Long-Term Care: Management, Applied Research and Clinical Issues
"Previously Published by Lippincott"

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
As of January 1, 2006, all new manuscripts should be submitted to our submission/peer review website by using the "Submit Manuscript" link at http://www.jamda.com/ The website guides authors stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. NOTE: It is important to submit a clean manuscript that does not have evidence of track changes or comments in the margins. Please turn those features off prior to submission. Authors are requested to submit the text, tables and artwork in electronic form (not as a PDF) to this address. In an accompanying letter, authors should state that the manuscript, or parts of it, have not been and will not be submitted elsewhere for publication. Authors are highly encouraged to include a list of three or more potential reviewers for their manuscript, with complete contact information.

Submission items include a cover letter (save as a separate file for upload), suggested reviewers, title page (saved separately from the manuscript main text), the manuscript (including abstract, manuscript text, references and table/figure legends, without any author identifiers). Revised manuscripts should also be accompanied by a unique file (separate from the covering letter ) with a detailed response to reviewers (revised manuscripts only), title page, manuscript files(s), table(s), figures(s). Files should be labeled with appropriate and descriptive file Names (e.g., Text.doc, Fig1.eps. Table3.doc). Do not use an underscore (_) in the file name. Upload text, tables and graphics as separate files. Do not import figures or tables into the text document and do no upload your text as a PDF. Complete instructions for electronic artwork submission can be found on http://ees.elsevier.com/jamda, under the link for Artwork Guidelines, which is located in the Author Information section.

REVIEW PROCESS
Submissions are reviewed by the editor, and are usually sent to two external reviewers. The typical turnaround time from submission to authors receiving the reviewers' comments is less than 6 weeks; however at times there are delays.

CRITERIA
Evaluation of an article's suitability for publication is based on: the originality of the material, the clarity of the writing, the appropriateness of the study methods, validity of the data, and how well the conclusions are supported by the data. The information must be important and of long-term care and geriatric interest.

COVER LETTER
Briefly describe the contributions of each authors. Financial disclosure and any information regarding conflict of interest should be addressed in a cover letter at the time of first submission.

ASSURANCES
Acknowledgment of support should be reported in an appropriate part of the text as well or as a footnote on the first page. When human subjects are involved, the article should also include a statement that the research protocol was approved by the relevant institutional review boards or ethics committees and that written consent was obtained from all participants. Alternatively, author(s) should indicate when a waiver of consent was obtained from the IRB.

TITLE PAGE
List all authors, indicating title and affiliation for each. Every individual who contributed to the article in any way should be acknowledged. Provide a mailing address and phone/fax/email information for the corresponding author and an alternate correspondent, if possible. Please provide 3-4 key words for indexing, and a running title of no more than 45 characters.

FORMAT
Please double-space the entire manuscript and number the pages. The structure to be used is listed below in the individual categories.

TEXT
The entire text should be free of any author identification.

REFERENCES
Full references in the AMA style should be used. List the first four authors' last names and initials; if more than four, insert "et al." after the third name. References should be annotated in the text with superscripts and listed at the end of the article in the order in which they appear. Medline abbreviations should be used for journal titles. Style:

Journal -Smith J, Jones A, Doe J, et al. Title of article,J Am Med Dir Ssoc 2000;6:1-10.
Book Chapter -Smith J. Title of Chapter. In: Jones A, Doe J, eds. Title of Book, 3rd Ed. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 2006.
Book -Smith J, Jones A, Doe J. Title of Book, 2nd Ed., New York: Churchill Livingstone, 2005.
Website -http://www.websiteaddress. Accessed on Jaunuar 1, 2006.

ILLUSTRATIONS
Graphs and charts can usually be recreated by the Production Department. Permission to reproduce illustrations that were published elsewhere must be included. The cost of color illustrations must be borne by the authors.



ORIGINAL STUDIES
Please provide a structured abstract using the following headings:
Objectives, design, setting, participants, intervention (if any), measurements, results, and conclusion.

Text should be approximately 8-10 double-spaced pages in length, using the following format:
Introduction -should describe the question posed that the research was designed to answer.
Methods -should describe the design, how it was carried out, selection and assignment of subjects, treatment, outcome measurements and statistical methods.
Results -should be listed in order of importance, and include any adverse effects.
Discussion -should provide a brief synopsis of the findings, limitations of the study, and a comparison with relevant findings from other studies.
Conclusion -should provide a brief summary of the implications of the study findings.

Meta-analyses will be considered original research.

REVIEW ARTICLES
A review article is a systematic, critical assessment of the literature and data sources relevant to clinical topics (including treatment) that are commonly encountered in long-term care settings. Authors should emphasize factors such as cause, diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, or therapeutic intervention(s). All articles and date sources reviewed should include information about a specific type of study (eg, case study, double-blind, randomized trial), population, intervention, and outcomes. Articles or data sources should be selected systematically for inclusion in the review and critically evaluated. The selection process should be described in the paper. The typical length is 12-15 doublespaced pages, not including tables, figures and references). Submission of a textbook replication is discouraged. The review section also includes brief reviews . These articles are narrow in scope, answering a single clinical question, such as: What is an effective intervention for prevention of injurious falls? All review articles should be formatted using the following headings: Objectives/Introduction; Methods (data sources, type of study); Results; Discussion, Conclusion. Review articles should have a brief abstract with or without subheadings. These articles should include a brief abstract without subheadings.

CONTROVERSIES
These articles will deal with behaviors or practices in long-term care settings that lack an evidence base, but rather are guided by opinions of local leaders and/or regulations without a clearly tested process that leads to a beneficial outcome. The following structure should be used: Problem, Significance of the Problem, Discussion, Conclusion. Review articles should have a brief abstract with or without subheadings. These articles should include a brief abstract without subheadings.

Clinical Practice in Long-Term Care
Based on the AMDA Curriculum on Geriatric Clinical Practice in Long-Term Care, this section provides articles of interest to the practicing, long-term care medical provider. Each article is a systematic, critical review of the literature relevant to a geriatric, clinical topic commonly encountered in long-term care settings. Review articles should have a brief abstract with or without subheadings. These articles should include a brief abstract without subheadings.

MEDICAL MANAGEMENT
These articles deal with existing or new clinical practice guidelines, ways to implement them, and experiences derived from using them. It will include empiric information of the work process in the long-term care setting that applies research-derived information to the workplace.
Examples: Prompted voiding to reduce wetness or Tai Chi as an intervention to reduce the rate of falls. Review articles should have a brief abstract with or without subheadings. These articles should include a brief abstract without subheadings.

Clinical experience reports should address the use of assessment and/ or intervention methods in the long-term care setting (home, assisted living, and nursing facilities), which have the potential to improve quality of care or quality of life. Examples: Algorithms, clinical practice guidelines, the impact of regulatory requirements on practice or policy, and procedure implementation. These reports may describe a clinical experience or an investigation that is preliminary but that may be of clinical or scientific interest. The manuscript should include a short introduction and rationale, a methods section to include subjects and approach, and an outcomes or results section. In the case results are not available, some mention should be made of methods to be employed to measure outcome of the work process. The reports are limited to 10 double-spaced narrative manuscript pages with 1-2 tables and/or figures, plus a brief, structured abstract using the headings above. Forms and checklists are welcome as tables or appendices. Review articles should have a brief abstract with or without subheadings. These articles should include a brief abstract without subheadings.

Case reports should be approximately 3-5 double-spaced, typewritten pages and contain instructional value, such as those of successful interventions in managing uncommon syndromes or unsuccessful ones where a diagnosis was made after the fact. Review articles should have a brief abstract with or without subheadings. These articles should include a brief abstract without subheadings.

QUALITY IMPROVEMENT
These articles are case-based presentations of nursing home behavior/ practice that led to an adverse regulatory or legal outcome. The discussant should review state-of-the-art practice/clinical guidelines that, if applied, would have resulted in a satisfactory conclusion. The format to use is: Case presentation, comments, recommendations.

LONG-TERM CARE AROUND THE GLOBE
This section reports on long-term care services in different countries and health systems aimed to educate and exchange information. When feasible, these articles should include a brief structured abstract stating objectives, design, methods, results and conclusion.

SPECIAL ARTICLES
Special articles are usually solicited by the editor. Topics of interest to the readers, which do not easily fit into any of the regular categories, will appear in this section. Review articles should have a brief abstract with or without subheadings. These articles should include a brief abstract without subheadings.

IN TOUCH
This section affords authors the opportunity to share personal experiences with the readers. They are generally 3-5 double-spaced pages, non-clinical in nature, and should pertain, in some way, to longterm care issues. Appropriate topics include: compassion, quality of life, human value, dignity of death and the sanctity of life. A short story format, fact or fiction, is acceptable.

IN THE TRENCHES
Debuted in the June issue of 2008, page 291 (T.R. Cote), this provides an opportunity for authors to share with other long term care providers tools they have developed to advance better care for their patients. It can be a one-page "how-to" illustration or a two-to-three page description followed by a figure that illustrates the procedure or instrument.

LETTERS
Letters should be double-spaced and approximately 1-3 pages in length. Those referring to an article published in the journal should be submitted within 1 month of the article's appearance and may be sent to the author of the paper for a response. References and a small illustration are acceptable.

If you have questions for the editorial office contact Valerie Tanner, Managing Editor; emal: tannerv@slu.edu; phone +1 314-977-8464 (US).

If you need technical support while working in the online submission syste, click the support link to send an e-mail, or call:
for the Americas (toll-free for US & Canada) +1 888-834-7287;
for Asia & Pacific +181 3 5561 5032;
for Europe & the rest of the world +353 61 709190.



Revised April 2009