Instructions for Authors

Thank you for your interest in submitting an article for the AAEM/RSA (American Academy of Emergency Medicine Resident and Student Association) blog. The AAEM/RSA Blog is intended to provide readers with a source for reliable, up-to-date, and concise information relevant to the practice of emergency medicine. It is also intended to serve as an introduction to the publication process for interested medical students and residents.

AAEM/RSA encourages submissions on any topic relevant to the practice of emergency medicine authored by medical students, residents, fellows, or attending physicians. It is ideal for medical students to collaborate on a submission with a resident or attending mentor, although it is not required.

We accept any article felt to be appropriate for the blog format, although most accepted submissions are review articles, case reports, clinical pearls, or residency/career insights. The blog is not intended to be a venue for publication of original research articles.

Submitted articles must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Articles previously published on a residency website or blog will be considered for peer review and publication on a case-by-case basis, with full disclosure and permissions. The AAEM/RSA blog does occasionally re-post articles previously published in AAEM publications (such as Modern Resident or Common Sense).

We ask that you review the information below to assist you in preparing your submission for publication on the blog.

Basic Requirements:
Articles should be between approximately 500 and 1,000 words and can be presented either in paragraph format (example), outline format consisting partially of full-sentence text (example), or a combination (example). Articles closer to 500 than 1,000 words are preferred. The blog is intended to provide a synthesis of information for readers, thus articles should utilize at least three sources, preferably primary sources or peer reviewed review articles. Book chapter sources are discouraged.

Submit only content that you personally authored. Material from other authors must be attributed and can be submitted only with their permission.

Please write using standard English grammar and style. Please attempt to limit the use of abbreviations, and define all uncommon abbreviations with their first usage.

Peer Review and Copy Editing:
All articles go through our peer review process prior to publication. Our limited peer review process consists of an evaluation of each article by either an emergency medicine resident or medical student. The evaluation is then relayed to the author to allow for revision of the article prior to publication. A copy of our peer review evaluation form is attached for reference. More information about the peer review process can be found here. 

Check List:
At the top of each submission please include the following:

• Title of the Article
• Your Name and relevant degrees/titles:
• Your Position:
• Your affiliation:
• Your position with AAEM/RSA, if applicable:
• If your submission was previously published: 

Examples:
“A Node of my Own”
William Osler Jr., MD PhD
Emergency Medicine Resident
Johns Hopkins Hospital
AAEM/RSA Medical Student Council President

-OR-

“A Node of my Own”
William Osler III, MSIV
Medical Student
Johns Hopkins Medical School
AAEM/RSA Social Media Committee

Copy the following text exactly and check the appropriate box: Conflict of Interest Disclosure Statement: All authors must disclose any financial or other relationships which may influence or bias the submitted work. Do any of the authors have any potential conflicts of interest to disclose? [ ] No, [ ] Yes” (If yes, explanation must be included)

Please read each of these AAEM/RSA Blog Guidelines carefully and format your submission appropriately:

• Use lowercase for “emergency medicine,” “emergency physician,” etc. unless they are part of a proper noun, for example: “The University of Woolamaloo Department of Emergency Medicine.”
• Do not put commas between designations: “William Osler, MD JD” not “William Osler, MD, JD.”
• “Health care” should be written as two words.
• Numbers between one and nine should be written out; numbers 10 and above should be written with Arabic numerals.
• All abbreviations MUST be spelled out at first usage. For example, ED = emergency department, HR = heart rate.
• If you wish to include images or graphics, any image or graphic that is not your own must be accompanied by a filled out and signed copy of the copyright release form found here.
• If you wish to include tables, figures, or text boxes, these must be inserted into the document as either a .jpg or .png file.
• In-text citations should be made by using brackets and Arabic numbers outside the punctuation. For example, “Trauma is the leading cause of death for persons <45 years old.[1]” Please omit the space between the period and the brackets.
• All references should be in AMA format. A reference list should appear at the end of the article, numbered by order of appearance in the body of the article, not alphabetical order. A free citation generator can be found here.

Blog Citation:
Articles written for the blog can be cited using the following format:

• Author’s name, Title of the post, AAEM/RSA Blog, URL, date of post. The phrase "Available at" and the URL and the phrase "Accessed" and the date you looked at it.
• Nishijima, D. Spotlight on Leaders in Emergency Medicine: David K. Wagner, MD FAAEM. AAEM/RSA Blog, http://aaemrsa.blogspot.com, May/June 2007. Available at http://aaemrsa.blogspot.com/2007/05/originally-published-common-sense.html. Accessed October 4, 2014.

AAEM/RSA Blog
Blog Submission Evaluation Form

The Peer Review Submission Evaluation Form is available here for your reference:

Manuscript Title:
Peer Reviewer’s Name/Title:
Instructions for peer reviewers:
Note that reviewing is not blinded. Save the form to your computer before filling it out. Submit the completed form to the AAEM-RSA staff via email at info@aaemrsa.org.

I. Rate the quality of the manuscript.
Please indicate your agreement (+) or disagreement (-) with each question. (Note: A submission must receive a (+) for every category to be published.)
___ The topic is appropriate for emergency medicine students, residents, and attendings.
___ The paper references credible peer-reviewed sources accurately. (Textbook references are acceptable but must not constitute the majority of references.)
___ References are formatted correctly in AMA citation format (examples below).
___ The content is evidence-based and appears accurate.
___ The paper is well written. Headings and subheadings are used well. Ideas are coherent and flow between paragraphs.
___ The paper adheres to all AAEM/RSA Blog guidelines. Guidelines can be found in the “Instructions for Authors” section on the blog submission page.

II. Positive Comments. Please remark as appropriate on particularly exceptional portions of the submission.

III. Areas Needing Improvement. Please remark as appropriate on areas needing improvement prior to publication (include specific recommendations for improvement and refer to the paragraph and/or line numbers).

IV. Accessories. Please list any accessory tables, figures, etc. that you feel would improve the submission.(Note that copyright permission will have to be obtained.)

V. Final Recommendation.
___Accept manuscript without revisions (as is)
___Ask author to revise and resubmit
___Reject manuscript (The article is not suitable for the blog, either because the topic is not suitable or manuscript quality is too poor.)

Submit an Article!


Updated: 7/18/2017 CD