbach & Till (BMJ 2001) and obtain IRB approval, which is often particularly important for research with mental health e-communities.

Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Identifying information, including patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and 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 a patient who is identifiable be shown the manuscript to be published.

Identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve, however, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. 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 that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note.

When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the published article.

For more information, see JMIR Publications policy on Ethical Considerations in research.

Conflicts of Interest

A Conflict of Interests section is mandatory for all manuscripts. If there are none for authors to disclose, the section must be included and state, "None declared."

Conflict of interest exists when an author (or the author's institution), reviewer, or editor has financial or personal relationships that inappropriately influence (bias) his or her actions (such relationships are also known as dual commitments, competing interests, or competing loyalties). These relationships vary from those with negligible potential to those with great potential to influence judgment, and not all relationships represent true conflict of interest. The potential for conflict of interest can exist whether or not an individual believes that the relationship affects his or her scientific judgment. Financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony) are the most easily identifiable conflicts of interest and the most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors, and of science itself. However, conflicts can occur for other reasons, such as personal relationships, academic competition, and intellectual passion. In all JMIR journals, conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) employment at and/or ownership of stocks or stock options in companies whose products/apps/software were evaluated. For further information please read our Knowledge Base article on How does JMIR define a Conflict of Interest (COI)? For additional information on conflicts of interest: ICMJE Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest.

Disclosures

Authors should identify individuals who provide writing assistance and disclose the funding source for this assistance. If generative artificial intelligence (AI) was used during manuscript preparation, this must be disclosed; see information on JMIR Publications generative AI policy.

Authors are required to declare funding sources. See JMIR Publications guidance on Funding Statements.

Online Submissions

If you already have a Username/Password for the JMIR Publications family of journals, you can proceed directly to Login.

If you require a Username/Password, please go to Registration.

Registration and login are required to submit papers online and to check the status of current submissions.

Once you are able to access the system, please be sure to consult the Instructions for Authors to ensure your paper meets the necessary criteria.

Peer Review Process

When we receive a manuscript, an assessment will be made to ensure the manuscript meets the formal criteria specified in the Instructions for Authors and that it fits within the scope of the journal. When in doubt, the editor will consult with other members of the Editorial Board. Manuscripts are then assigned to an Associate Editor and sent to 2-4 external experts for peer-review. The Associate Editor makes editorial decisions on the peer-reviewed manuscript; the final decision on acceptance rests with the Editor-in-Chief. Authors are required to suggest at least 2 peer-reviewers (who do not have a conflict of interest) during the submission process.

JMIR Publications follows a single-anonymized model during the review process. Reviewers are aware of the names of the authors to avoid any potential conflict of interest when accepting the review invitation. Reviewers for JMIR Publications journals will not remain anonymous. Their names will appear at the end of the published article. Authors and reviewers should not contact each other directly to discuss manuscripts or reviews.

Speed of Peer-Review

Internet-based research is a fast-moving field and JMIR Publications recognizes the need of our authors to communicate their findings rapidly. Our aim to facilitate a rapid, thorough, and rigorous peer-review process.

It is important to note that current turnaround times for reviewing and editing papers vary as these are primarily dependent on the quality of the paper upon first submission. With the exception of papers submitted under the fast-track process, in which we guarantee an editorial decision within 20 business days (4 weeks excluding weekends and public holidays) and publication of the article within 4 weeks after acceptance, JMIR Publications is not able to guarantee the speed of peer-review or publication. We aim for an average decision time of two months after submission for papers sent out for peer-review. There will however always be exceptions (papers that are more difficult to evaluate).

For additional information for peer reviewers, please consult our Reviewer Hub for reviewer-related FAQs including How to write a high-quality peer review and What does the reviewer form look like?

Author Self-Archiving

For all JMIR Publications journals, authors retain the copyright of their material and are allowed to self-archive their work as HTML or Word files in institutional repositories and on the web. Authors can republish the material, for example, as a book chapter. It is important to note that publication in another scholarly journal, while possible from a copyright point of view, is generally considered duplicate publication and scientific misconduct. In all cases of republication or self-archiving, the original source (citation) should be provided, including the link to the original JMIR Publications article on www.jmir.org, and a note should be included that the work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY 4.0.

Publishing Policies

Open Access Policy

All journals published by JMIR Publications provide immediate open access to their content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge and accelerates research. Copyright is retained by the authors, and articles can be freely used and distributed by others. Articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published by JMIR Publications, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information (authors, title, journal, volume/issue, and article ID), a link to the original publication (URL), and this copyright and license information (“Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution cc-by 4.0”) must be included.

Please do not contact the publisher for “reprint permission” requests because, by default, this permission has already been given by authors (under the condition of attribution of the original source), and the publisher does NOT own the copyright for the material published. The authors retain the copyright, unless stated otherwise.