Official Journal of the Academic Pediatric Association
As of 2009 (Volume 9) continued as Academic Pediatrics



Overview

Ambulatory Pediatrics strives to:

• Provide a forum for the publication of general pediatric materials;
• Help further define the field of academic general pediatrics; and
• Strengthen the research and educational base of general pediatrics.

The content areas of the journal reflect the general interests of Academic Pediatric Association members and other health professionals who care for children. Areas of particular interest include pediatric education, child health services research, child health policy, and research methodology. Content areas for the journal include such diverse topics as adolescent medicine, child maltreatment, day care, developmental and behavioral pediatrics, emergency medicine, the environment, ethnic disparities, health care financing, holistic medicine, hospitalist medicine, informatics, injury, international pediatrics, medical education across the continuum, and treatment of common primary care problems like asthma and ADHD.

Please address editorial questions to:
James M. Perrin, MD, Editor-in-Chief
Ambulatory Pediatrics
MassGeneral Hospital for Children
Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy
50 Staniford Street, Suite 901
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: 617-726-8716
Fax: 617-726-1886
e-mail: ambpeds@partners.org



Article types

Research articles - Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Most research published in the journal uses quantitative methods and the maximum length for these manuscripts is 3500 words. The word limit for manuscripts reporting qualitative research is 4000 words. Manuscripts reporting original research should have clear organization with:

• An introduction indicating the importance of the problem addressed, briefly describing key previous research leading directly to the study described in the manuscript and indicating the specific study questions to be answered;
• The methods section that briefly explains the type of study (e.g., randomized controlled trial, longitudinal follow-up), how the investigators obtained the sample, the intervention (if any), the measures used (describing dependent or outcome variables first, followed by independent variables and additional control variables), and the analytic plan used to answer each study question.
• Study results should first describe the key characteristics of the sample and then describe findings for the dependent (outcome) variables and key independent variables. Results should then follow the study questions by describing findings related to each question.
• The discussion should begin with a brief statement of the important findings of the study and then place these in the context of previous related research. For example, the discussion should address the new information provided by the study. The discussion should include specific information about study limitations. The manuscript may conclude with speculations regarding the findings, the implications of the findings for programs and policy, and the direction for further research. (Please make specific recommendations rather than a general plea for more research).

The journal publishes many manuscripts reporting on qualitative research as well as quantitative research. Description of qualitative research should include most of the items noted for quantitative papers, and authors are referred to the excellent discussion of qualitative methods in the December 1999 supplement to Health Services Research.¹ Qualitative studies benefit especially from a logic model or theoretical framework to drive the study questions. Although qualitative samples are often small, the methods should provide information on the characteristics of the sample and explain what led to choosing those characteristics. Methods of coding and analysis should be specific and referenced.

Brief Reports
The journal also publishes brief reports that describe interesting new ideas in pediatric medicine, health services, and medical education. Brief reports typically have only limited or preliminary data on a topic, although they typically raise new questions of interest to the journal readership. Brief reports should have no more than 2,000 words (excluding abstract, tables, and references) and a maximum of three tables or figures. Other elements (abstracts and references) meet usual journal requirements for length and formatting.

Perspectives
The Perspectives section of the journal focuses on reviews of important pediatric topics, with an emphasis on research findings in the previous five years and identifying areas for future study. The Perspectives Editor solicits most articles, with input about topics and potential authors from the Journal's senior editorial group. Authors will generally be respected authorities in the area and may include a fellow or junior faculty member as a co-author. The manuscripts should be about 4500-5000 words, not so comprehensive as a Cochrane-style systematic review, but including an overview of key questions and recent important research in a field, indicating the recent advances in the underlying science, and ending with a vision of the research and/or policy issues that should be addressed in the near future. Where appropriate, Perspectives should also discuss implications for pediatric education and practice. The editors will work with authors as needed and encourage an annotated outline of the review as an intermediate step. All Perspectives manuscripts are peer-reviewed. For questions, please contact Elena Fuentes-Afflick at efuentes@sfghpeds.ucsf.edu.

In the Moment - Personal Narratives
In the Moment - Personal Narratives: The journal invites narrative pieces about research, contact with patients, the influence of mentors, the impact of policy and current events, and the relationship of work to personal lives, and the lives of others. We seek essays that describe these experiences and make connections to larger themes in pediatrics education, research, policy and clinical care.

Submissions should include a submission letter from the author(s) and a title page, both of which are described below. Narratives are limited to 2500 words (excluding title page, tables, or figures) and must be double spaced and typed in 12-point font. Any references should be cited consecutively in the text. An abstract is not required for personal narratives. Please direct questions to John Andrews, MD (andrews@umn.edu) or Anjali Jain,MD (ajain@cnmc.org).

Commentaries
The editors occasionally solicit brief (about 1000 word) commentaries regarding papers published in the journal or recent reports of activities of interest to readers. Commentaries differ from Perspectives by being briefer and more focused on specific topics, questions, or manuscripts. These include commentaries often on recent Institute of Medicine reports related to child health issues, proposed changes in pediatric education, or other policy changes related to academic general pediatrics. Generally, the editor-in-chief solicits these brief commentaries.

Supplements
The journal publishes supplements on topics of interest to its readers. Recent supplement topics include: Children's Oral Health, Health Services Research and Pediatric Emergency Medicine, the APA/HRSA Faculty Development Scholars Program, Measurement of Child Health Status, and Outcomes in Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. The journal has also published special issues or sections on Pediatric Environmental Medicine, Child Health Services Research, Children with Special Health Care Needs, and Pediatric Health Care Safety. Authors interested in supplements to the journal should contact the editor-in-chief to discuss interest and procedures. Supplements should have a guest editor, who helps with the initial review of manuscripts and organization of the supplement, as well as suggesting reviewers for the manuscripts. All manuscripts proposed for a supplement go for external review (as with other submissions to the journal), and final decisions on publication remain with the journal editors, in consultation with the guest editor for the supplement.

Book Reviews
Ambulatory Pediatrics publishes book reviews. Please contact Ruth Etzel, the book review editor, at retzel@earthlink.net. The journal regrets that it cannot review all submitted books.

Preparing a Manuscript

Formatting
All manuscripts should be prepared with standard word processing software. Text should be double spaced in 12 point font, and pages numbered. Tables should be placed together at the end of the manuscript. A reasonable number of black and white figures will be printed without charge. Payment for color illustrations and other special processing is the responsibility of the authors and should be arranged before manuscripts are processed. Do not mail original artwork or printed forms. Figures should be saved separately as PowerPoint files, tif, eps, or jpg files. The online submission system is unable to process multi-worksheet Excel (or similar) table files. To submit such documents, save each worksheet table or slide in a separate file. Symbols and special characters should not be created graphically; instead, use the character set provided in your word processor. Use a legend as part of the figure when symbols are used. Do not use any automated word-processing features, such as track changes, footnotes, or citation links.

Submission Letter
All manuscripts begin with a submission letter. This letter should be included with the online submission but the original copy signed by all authors should be sent to the editorial office at the above address. The authors should affirm:

• The manuscript is being submitted only to Ambulatory Pediatrics, that it will not be submitted elsewhere while under consideration, that it has not been published elsewhere, and, should it be published in Ambulatory Pediatrics, that it will not be published elsewhere—either in similar form or verbatim—without permission of the editors. These restrictions do not apply to abstracts or to press reports of presentations at scientific meetings.
  
  If the submitted paper contains data that have been previously published, are in press or currently under review by another publication in any format, the authors are required to submit a reprint or a copy of the manuscript to the Editor-in-Chief with a clarification of the overlap and justification for consideration of the current submitted manuscript. This requirement includes manuscripts with the same or similar authors and using the same data source. Final decisions on the appropriateness of additional publication remain with the editor in chief.
• They are responsible for the reported research.
• They have participated in the concept and design, analysis and interpretation of data, and drafting or revising of the manuscript; and that they have approved the manuscript as submitted.
• They are disclosing any affiliation, financial agreement, or other involvement of any author with any company or other organization with a financial interest in the subject matter in the submitted manuscript. The journal generally prints information on potential conflict of interest.

Title Page
The title page is the first page of all manuscripts. It includes:

• The manuscript's title;
• Names, degrees, affiliation, city and state of all authors;
• Name, mailing address, email address, phone and fax number of the corresponding author;
• 3-5 keywords;
• Running title of no more than 60 characters including spaces;
• Separate word counts for the abstract and the main text;
• Acknowledgement of research or project support with the relevant agency, grant or project number, and the principal investigator;
• Description of potential conflicts of interest and corporate sponsors.

Abstracts
The abstract is the second page of all manuscripts with the exception of "In the Moment -- Personal Narratives" for which an abstract is not required. Abstracts should be prepared with a structured format with a maximum of 250 words. Four elements should be addressed: why did you start, what did you do, what did you find, and what does it mean. Why did you start is the objective. What did you do constitutes the methodology and could include design, setting, patients or other participants, interventions, outcome measures and analysis. What did you find is the results, and what does it mean would comprise your conclusions. Please label each section clearly with the appropriate subheading.

Manuscript Text
The manuscript's text varies with the type of article submitted. Please consult the "Article Types" section for guidelines, and direct specific questions to the Editorial Office or section editor.

All manuscripts, including title page, tables, figures, and references, should be prepared according to "Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals."^2,3 Grammar, punctuation, and scientific writing style should follow the American Medical Association Manual of Style, 9th edition.⁴ Please use conventional system measurements followed in parentheses by equivalent Systeme International (SI) values.^5,6 Abbreviations should be limited to those listed in Chapter 11 of the AMA Manual of Style, 9th edition.³ Any uncommon abbreviations should be listed at the beginning of the article. Confidence intervals usually provide more helpful information than p values.

References
All authors should have read all cited references. Please number references in the order they appear in the text. Unpublished references or meeting abstracts should not be included. Include the names of all authors for six and fewer; for references with more than six authors, provide the names of the first three and then et al. References should be double-spaced and generally not exceed 35. Spell out journal titles or use standard AMA abbreviations. References should follow AMA style, as per the examples below.

1. Schultz CP, Williams PQ, Peterson SU, SanFillippo RS. Return rates for dangerous child safety seats. Ambulatory Pediatrics. 2002; 2: 236-244.
2. Sanderson PC, Sanchez SN, Bedlam TC, et al. Health care purchasers' views of adolescent health needs. Ambulatory Pediatrics. 2003; 3: 122-134.
3. Kenworthy OT, Hatchett EM. An optimistic view of child health policy. In Stretch PQ, Pull VR, eds, Futures for America's Children. Hercules CA: Samson University Press, 1999: 67-92.

Submitting a Manuscript

Authors should submitted all manuscripts through the journal's editorial website, http://ees.elsevier.com/ambulpediatr/. The manuscript submission process is broken into a series of screens that gather detailed information about the manuscript, including title, article type, author listings, abstract, keywords, topical classifications, and that allow authors to upload all pertinent files including the submission letter, manuscript, figures, and tables. A detailed tutorial with a step-by-step walk-through is available for download on the EES homepage.

Before beginning the submission process, please gather the following information and files:

• For each author

o First name, middle name/initial, last name, credentials
o Department/Institution
o E-mail address

• Submission letter
• Manuscript title (you may copy and paste this from your manuscript)
• Abstract (you may copy and paste this from your manuscript)
• Key words
• Manuscript in Word, WordPerfect, or similar common word processing format. The manuscript file must include a title page, abstract (not required for In the Moment - Personal Narratives) and manuscript text with references.
• Tables, figures or images in PDF, XLS, or PPT format or embedded at end of the manuscript file.

One author must be specified as the correspondent with the journal. He or she will receive all communications from the Editor. Provide full mailing address, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail address for the corresponding author on the title page. The journal limits authors to a maximum of eight. Exceptions to this rule will require justification and approval by the editor-in-chief.

After submitting the manuscript files, authors select the order in which the files will appear in a merged PDF file that the system creates. When the system finishes completing the PDF files, authors are directed to a page that allows review of the pdf-formatted manuscript. If the conversion is not correct, authors can replace or delete manuscript files as necessary. The final screen includes an "Ethics in Publishing" statement that authors should read and accept if in agreement. After reviewing the converted files, authors need to click on "Approve Submission." This completes the manuscript submission process.

Manuscript Review Process

Three outside peer reviewers review almost all manuscripts. The Journal makes every effort to expedite this process. The average time from submission to initial decision is 57 days.

Manuscript Status
You can check the status of your manuscript at any time by:
1. Logging into the system with your password
2. Clicking on the link "Submissions Being Processed.

This procedure will display the status of your manuscript during the submission/peer-review process.

Acceptance Criteria

Relevance to readers (esp., educators, scientists, policymakers, and clinicians) is of major importance in manuscript selection. The journal will generally accept manuscripts in the following categories: reports of original research, particularly clinical, health services, and health policy research; systematic reviews of primary care and general pediatric topics; studies and descriptions of educational interventions; educational symposia; and papers regarding methodology. In general, commentaries and topic reviews will be limited to careful systematic reviews of the literature or to research agenda setting papers indicating important next steps in a field. The journal does not publish clinical case reports.

Reports of original research will be judged on the importance and originality of the research; its scientific strength; its relevance to clinical care, programs, or policy; the clarity with which it is presented; and the novelty of the new knowledge it adds.

Educational interventions should include an evaluation component, preferably one that goes beyond increasing knowledge to evaluating whether the intervention actually changes behavior. Multi-site programs are generally reviewed more favorably than single site experiments. We have a strong preference for articles whose findings are not limited to documenting trainees' capacity to learn but also show changes in behaviors or health care outcomes.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of a manuscript, the authors will be asked to download a standard Copyright Agreement from the website, which all authors must sign and return to the Ambulatory Pediatrics editorial office at:

Ambulatory Pediatrics
MassGeneral Hospital for Children
Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy
50 Staniford Street, Suite 901
Boston, MA 02114

All accepted manuscripts become the permanent property of the Academic Pediatric Association and may not be published elsewhere, in whole or in part, without written permission from the APA. Authors who were employees of the United States Government at the time the work was done should so state on the Copyright Agreement.

Articles in Press
The Ambulatory Pediatrics website now posts articles in press, accepted, peer-reviewed papers that will soon be published in this journal. Articles in press are corrected proof versions of papers, Although "Articles in Press" do no have all bibliographic details available yet, they can be cited using the year of online availability and the DOI as follows: Author(s), Article Title, Journal (year), DOI.

References
1. Devers KJ, Sofaer S, Rundall TC (eds). Qualitative Methods in Health Services Research. Health Services Research, 1999; 34: 1083-1263.
2. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. JAMA. 1997; 277:927-934.
3. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. N Engl J Med. 1997;336:309-315.
4. Iverson C, Dan BB, Glitman P, et al. American Medical Association Manual of Style. 9th ed. Baltimore, Md: Williams & Wilkins; 1998.
5. Lundberg GD. SI unit implementation: the next step. JAMA. 1988;260:73-76.
6. Systeme International conversion factors for frequently used laboratory components. JAMA. 1991;266:45-47.



Updated February 2008