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Submission Guidelines and Policies

Contents

Who Can Submit?

Any current undergraduate student at McMaster or elsewhere may submit a Critical Review or Research Insight article. MedWires and MedBulletins are written by Meducator staff only. Interviews are generally conducted by Meducator staff, but other undergraduate students may also be allowed to carry out an interview if they have an interviewee in mind and contact The Meducator in advance.

For more information on these article types, click on the Article Formats tab.

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General Submission Rules

  • Submitted articles may cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). By submitting material to The Meducator, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at The Meducator.
  • To submit a Research Insight manuscript, authors must first receive permission from their supervisor if they are to discuss details about their work and publish primary data.
  • Authors may submit manuscripts that were written as part of a course or started off as course-related project or thesis project. However, it is likely that these may require significant formatting changes to meet standards set by The Meducator.

If you have concerns about the submission terms for The Meducator, please contact us at the.meducator@learnlink.mcmaster.ca

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Submitting a Manuscript

Manuscripts can currently be submitted by emailing them directly to the.meducator@learnlink.mcmaster.ca or via DigitalCommons through the Submit Article feature on the left navigation bar. Manuscripts should be submitted using the manuscript templates (see below).

Submitted articles must be accompanied with the following:

Contact Information: Please include your email address, phone number, information about program and year of study.

Keywords: Please include 7-10 keywords that best describe your submission.

Abstract: Please include an abstract of 150-200 words in English.

Cover Letter: Please briefly state the purpose of your paper and its expected contribution to the The Meducator.

Current submission deadline: January 27, 2012

Note: We encourage authors to submit preliminary drafts, outlines or ideas for manuscripts several weeks or months prior to the official deadline such that we can provide feedback and an indication of the manuscript’s publication potential. Although final publication decisions will not be made until soon after the indicated deadlines, it is advantageous for authors to submit manuscripts well in advance.

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Formatting Guidelines

Click here for Critical Review manuscript template

Click here for Research Insight manuscript template

Click here for detailed formatting guide for manuscripts

General Requirements:

  • Manuscripts should use The Meducator manuscript template (see above).
  • Articles must be written in English with Canadian spelling
  • Length: 1500-2000 words
  • Figures and Tables should include captions and referred to in-text
  • Figures and Tables should be placed at the end of the document and included separately as image files
  • Vancouver style referencing should be used in-text and in a references section at the end of the article (click here for Vancouver style guide)

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Review Process

Click here for a detailed description of the manuscript review and editing process.

Manuscript Review:

  • Each manuscript is formally reviewed by 2-3 members of The Meducator review team
  • Based on the manuscripts received, a decision is made by The Meducator editorial board about whether to publish in the upcoming Issue
  • Manuscripts chosen to be published are edited further to meet publication standards
  • Manuscripts that are not accepted are returned to the author with feedback; these could still be published in future Issues of The Meducator

Manuscript Editing Process

  • If an article is to be published, the Editorial Board will begin the editing process with the cooperation of the author. The Meducator reserves the right to retract its decision to publish the article if the necessary changes are not met.
  • Before publication, the manuscript must also be reviewed by a postgraduate in the field. In most cases, this is a faculty member, postdoctoral fellow or a senior graduate student.

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Rights for Authors and DigitalCommons@McMaster

As further described in our submission agreement (the Submission Agreement), in consideration for publication of the article, the authors assign to DigitalCommons@McMaster all copyright in the article, subject to the expansive personal--use exceptions described below.

Attribution and Usage Policies

Reproduction, posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the article or any material therein, in any medium as permitted by a personal-use exemption or by written agreement of DigitalCommons@McMaster, requires credit to DigitalCommons@McMaster as copyright holder (e.g., DigitalCommons@McMaster © 2012).

Personal-use Exceptions

The following uses are always permitted to the author(s) and do not require further permission from DigitalCommons@McMaster provided the author does not alter the format or content of the articles, including the copyright notification:

  • Storage and back-up of the article on the author's computer(s) and digital media (e.g., diskettes, back-up servers, Zip disks, etc.), provided that the article stored on these computers and media is not readily accessible by persons other than the author(s);
  • Posting of the article on the author(s) personal website, provided that the website is non-commercial;
  • Posting of the article on the internet as part of a non-commercial open access institutional repository or other non-commercial open access publication site affiliated with the author(s)'s place of employment (e.g., a Phrenology professor at the University of Southern North Dakota can have her article appear in the University of Southern North Dakota's Department of Phrenology online publication series); and
  • Posting of the article on a non-commercial course website for a course being taught by the author at the university or college employing the author.

People seeking an exception, or who have questions about use, should contact the editors.

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General Terms and Conditions of Use

Users of the DigitalCommons@McMaster website and/or software agree not to misuse the DigitalCommons@McMaster service or software in any way.

The failure of DigitalCommons@McMaster to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between DigitalCommons@McMaster and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.

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