Submissions

Author Guidelines

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GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS

 Focus on Health Professional Education: A Multi-Professional Journal

GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS

Focus on Health Professional Education (FoHPE) publishes original papers and other contributions on all aspects of health professional education, spanning undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education. The journal accepts a range of manuscript types, including original research (full length or short reports), systematic reviews, discussion/conceptual papers, reports on educational innovations and letters to the Editor. Papers may focus on any aspect of health professional education, e.g. curriculum design and development, aspects of learning, teaching approaches, assessment, and evaluation.

Submissions should be grounded in the relevant literature and, where applicable, a relevant theoretical framework. Submissions should consider how the findings or conclusions might be applicable to the broad readership of health professional educators.

SUBMISSION FORMATS

Original Research and Reviews

Quantitative or mixed method original research papers should be less than 3500 words in length (excluding abstract, references and tables or figures). Qualitative original research or review papers with substantial qualitative components (e.g. qualitative metasyntheses) can be up to 5000 words. Appendices are negotiable if they are integral to the understanding of the paper and are not freely available online.

Reports of completed research, both quantitative and qualitative, are welcome, and should be presented in a structured format; with an introduction (including research aims and questions or hypotheses), methods and analysis, results, discussion and conclusions, strengths and limitations and directions for future research (IaMaRDc format).

Review papers may include systematic or scoping reviews, or other types of reviews that are methodically conducted and follow a defined process that is grounded in relevant literature. These papers should include a PRISMA flow diagram that summarises the screening process. Two or more researchers are needed during title and paper screening, data extraction/charting and data analysis/mapping.

Both research and review papers should be accompanied by a structured abstract of no more than 250 words, included within the original main document submitted, and placed following the title but before the body of the paper.

Short Reports

These papers are intended to provide a brief overview of a research project that addresses a relevant topic for the readership but is a small, preliminary or pilot project. For example, it may involve small samples, a single site, or a preliminary evaluation (which should still use methodological rigour). Papers should be 1000– 2000 words in length. Up to ten references and one table or figure can be included.

Short reports should be structured in a way that assists the reader: e.g. the IaMaRDc format, or a customised format to be determined by the author, where the rationale is explained in the accompanying cover letter. A 150 word abstract should be included with the original main document submitted.

Conceptual and Discussion Papers

These papers are discussions of theoretical and conceptual issues or trends in health professional education that are designed to stimulate debate and reflection on practices within the field. They should follow a defined structure, determined by the author/s, and explained in the accompanying cover letter. Arguments should be substantiated with relevant literature. A 150 word abstract should be included with the original main document submitted. Papers should be no more than 3000 words.

Innovative Teaching and Learning Projects (ITLP)

This category provides an opportunity for authors to share their innovations in a brief report without producing a full research paper. The ITLP accommodates small-scale innovations in health professional education and is particularly designed for emerging “hot topics”. Each ITLP submission should be limited to 800 words of main text, three references and one figure or table. No Abstract is required.

Submissions must be structured under the following headings:

1. Introduction - What is the background or context for your innovation?
2. Innovation - What did you do?
3. Evaluation - How did you measure the impact of the innovation?
4. Lessons learned – What are the implications of the findings? How can these be used in practice?
5. What next? - What further research is needed? How might this innovation be relevant in other settings?

ITLP submissions will be assessed for innovation, evaluation methodology, wider application, and their potential as a stimulus for development and new ideas.

Letters to the Editor

Letters that reflect on, and encourage debate about, current topical issues relevant to health professional education will be considered. Letters must be less than 500 words, have no more than three references, and no tables or figures.

Special Themes

FoHPE publishes articles on special themes alongside our regular articles. Articles under special themes are published across a number of issues, rather than as a special issue. Some special themes are long-term, either through a call for papers (e.g., Interprofessional Learning) or by invitation only (e.g., Focus on Methodology). Other special themes are short-term through a call for papers - see the FoHPE website home page for details.

Open Access

FoHPE provides immediate open access to its content: making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Publication Fees

Publication fees may apply for submitted articles eventually accepted for publication:

1. If no author is a financial member of ANZAHPE at time of submission to acceptance for publication, a fee of AU$600 is applied.
2. If any of the authors are current financial members of ANZAHPE at time of submission to acceptance for publication, there is no fee to publish.
3. There is no fee associated with the submission and peer review process.

For information on applying for membership with ANZAHPE and associated benefits, please see https://anzahpe.org/About-ANZAHPE-Membership

For more information, please see the FoHPE website: About the Journal > Publication Fees

Preparation of Submissions

It is the authors’ responsibility to prepare the manuscript according to the guidelines provided for the chosen submission format. Papers which do not conform to these guidelines will be returned.

You should review your paper carefully for its English language usage (i.e. written expression, sentence structure and grammar). Clear, well-constructed text helps expedite the review process and enables reviewers to focus on your ideas and research. If you are new to academic writing, you may benefit from asking an experienced colleague to review your paper as a “critical friend” before submission. For all authors, a “second pair of eyes” often picks up typographical errors and ambiguities.

Please anonymise the manuscript. You will be asked to enter author and institution details as part of the submission process. The manuscript should not mention author or institution names, neither should it include the specific location of the research. Use XXXX to indicate where institution or place names have been removed. Using initials is acceptable for noting author roles in the text. If, following review, the paper is accepted for publication, institution-identifying information will be added in the proof-editing process.

Include a statement, either that no conflict of interest exists, or setting out the steps taken by the authors to obviate an actual or potential conflict of interest (more details outlined below). Additionally, declare whether or not there is a source of funding – and provide details if funding was received.

FoHPE Style Guide

Manuscript Format

1. MS Word or RTF file (pdf files will not be accepted)
2. Times New Roman or other commonly used font in 12 point
3. Double-spaced and left-justified
4. 5cm margins (MS Word default)
5. All pages should be numbered
6. Turn on the marginal line number function, if available (MS Word)
7. A short title in 10-point font in a header on each page - maximum 45 characters including spaces
8. Paragraphs should be separated by a blank line, and the beginning of a paragraph should not be indented
9. All measurements should be in SI units (International System of Units)
10. Use APA 7 style for referencing, including full DOI (i.e., https://doi.org/10… ) (more details outlined below)
11. Spelling – please use the Oxford English Dictionary

If you are new to academic writing, have a look at recent papers in FoHPE to get an idea of manuscript format.

Detailed Advice

Tables and Figures should be included in the document, after the reference list. Both should be given Arabic numbers (e.g. Table 3, Figure 1). Captions should make their interpretation possible without reference to the text. Tables should include absolute numbers as well as percentages, which should be rounded to one decimal place.

You should state whether Ethics approval was required for your research and, if so, from whom it was obtained.

Acknowledgements may be included, placed at the end of the paper, and should be brief and kept to a minimum.

Funding sources must be acknowledged, together with a ‘Conflict of Interest’ statement (more details outlined below).

References in the text should follow the American Psychological Association’s (APA) most recent edition – currently the 7th edition. This referencing format uses in-text citation of author(s) and year with an alphabetical list of cited work at the end of the main body text. For details and examples, please see the APA  Style reference guide and examples. Many university libraries publish freely available detailed referencing guides, with examples.

Headings and Subheadings - Use only two levels of headings: Main heading (bold) and subheading (bold Italics). Only use a third level if necessary (italics only).

Emphasis - Use italics in-text for emphasis but use them sparingly. Do not use underlined or bold text for emphasis.

Abbreviations should be kept to a minimum and should be explained at their first use in the text. Acronyms may be used, but on the first occasion the text should be written in full, with the acronym shown in parentheses.

Footnotes - Avoid the use of footnotes. Use endnotes if necessary but use them sparingly. The endnote number should appear after the punctuation mark.

Quotations - Double inverted commas (“ ... ”) should be used throughout, with single inverted commas (‘ ... ’) being reserved for quotations within quotations. Passages of 40 or more words should be indented as a block quote without quotation marks. For qualitative data (interview, focus group or textual quotes), use the preceding rule for all quotations. Omission of words in quotations should be indicated by using three full stops (ellipsis), the first full stop being preceded by a space. Where the omission includes the end of a sentence, use three full stops to indicate the omission and follow these with a full stop, preceded by a space, to indicate the conclusion of the sentence.

Parentheses - Use parentheses sparingly. We prefer you to explain the additional material in a further sentence.

Capital letters - Except for referencing, you should only use capitals for proper nouns. For example, a reference to general practitioners as a professional group should not be capitalised, but a reference to the name of their professional organisation, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, should be capitalised.

Numbers - Figures should be used to express numbers when they accompany a symbol or a unit or measurement, and in tabulations. In other cases, you should express numbers less than 10 in words. Hyphens should be used when fractions are expressed in words, e.g. one-third. For further information about numbering conventions, please refer to the guidelines contained in the Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers (https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/).

Bullet points - Use sparingly. Ideally, either express the subject matter in prose or present it as a table.

At the time of online submission, you will be asked for the following identifying information:

1. Manuscript title: no word limit but please keep it within sensible limits, and short title of the paper (45 characters including spaces).
2. Abstract: see submission formats for length and whether structured or unstructured abstract required. If structured, this should reflect the structure of the paper. The abstract needs to be uploaded separately and also as part of the paper.
3. Key words: 3–5 key words for indexing purposes, based on the National Library of Medicine’s MeSH list
4. Author details: surname, first name, place of work and contact details for all authors. The workplace should be that of the institution where the author worked at the time the work was conducted.
5. Nominate one author as the primary contact and provide their details.
6. Enter Reference list
7. Complete the Submission Requirements checklist to confirm that:
8. the work has not been published elsewhere
9. the text adheres to the Author Guidelines
10. the submitter is an author and will be the only person able to access and action the submission.
11. the word count is appropriate for the section selected or comment for the Editor is provided if appropriate
12. the publication charge policy has been read, understood and accepted
13. the submission has not been before FoHPE previously, or explanation of provided
14. the manuscript file does not contain identifying information for authors or institutions.
15. all authors have contributed to the paper in accordance with ICMJE recommendations:

• substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
  1. AND drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
  2. AND final approval of the version to be published;
  3. AND agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to
     the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved
  4. Acknowledge the copyright statement

Separate upload of reference list. Although your references will have been cited in the manuscript and provided as a list at the end according to APA 7 style, you are also required to upload the reference list separately. This is a requirement of the manuscript management system. Simply copy and paste the list into the text box, where requested.

Receipt of submissions will be acknowledged by email through the online system.

Conflict of Interest

In the context of health professional education publishing, a conflict of interest exists when a participant in the publication process (author, peer reviewer, editorial staff) has a competing interest that could unduly influence, or be reasonably thought to influence, their responsibilities in the publication process. The publication process includes the submission of papers, peer review, editorial decisions, and communication between authors, reviewers and editors.

If, as an Author, you believe that a conflict of interest may exist for you, you should undertake the following steps, and report on them when you submit the paper to the Editorial Office.

1. You should disclose all sources of funding, including any relevant conditions. You should describe your relationship with the funder if it is other than that of a
2. You should also disclose any role conflicts that arose in conducting the research, and report what action was taken to minimise the effects of such conflicts. e.g., where you have a vested interest in an evaluation outcome, ensuring data collection and/or analysis was performed
3. If data are derived from interviews or focus groups, you should provide a statement on reflexivity (your relationship to the participants and the data, and any other issues that may influence the research), as is current best practice in qualitative research.
4. If, for some reason, the potential for influence could not be managed methodologically, you should make a disclosure of conflict of

If you believe that no conflicts of interest exist, you should declare accordingly, because such a declaration will be required as a condition of review and publication.

Publication Ethics

FoHPE is committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity in research publication. The Journal complies with international, national and institutional standards on research involving human participants. In the interest of ensuring research integrity, FoHPE follows the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), including in investigating and dealing with allegations of misconduct.

FoHPE expects all research to have obtained ethical approval where relevant.

Peer Review

All papers received that meet the above requirements will be submitted for peer review. They will be evaluated, as appropriate, in terms of conceptual framework, grounding in existing literature, methodological approach, data analysis, synthesis and conclusions, overall organisation and clarity, and significance for health professional education. There are three categories of decision:

• Acceptance
• Request revisions
• Rejection

Indication of Timeframes

Our aim is to complete the initial review process and provide a decision on your manuscript within three months, although this depends on securing peer reviewers. If a submission is not sent out for review, our aim is for that decision to be communicated within one month.

To provide a blind reviewing process, the reviewer will receive the manuscript only. The identifying details will not be given to the reviewer. As an Author, you will receive copies of the anonymous reviewers’ reports as part of the review process.

In addition to this guideline, authors may find of interest the FoHPE Reviewer Guidelines. The following document may also be of interest to authors and reviewers: Beginner’s guide to reviewing a manuscript.