Paper styles

London Journal of Primary Care is a peer-reviewed journal with distribution in more than 200 countries and territories. The journal seeks to be the leading journal in the field of medical practice and education for all health care professionals. It aims to publish material of the highest quality reflecting leading edge research and contemporary perspectives.

Please ensure that anything you submit to the LJPC conforms to the uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals:

Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals, see International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Med Educ. 1999; 33(1):66-78

We have found that it is easiest for everyone if all the information we require (see below) is contained in your manuscript. Therefore the manuscript file that you attach should include:

• Title - All manuscripts
• Names, addresses, and positions of all authors plus email address for corresponding author - All manuscripts
• Copyright - All manuscripts - A statement in the manuscript that “The Corresponding Author has the right to grant on behalf of all authors and does grant on behalf of all authors, an exclusive licence (or non exclusive for government employees) on a worldwide basis to the International Medical Publishing Group, and its Licensees to permit this article (if accepted) to be published in LJPC editions and any other IMPG products and to exploit all subsidiary rights, as set out in our copyright and exclusive licence.” We no longer need to see a hard copy of the signed form.
• A competing interest statement - All manuscripts - (Either a statement in the manuscript describing the interests of all authors or a declaration "All authors declare that the answer to the questions on your competing interest form are all [No] and therefore have nothing to declare"). We no longer need to see a hard copy of the signed form.
• Details of contributors, and the name of the guarantor - All full papers (eg not fillers or personal views) Please see Authorship and contributorship
• Signed patient consent form. Publication of any personal information about a patient in the LJPC, for example in a case report or clinical photograph, will normally require the signed consent of the patient. Please see Patient confidentiality and consent to publication and, for our policy on images, Style book basics and please download and print the LJPC's consent form to give to the patient.
• Details of ethics approval (or a statement that it was not required) - All research studies
• Details of funding - All research studies
• Statement of the independence of researchers from funders - All research studies
• If you are submitting a randomised controlled trial please send with your manuscript the following:
• a checklist and flowchart in accordance with CONSORT guidelines. Please submit the checklist as a supplementary file and the flowchart as figure 1 in the manuscript.
• the trial protocol, submitted as a supplementary file. We do not intend to publish this but we do need it to appraise and peer review your paper. Please see Trial protocols at the LJPC
• the registration number of the trial and the name of the trial registry. Please add these to the last line of your paper’s structured abstract. Trials that begin enrolment of patients after 1 July 2005 must register in a public trials registry at or before the onset of enrolment to be considered for publication in the LJPC. Trials that began patient enrolment on or before 1 July 2005 must register before 13 September 2005 to be considered for publication. Please see Compulsory registration of clinical trials and Next steps in trial registration. The LJPC’s criteria for a suitable public trial registry are: free to access, searchable, and identifies trials with a unique number; registration is free or has minimal cost; registered information is validated; registered entry includes details to identify the trial and investigator and includes the status of the trial; and the research question, methodology, intervention, funding, and sponsorship must all be disclosed.
• If you are submitting a systematic review please follow the QUOROM guidelines and David Moher et al for the QUOROM Group. Lancet 1999;354:1896-900.
• If you are submitting a health economics paper please follow our Health Economics Checklist and read about our current policy: New LJPC policy on economic evaluations.
• If you are submitting a study of diagnostic accuracy please follow STARD guidelines.
• If you are submitting a clinical guidelines paper we would encourage you follow the GRADE system for grading evidence, but will not insist on this. Please see Grading quality of evidence and strength of recommendations.
• If any of this information is missing we will require it before we can send your paper for external review.