Writing and submitting an article: A guide for patients, family members and caregivers

Thank you for thinking of submitting an article to CMAJ! We hope the information on this page will help you know what we are looking for and what you should expect.

We are looking forward to hearing from you. Please email us if you have any questions ([email protected])!

Important things to know (read me first!)
General Questions
Information for authors writing about their personal experiences with their health and health care
Information for authors writing about the healthcare system or research

Writing and submitting an article: A guide for patients, family members and caregivers

Important things to know (read me first!)

CMAJ’s readers are mostly doctors, researchers, and people interested in Canadian healthcare.
Submissions must meet CMAJ’s formatting rules and length requirements.
All submissions go through a review process. This can take a few weeks or months.
CMAJ receives many more articles than we can publish, so we unfortunately reject many each year. We’d still welcome submissions from you in the future if an article is rejected.
If your article is accepted, it will be published online and you will be listed as an author. Articles cannot be taken down once they are published.
Anyone described in your article who could be identified will need to provide consent.
Our team can give you feedback about whether your idea could be a good fit for the journal.
If you have any questions, please contact [email protected].

General Questions

What types of articles does CMAJ publish?

CMAJ publishes many types of articles. Each has its own focus, word limit, and maximum number of authors.

To choose which type of article to write, start by thinking about what you want to share and the writing style that you want to use:

Article Topic	Writing style needed	Type of article CMAJ publishes	Collaborators Required?
Experience you or a loved one had	First-person	Encounters 360 Cases CMAJ Blog	No Yes; 4 author maximum No
Examining/critiquing aspect(s) of healthcare or research	Third person; must use evidence from research or policy	CMAJ Blog Commentary Analysis	No Yes; 2 author maximum Yes; 4 author maximum
A research study	Third person;	Research	Yes; No author maximum
Historical or societal views on medicine	Third person; must use evidence from research or policy	Medicine & Society	Optional

CMAJ also publish clinical articles in the Practice, Review and Guideline sections. These are technical documents that need clinician involvement, so we haven’t included instructions on how to write them on this page. If you’re interested in learning more about these types of articles, please contact us.

More detailed descriptions about the types of articles that CMAJ publishes can be found here: https://www.cmaj.ca/submission-guidelines.

I’ve written my article. Now what do I do?

Please submit your article using this website: ScholarOne Manuscripts (manuscriptcentral.com).

When creating a ScholarOne account as a patient author, you will need to provide your:

name
email address
country, province, and postal code
ScholarOne will ask you to list an institution as well. Please write “patient/family/caregiver author” as your primary affiliation. You only need to list a secondary institution if you are employed by a healthcare or research organization, work with a patient advocacy group, pharmaceutical companies, or other organizations that may pose a competing interest with your submission.
All other fields in the form can be left blank.

Anyone listed as an author must meet the four authorship criteria of the ICMJE (as applicable to the type of article you’ve written). These criteria are that each author (1) contributed to the conception, design, acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data for the work; (2) drafted or revised the article, (3) had a chance to approve the submitted version, and (4) agree to be accountable for the work.

For more specific instructions on how to use ScholarOne, please watch this short video: ScholarOne Manuscripts Author Submission Basics - YouTube.

What happens after I submit my article?

Each article sent to the journal goes through a review process to help CMAJ’s editors decide whether to publish it (see diagram below).

If you want to learn more about review processes at journals like the CMAJ, you might find this video useful: Editing: Things they don't tell you about what journal editors want - YouTube

STEP 1:

Authors submit their articles to CMAJ through ScholarOne.

STEP 2:

Two editors read the article to decide whether to send it for review.

Articles may be rejected if they don’t fit CMAJ’s style or quality, we’ve already accepted another article on the same topic, or if other articles are a higher priority.

STEP 3:

Reviewers read the article and recommend whether the editors should accept the article, ask for revisions, or reject it.

STEP 4:

CMAJ decides what happens to the article. If the article needs to be revised, authors will be asked to make the required changes.

How do CMAJ editors choose what gets published?

CMAJ receives many more articles than we could ever publish. This means editors need to make tough decisions about which submissions to accept and which to reject.

When reviewing articles, editors consider the quality of the article, how interesting the topic is to CMAJ readers, and the novelty of the submission, among other factors.

CMAJ wants to publish work that will be helpful to doctors and researchers, influence health policy, teaches our readers something new, promotes the ideals of medicine, helps translate knowledge, and covers a diversity of perspectives. We primarily focus on topics affecting people in Canada.

How can I increase my chances of being published?

Read the Submission guidelines | CMAJ to understand the requirements for each type of article. Make sure your article fits one of the article types. Sometimes CMAJ’s focus will not be a good fit for what you want to write, and you may be better to submit elsewhere.
Simple, clear writing is best.
Editing is an important part of the writing process. After finishing your first draft, read it again to find areas that are awkward or unclear. Asking others to read your piece or revisiting it after a few days can also help you identify areas to improve.
Find collaborators with complementary experiences or expertise to write your article with you.
Read articles published in the journal to have a sense of the writing style CMAJ publishes.
Emphasize why your article is important and shares something our readers won’t know.

You may also find these resources useful: (1) 5 tips to improve your writing - YouTube; (2) How to get published in an academic journal: top tips from editors | Universities | The Guardian

Does it cost anything to publish in CMAJ?

Publishing in CMAJ is free for all article types except Research.

What happens if my article is rejected?

If your article is rejected, CMAJ’s editors will send you an email and will briefly explain why. Sometimes the editors will suggest that you submit to CMAJ Blog. Many authors will submit their article to another journal to be published at this stage.

I am not comfortable writing. Are there other options for me to submit an article?

If you don’t feel comfortable writing, we still want to hear from you! We accept written, audio, or video submissions for some types of articles. We also sometimes work on a one-on-one basis to help people. Please contact us for information ([email protected]).

Information for authors writing about their personal experiences with their health and health care

I want to write about an experience I or a loved one had in healthcare. How do I start?

The process will be different for everyone, but here are a few tips to get started:

Instead of summarizing everything that happened, pick a particular moment or interaction to write about. To help narrow your focus, try asking yourself:
- Why do I want to write this article?
- What happened and why is this significant for me?
- What do readers need to know to understand what happened?
- How were members of the healthcare system involved? What role did they play?
- What details am I comfortable making public?
- What do I want people to learn from reading my article?
- What does my experience say about Canada’s healthcare system?
Make a timeline of the encounter or your experience with the condition to organize your thoughts.
Ask yourself what you want your article to say that hasn’t been said before about the health care system. What could be improved? What is working well? What should people in healthcare know or do to fix it?
Use your own words to describe what happened and how you felt.
Be specific! The reader wasn’t there with you. Provide examples of things you remember or that stood out to you.

What sort of articles does CMAJ publish about personal experiences?

CMAJ publishes two types of articles for authors to reflect on their personal experience in healthcare. These are (1) Encounters and (2) 360 Cases. We also publish these sorts of articles on the CMAJ Blog.

Encounters

Encounters detail one author’s reflections on a healthcare interaction(s). These articles present perspectives that readers can learn from. Each article has a maximum length of 1400 words (5.5 pages double-spaced pages). For more information, see: Submission guidelines | CMAJ

Examples of Encounters articles:

By family members —

By patients —

360 Cases

Many people are involved in dealing with a health problem and each has their own perspective. In 360 Cases, 2-4 people involved in a healthcare interaction reflect on what happened from their point of view to highlight problems that are not often recognized or discussed. One of the authors must be a patient or family member. Each author writes their own section separately and has a maximum of 400 words (1.5 double-spaced pages). Submission guidelines can be found here: Submission guidelines | CMAJ

Examples of 360 Cases:

Writing Resources

There are many writing resources available online. Here are a few to get you started:

Information for authors writing about the healthcare system or research

I want to write about the healthcare system, health policies or research. How do I start?

At CMAJ, articles about healthcare policy, the healthcare system, or research are balanced, systematic, and evidence-based accounts written by teams of people with expertise or experience in the area discussed. We highly recommend you find collaborators with expertise that complements your own when developing these articles. It is also important that you start by reading articles that have already been published about your topic.

We also publish more opinion-style articles on CMAJ Blog. Opinion pieces in the CMAJ Blog are often written by only one person. These may be a good option for you if you want to write about your thoughts on the healthcare system in a less formal way.

How do I find literature to cite in my article?

Evidence to support your arguments must be trustworthy and accurate. Good sources include articles published by academic journals, healthcare organizations, and government policies. We encourage you not to use social media, websites, personal correspondence or blogs as primary sources.

Google Scholar and PubMed (nih.gov) are databases you can use to find articles. If you find an article behind a paywall, email the authors for a copy of their article or check if a free version is available through Unpaywall: An open database of 20 million free scholarly articles, ResearchGate | Find and share research or preprint servers like medRxiv.org - the preprint server for Health Sciences. If a co-author works for a university or hospital, they may be able to access it through their library for you.

How do I cite evidence in an article?

We ask all authors to include references throughout the text to support your arguments and provide a bibliography. Please format references according to the Vancouver style guide. There are many free applications that you can use to help you format them including BibGuru - A New FREE APA, Harvard, & MLA Citation Generator and Search | Mendeley. This website also provides tips on how to cite outside evidence: How to Introduce Evidence in an Essay: 14 Steps (with Pictures) (wikihow.com)

Writing Resources

Here are a few articles on how to start writing these sorts of articles:

What types of articles does CMAJ publish about the health care system or healthcare policy?

CMAJ Blog

Most manuscripts that CMAJ publishes on these topics are formal, academic articles. The CMAJ Blog is the exception to this. On the Blog, we publish opinion-based pieces on health care, personal accounts of experiences and more artistic pieces like poetry. If you want to write a piece about your perspective on the health care system or policy and have never written this sort of article for an academic journal before, the Blog is a great option. Submissions should be a maximum of 800 words (3.5 pages double-spaced) and can be written by one author (Submissions – CMAJ Blogs). The Patients’ blog – CMAJ Blogs is a collection authored by patients, family members and caregivers. All submissions are reviewed.

Examples of CMAJ Blogs:

Personal experiences –

Comments on the health care system or policy –

Analyses & Commentaries

CMAJ publishes two types of academic articles that critique or examine aspects of Canada’s healthcare system. These are (1) Analyses and (2) Commentaries. Analyses have a maximum of 2000 words (8 pages double-spaced) and summarize current thinking and evidence on a given topic. Commentaries discuss controversial topics in medicine or healthcare and have a maximum length of 1000 words (4 pages double-spaced). If you are considering writing an Analysis or Commentary, we recommend that you find collaborators with complementary experience and expertise to co-author it with you. We do not publish solo-authored articles in these sections. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. James Maskalyk ([email protected]).

Examples of Analysis articles:

Examples of Commentaries:

Letters to the editor

If you want to respond to an article CMAJ has already published, you can send a letter to the editor (Submitting a letter to the editor | CMAJ).

Medicine & Society

CMAJ publishes articles looking at the history or societal implications of medicine in Canada. These are normally written by historians or people interested in ethics, sociology, and social sciences. Most are commissioned. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Dorian Deshauer ([email protected]).

Examples written by patients:

Research

We welcome research conducted with patient-partnered teams! However, we usually reject about 90% of the research submissions we receive. Due to the strict ethical, methodological, and statistical standards for research articles, we cannot accept research submissions if teams do not have at least one author who holds a clinical or academic position. If you have any questions about CMAJ’s research section, please contact Dr. Matthew Stanbrook ([email protected]).

Examples of research co-authored with patients:

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Writing and submitting an article: A guide for patients, family members and caregivers

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