Advice to contributors

See New procedures for publication of contributions (25 June 2005)

The Pharmaceutical Journal aims to provide comprehensive news coverage of all aspects of pharmacy and to publish original research and articles on pharmaceutical and related subjects.

General requirements
Declaration of interest
Letters to the Editor
News items
Meeting reports
Broad Spectrum
Diary column
Death announcements
Future events
Papers and articles

General requirements
Material for publication in The Pharmaceutical Journal should preferably be submitted electronically as e-mail or on diskette in a text-only format accompanied by a print-out.

If electronic submission is not possible, material should be typewritten in a form suitable for scanning (high-quality, black print on one side of the paper).

Material should be e-mailed to editor@pharmj.org.uk (except letters, see below) or sent to The Editor, The Pharmaceutical Journal, 1 Lambeth High Street, London SE1 7JN.

Declaration of interest
Submitted articles, papers or letters should include a declaration of any financial, commercial, personal or occupational interest that readers should know about.

Letters to the Editor
Letters can be posted, faxed, or e-mailed to letters@pharmj.org.uk and should not normally be of more than 400 words. The Journal reserves the right to abridge them. Pharmacist correspondents should supply their membership numbers. A contact telephone number should always be supplied.

The use of pseudonyms will be permitted at the discretion of the editor but only in exceptional circumstances.

Letters are considered for publication on the understanding that they have not also been submitted elsewhere. Where letters are critical of individuals, organisations or companies, details of the criticisms may be sent to the person or body concerned so that their response may appear in the same issue as the letter. In such cases, authors’ identities will not normally be disclosed.

News items
Short reports of matters of general interest are welcomed.

Meeting reports
The Pharmaceutical Journal welcomes submissions about meetings and conferences. Please contact the editorial department before sending in a report, ideally before the meeting takes place, to check that it is not already being covered and to discuss the length of the report.

Photographs are also welcome, provided they are of publishable standard.

Timing and submission
Reports should be sent in by e-mail or on disk. If the meeting is newsworthy, the report should be sent in by the Tuesday immediately after it takes place to ensure early publication. All reports should be sent within two weeks of the meeting to guarantee publication within a month of the meeting.

Reports submitted later than this will not always be published in full in The Journal. It may be necessary to publish an abbreviated version in print and post the full report on PJ Online.

How to prepare a report
Readers need to be encouraged to read reports, so start the report with the most interesting item, not with details of what, where and when the meeting occurred.

Concentrate throughout the report on the most newsworthy contributions to a meeting, such as valuable information that has not already been publicised or strongly worded opinions voiced by influential speakers. Reports that repeat what readers already know or cover old issues will not be interesting.

Write about what people actually said rather than what they talked about. Ask speakers for copies of their talks or notes. Do not submit reports that are just lists of speakers’ topics; they are of no value to the reader. Instead of writing “Professor Plum gave a fascinating account of continuing professional development,” readers will want to know exactly what Professor Plum said that was so fascinating.

Do not give every speaker an equal number of words. With the exception of keynote speakers if someone says nothing of interest, then do not report it, however well-known the person. If the keynote speaker says nothing of interest, consider how valuable a meeting report will be.

Advice for photographers
The Journal is unlikely to publish more than two or three photographs from most meetings, so it is best to concentrate on the main speakers.

The ideal time to take photographs is at the beginning of each address, while the speaker is still involved in introductions and is likely to be looking out at the audience rather than staring down into his or her notes.

Take several shots of each speaker and always aim to be as close as possible to the podium, even if it means obstructing the view of the audience for a short time.

Broad Spectrum
The Journal will consider “Broad Spectrum” submissions from any writer. Contributions of no more than 1,100 words, commenting on topical issues, should be sent, preferably by e-mail, to managing editor Graeme Smith for consideration (graeme.smith@pharmj.org.uk).

Diary column
The local meetings section of The Journal's Diary column is intended mainly for brief reminders of Royal Pharmaceutical Society branch meetings but can also include information about meetings of other pharmaceutical organisations. The Diary column covers the eight days from the Monday after the date of publication to the following Monday, inclusive.

Branch secretaries are asked to submit details of meetings as early as possible and certainly no later than the Tuesday morning preceding the date of publication. Branch programme cards are welcomed at the beginning of the season, but secretaries should remember to notify The Journal of any subsequent amendments.

Death announcements
The Obituaries column is reserved for deaths of pharmacists, former pharmacists and non-pharmacists of importance in relation to pharmacy. Information must be submitted in writing and signed. Brief biographical details are welcomed, as are short personal tributes from professional colleagues. There is no charge for inclusions in the Obituaries column. Other death announcements can be inserted in the Personal column, for which there is a small charge.

Future events
Details of future events of interest to pharmacists are published in The Journal whenever possible. The Journal cannot guarantee publication of any particular announcement.

Papers and articles
Papers and articles are welcomed, but are accepted on the understanding that they are subject to editorial revision and that their content is not published elsewhere, except by agreement. Papers reporting original research or describing developments in clinical, scientific, practice or technological fields will be peer-reviewed.

Manuscripts
In the first instance, three copies of a manuscript should be provided, typed double-spaced with a 3cm margin on A4 paper. Authors should retain one copy of all material; the editor cannot accept responsibility for loss of, or damage to, manuscripts. Manuscripts will be acknowledged and a reference number given for future inquiries. Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication, authors will be asked to submit the paper on a computer diskette or as e-mail. Manuscripts should conform to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’s “Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals” (see www.icmje.org; shortened version, Ann Intern Med 1997; 126:36-47).

Statement
Papers must be accompanied by a statement that they have not been and will not be published elsewhere, except by prior agreement with the editor. All authors must sign for their consent to publication.

Title page
A separate title page should give the full names of the authors, their posts at the time the work was carried out and their major degree and professional qualification. An address for correspondence should also be provided.

Abstracts
Abstracts of research papers should not exceed 250 words and should be structured under the headings: Aim; Design; Subjects and setting; Outcome measures; Results; Conclusions.

Statistics
Statistical procedures should be described in the methods section or be referenced.

Units of measurement
Units of measurement should generally be expressed as SI units, except for blood pressure, which should be expressed in mm Hg.

Names of medicines
Names of medicines should generally be given as generic names.

Ethics
Authors of papers concerned with human trials should indicate in the text that protocols have been approved by an ethics committee. Sources of financial support should be acknowledged.

References
References should be numbered in the order in which they appear in the text. A full list of references should be given at the end of the article. The names and initials of all authors should be given unless there are more than six. In this case, only the first six should be used followed by et al. The authors' names are followed by the title of the article, the journal title, the year of publication, the volume and the first and last page numbers. Journal titles should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. A full list is printed in the January issue of Index Medicus under “List of journals indexed”. For example:

1.  Hepler CD, Strand LM. Opportunities and responsibilities in pharmaceutical care. Am J Hosp Pharm 1990;47: 533-43.

References to books should give the names of any editors, the place of publication, the publisher and the year. For example:

2.  Edwards C, Stillman P. Minor illness or major disease? Responding to symptoms in the pharmacy. 3rd ed. London: Pharmaceutical Press; 2000.

Personal communications should be cited in the text only. This also applies to papers in the press, unless they have been accepted for publication, when the journal name should be followed in the listed reference by the words "in press". Authors are responsible for checking the accuracy of their references.

Tables
Tables should be separate from the text of the paper. They should be kept as simple as possible and should not be ruled.

Figures
Graphs should be submitted with their data as they may be redrawn. Pie charts and histograms will usually be converted to tables.

Photographs
Photographs should be of the highest quality possible and may be submitted as prints or slides, preferably in colour. Contributors are asked not to send images via ISDN or e-mail without telephoning first.

Copyright
With the exception of certain government employees, all authors will be required to transfer copyright to The Pharmaceutical Journal. Readers may make single copies of articles for their personal use. Permission should be sought from the editor to make multiple copies or to republish material.