Instructions for Authors of JMIR
JMIR journals are innovative, international, peer-reviewed medical journals that aim to publish articles relevant for medical professionals, system developers, and system users alike.
These instructions for authors are valid for all JMIR journals. Instructions for authors are subject to frequent revision. Please look them over carefully before submitting your manuscript.
Manuscripts are considered with the understanding that they have not been published previously in print or electronic format and are not under consideration by another print or electronic publication. A complete report following a presentation at a meeting or the publication of preliminary findings elsewhere (eg, in an abstract) will be considered. Material that has been published on the Internet (including Preprint servers) can also be considered, but any previous or simultaneous publication on the Internet must be disclosed in the cover letter. Include copies of potentially duplicative material that has been previously published or is currently being considered elsewhere, and provide links to duplicative material on the Internet. Point out possible overlaps with previously published or simultaneously submitted articles in your cover letter. Note that "duplicate publication or the submission of duplicate material is not necessarily unethical, but failure to disclose the existence of duplicate articles, manuscripts, or other material is unethical and may represent a violation of copyright material." (AMA Manual of Style, 9th ed, p. 98). A content overlap of just 10% may be considered duplicative.
For general information about the structure and content of a biomedical manuscript, authors should become familiar (skim through) the ICMJE Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts before reading the specific instructions for JMIR authors below.
All JMIR journal encourage Open Science principles and strongly encourages publication of a protocol before data collection. Authors who have published a protocol in JMIR Research Protocols get a discount of 20% on the Article Processing Fee when publishing a subsequent results paper.
Our instructions for authors can now be found in our comprehensive Knowledge Base (KB).
Key articles from our KB:
For all other author-related KB articles please go to https://support.jmir.org/hc/en-us/categories/115000234107-For-Authors-and-Editorial-Issues).
You can also post a question in our community forum or file a ticket with the Helpdesk, see How can I contact staff or editors at JMIR Publications?
Format for Original Papers (for other paper types see What are the article types for JMIR journals?)
Papers should be written in accordance with the American Medical Association Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors. 9th ed. Baltimore, Md: Williams & Wilkins; 1998.
The following format ("IMRAD Format") must be used for the paper:
Title
Abstract (not exceeding 450 words for structured abstracts)
Keywords
Introduction (eg, theory, hypotheses, prior work)
Methods (eg with the subheadings "Recruitement", "Statistical Analysis", etc.)
Results (eg, user statistics, evaluation outcomes). If your study consists of different stages/parts, subheadings in this section should mirror subheadings in the methods section to describe these parts.
Discussion (eg, with the subheadings "Principal Results", "Limitations", "Comparison with Prior Work", "Conclusions")
Acknowledgements
Conflicts of Interest
[optional] Multimedia Appendix of supplementary files (eg, a PowerPoint presentation of a conference talk about the study, additional screenshots of a website, mpeg/Quicktime video or audio files, or Excel, Access, SAS, or SPSS files containing original data)
References
Abbreviations
Please use further subheadings within the main "Introduction," "Methods," "Results," and "Discussion" sections. For example, if you describe three different methods, use three subheadings within the "Methods" section. Also, use matching subheadings in the "Results" section if you report the results from each of the described methods.
Important Notes on Reporting P values
The actual P value should be expressed (P = .04) rather than expressing a statement of inequality (P < .05), unless P < .001. The P value should be expressed to 2 digits whether or not it is significant. When rounding, 3 digits is acceptable if rounding would change the significance of a value (eg, P = .049 rounded to .05). If P < .01, it should be expressed to 3 digits.
P values less than .001 should be reported as P < .001. Expressing P to more than 3 significant digits does not add useful information since precise P values with extreme results are sensitive to biases or departures from the statistical model.
The traditional reporting of P values (indicating only that P < 0.05) simply indicated whether the results were "statistically significant" or not. But P values of 0.051 and 0.049 should be interpreted similarly despite the fact that the 0.051 is greater than 0.05 and is therefore not "significant" and that the 0.049 is less than 0.05 and thus is "significant." Reporting actual P values avoids this problem of interpretation. P values should not be listed as not significant (NS) since, for meta-analysis, the actual values are important and not providing exact P values is a form of incomplete reporting.
Do not use 0 before the decimal point for statistical values P, alpha, and beta because they cannot equal 1. For some statistical values (eg, kappa) even if they cannot ever equal 1, use 0 if they are used infrequently.
P is always italicized and capitalized.
Authors who are not sure how to report their quantitative results should consult the following book:
