Guide for Authors

A Journal of the American College of Preventive Medicine and the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research



The American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM) publishes original articles, reviews, commentary, and correspondence on all aspects of practice, education, policy, and research in preventive medicine and public health. These instructions follow the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, which can be accessed through the AJPM website at www.ajpm-online.net.

Manuscripts are accepted for consideration with the understanding that they have been submitted solely to AJPM and that they have not been previously published, either in whole or in part. AJPM is a fully peer-reviewed journal. The editors reserve the right to make editorial changes in all matter published in the Journal and cannot enter into correspondence about papers not accepted for publication.

AJPM accepts manuscripts electronically through the Internet-based Elsevier Editorial System (EES). Access to EES is gained through ees.elsevier.com/ajpm. On the site you will find instructions for submission of the manuscript, as well as a Tutorial for Authors. All tracking and follow-up will be done through the online program. If you have questions about the online program, please address them to eAJPM@ucsd.edu.

Copyright

Copyright of all material is held by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. In assigning copyright, authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication and Elsevier is notified in advance and in writing. Permission may be sought directly from Elsevier's Global Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone 215-239-3804 or +44 (0)1865 843830, fax +44 (0)1865 853333, email healthpermissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage ( http://www.elsevier.com/permissions ).The editors, editorial board, sponsoring organizations, and publisher do not accept responsibility for the statements expressed by authors in their contributions.

Manuscript Preparation

Authors and reviewers are advised that AJPM complies with the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) statement (revised), found at www.consort-statement.org, in its consideration of manuscripts reporting randomized clinical trials (RCTs). On the CONSORT website, you can click directly to the checklist, which should guide the preparation of the manuscript, and the flow diagram, which must be included as a figure in the manuscript. In addition, AJPM requires that manuscripts reporting RCTs include the following information: date of approval of an Institutional Review Board, sources of funding for the trial, and the trial registry number (if applicable).

Authors are encouraged to consult the following guidelines:

• The TREND statement. To improve the reporting quality of nonrandomized evaluations of behavioral and public health interventions, the Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Nonrandomized Designs (TREND) statement has been developed. The guidelines and a 22-item checklist can be found at www.trend-statement.org.
• The STROBE statement. A checklist of items that should be addressed in articles reporting cohort studies, case-control studies or cross-sectional studies, to STrengthen the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology can be found at www.strobe-statement.org.
• External Validitation and Translation Methodology. See the article, "Evaluating the Relevance, Generalization, and Applicability of Research: Issues in External Validation and Translation Methodology," by Lawrence Green and Russell Glasgow, which can be found at www.ajpm-online.net.

AJPM complies with the NIH "Public Access Policy" (see http://publicaccess.nih.gov ).

Manuscripts should be formatted for an 8-½" X 11" (215 mm X 280 mm) page with 1" (25 mm) margins on all four sides. Times New Roman 12-point is recommended for text and tables; use Arial (nonserif) font for figures. All text should be double-spaced and flush left; avoid using tabs. Assemble sections in the following order: title page, abstract, text, acknowledgments, references, list of titles for all figures (typed on 1 page), tables, and figures. Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page.

In the cover letter accompanying the manuscript, the corresponding author must state either that there is conflict of interest and the nature of same (outlined in a brief paragraph), or that there is no conflict of interest. When a manuscript has been accepted for publication, all authors are required to sign a disclosure statement regarding competing financial interests; this information will then be published following the article.

The manuscript should contain NO automatic formatting EXCEPT page numbers in the upper right corner of each page and continuous line numbers for all lines in the main text.

The Title Page should include: (1) the title (concise but informative using no symbols and not exceeding 80 characters in length); (2) the first name, middle initial, last name, and highest academic degree of each author, and the names of departments and institutions (including city and state) to which the work should be attributed; (3) the name, address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the author responsible for correspondence; (4) the name and address of the author to whom reprint requests should be sent; and (5) total word count (text only) and the number of pages, tables, and figures.

An Abstract of not more than 250 words should be included with each article, beginning on a separate page. Abstracts for research manuscripts must be prepared in a structured format, using: background, methods, results, and conclusions. Intervention studies must use: background, design, setting/participants, intervention, main outcome measures, results, and conclusions. Other manuscripts should use a simple and succinct abstract of no more than two paragraphs.

Text should begin on a separate page and follow these word-count parameters: up to 3000 words for research articles; and up to 4000 words for large research studies (RCTs/community-based trials) and review articles. The number of tables and figures should be in proportion to the amount of text. All research manuscripts must include (in both abstract and methods section) the year in which the data were collected and the year in which the analysis was conducted.

The Journal also accepts and publishes Brief Reports based on smaller studies, but still of interest to our readers. Brief Reports should contain all the same sections as a full research paper, but be limited to 1200 words with no more than 1-2 short tables or figures.

Letters to the Editor are considered for publication and should be submitted via Editorial Manager.

Acknowledgments and any necessary disclaimers should begin on a separate page, numbered in sequence following the text, but before references. List sources of support in the form of grants, equipment, or drugs. Acknowledge only people who have made substantive contributions to the study.

References follow the style of Index Medicus and should be identified by number in the order in which they are mentioned in the text; references that apply only to tables and figures should be numbered in sequence where the text first refers to the table or figure. If subsequent reference is made to a citation, the original reference number should be used again. Titles of journals must be abbreviated according to Index Medicus style, which can be found at www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/aim.html.

References to personal communications should be noted in the text, not in the reference list, as: (first initial, last name, affiliation, "personal communication," date).

References to software should also be noted in the text as: name of software, version.

Include among the references, manuscripts accepted but not yet published; designate the journal followed by "In press."

Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as unpublished observations (in parentheses).

Automatic referencing in Word is not accepted; however, using programs such as EndNote? and Reference Manager? is acceptable. All references in the text must be superscript (not in parentheses).

Tables should be in Times New Roman, each on a separate page; vertical and horizontal rules (lines) should not be used within the body of tables. Use arabic numerals to identify tables, and limit table heading to no more than 15 words. Footnotes in tables should be lettered (lower case a, b, c) except for statistical notes, which should be noted with an asterisk (*, **, ***). All abbreviations used in a table must be expanded in a legend under the table. Significant results should be presented in bold text within the cells of the table.

Figures should be submitted in a form suitable for reproduction. Typewritten (or dot matrix) figures are not acceptable. Typeface should be nonserif (e.g., Arial). Use only black on white background, with bold patterns rather than variations of gray shading. A list of figure titles should be typed on one page and placed after the references.

Submitting Manuscripts to AJPM

When you submit your manuscript online via EES, follow the instructions at ees.elsevier.com/ajpm.

Communicating with the Editorial Office

We encourage you to communicate with the AJPM Editorial Office via e-mail (eAJPM@ucsd.edu) or telephone (858-534-9340) to check on the status of a manuscript. For other business pertaining to the Journal, e-mail ajpm@ucsd.edu.

Mailing address:

American Journal of Preventive Medicine
University of California, San Diego 9500 Gilman Drive, DEPT 0811
La Jolla CA 92093-0811
Phone: 858-534-9340
FAX: 858-534-9404



Updated April 2009