Submissions

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Author Guidelines

Manuscripts containing original material are accepted for consideration if neither the article nor any part of its essential substance, tables, or figures has been or will be published or submitted elsewhere before appearing in the Canadian Medical Education Journal.

The CMEJ does not charge any article submission or processing charges, nor any publication-related fees.

Authors of all types of articles should follow the general instructions given below. For a description of the article types, please visit Section Policies.

The Canadian Medical Education Journal adheres to the "Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals," published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (2016) and available at http://www.icmje.org.

SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT
Please log in to submit a new manuscript. If you have submitted a manuscript in the past, an account has already been set up for you. If you have forgotten your password, simply type your e-mail address into the "Forgot your Password" box on the CMEJ Home page and a password will be e-mailed to you. Otherwise, please register to create an account. Once logged in, click on "Submit a New Manuscript" and follow the instructions at the top of each screen.  You will receive an automatic acknowledgment of submission.

PREPARING THE MANUSCRIPT
Submissions are accepted in both English and French. If neither English nor French are your first language, please have your manuscript edited by an English- or French-speaking professional.  CMEJ reserves the right to make further editorial changes if necessary.  

MANUSCRIPT FORMATTING
Manuscripts must be submitted electronically as MS-Word (.doc or .docx) documents. They should be in 12-point font, left-justified, and double-spaced throughout. All text, references, tables, and figure legends should be included in one document.

AUTHORSHIP
As stated in the ICMJE "Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals," credit for authorship should be based on the following criteria:

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  4. 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.

Any change in authors after the initial submission must be approved by all authors.  Any alterations must be explained to the editor. The editor reserves the right to contact any of the authors to confirm that they have agreed to any alterations.

AUTHOR ATTESTATIONS
All authors must provide a written statement of how they meet the four conditions for authorship listed above. CMEJ respects diversity in authorship teams and if there are authors with barriers to completing this form themselves (e.g., due to culture, language, etc.), CMEJ may accept Author Attestation Forms completed by the corresponding author on their co-author’s behalf, if appropriate justification is provided. If you have questions about whether this would apply in your case, please email the CMEJ to inquire. Contributors who do not meet all four conditions can be included in an acknowledgments section at the end of the article. Attestation Statement Form.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE USAGE
We require an attestation for any AI involvement (or not) and if AI was used, include a statement of how AI was used under Acknowledgements.  AI Attestation Form

ETHICAL REVIEW OF RESEARCH AND INFORMED CONSENT
Manuscripts will not be considered for publication unless the study was approved by the authors’ Research Ethics Board (REB) or Institutional Review Board (IRB). A statement concerning REB/IRB approval and consent procedures must appear in the Methods section of the manuscript. We require written informed consent. If the REB/IRB waived the requirement for consent, this needs to be stated explicitly along with the reason. Authors must provide a copy of the REB/IRB approval form upon request.

ACTIVE VOICE POLICY
The CMEJ requires the use of the active voice, first person, since it helps to create clear and direct statements. In certain situations, the passive voice may be acceptable. If there are questions from reviewers or editors, the author(s) may need to justify their choices. Please refer to this resource for information on voice and other stylistic choices.
Passive voice: The analysis was done using a constant comparative method and...
Corrected to active voice: The authors chose a constant comparative method to analyze the interview data.

Manuscripts should generally contain the following sections:

Title page: Include the title of the manuscript, the full names and primary affiliation of all the authors, as well as the name, full address, and e-mail address of the corresponding author.

Conflict of interest notification: Authors must state explicitly whether any conflicts of interest exist due to financial and personal relationships that could potentially bias their work. On a separate page immediately following the title page, identify the source(s) of funding, or specify that there was no funding.

Abstract (where the section policy stipulates): For research papers and most brief reports, it should consist of four paragraphs identifying the background, methods, results, and conclusions used in the manuscript. They should briefly describe, respectively, the problem being addressed in the study, how the study was performed, the salient results, and what the authors conclude from the results. Acronyms and abbreviations should be spelled out in full when first introduced.  There should be no references in the abstract.

Introduction: Briefly describe the study question, its scope and relevance, how it is related to the existing literature, and the hypothesis and/or objectives of the investigation.

Methods: The methods should include subsections with headings detailing the study design, setting, sample size and sampling methods, study protocol, outcome measures, and data analysis.  A statement concerning REB/IRB approval and consent procedures must appear in the Methods section of the manuscript.

Results: The results must be concisely stated. This section must include the statistical analysis of the data, illustrated in tables and/or figures where appropriate. If you give percentages, also give the sample size (for example, n = 75).

Discussion: The discussion should present the study results in the context of current knowledge.

Conclusions: The conclusions should answer the study question, discuss the limitations of the study, and may include suggestions for further investigation.

References/Citations: The CMEJ uses the Vancouver style of referencing.  References must be typed in (not copied from an online source), numbered consecutively as they are cited, and include the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) or the full URL with date cited. Reference numbers in the text should be in superscript - please do not use footnotes or endnotes - and be inserted after the punctuation marks. Do not use spaces between numbers or brackets/parenthesis.

References first cited in a table or figure legend should be numbered so that they will be in sequence with references cited in the text at the point where the table or figure is first mentioned. List all authors when there are six or fewer; when there are seven or more, list the first three, followed by 'et al.' Authors must ensure that all references are correct and in the same order as they are first cited in the manuscript. Please do not copy and paste references from another source, as this may cause problems with formatting.
The following are sample references:

    1. Ahmadzadeh A, Nasr Esfahani M, Ahmadzad-Asl M, Shalbafan M, Shariat SV. Does watching a movie improve empathy? A cluster randomized controlled trial. Can Med Ed J. 2019;10(4):e4-e12. https://doi.org/10.36834/cmej.56979
    2. Nikendei C, Weyrich P, Jünger J, Schrauth M. Medical education in Germany. Med Teach.  2009;31(7):591-600. https://doi:10.1080/01421590902833010

Numbered references to personal communications, unpublished data, or manuscripts either in preparation or submitted for publication are unacceptable. If essential, such material can be incorporated at the appropriate place in the text.

Tables: Whenever possible, tables should be presented in "portrait" format and with the gridlines between rows and columns visible. The table title should be self-explanatory. Insert the table number and title at the appropriate place in the text but leave the tables themselves at the end of the document. For original research articles, there is normally a limit of 5 figures and tables (total) per manuscript. Additional figures and tables may be considered at the discretion of the editors.

Figures: Insert figures at the end of the text file if possible, or upload your figures separately. We prefer the former, but this may not work well for complicated graphics, which should be sent in a separate file.

Legends for all figures should be included in the file with the text and should not appear on the figures. Acceptable formats for pictures, photos, and figures are GIF, JPG, PDF, PPT, and TIF. If they are in Microsoft Word format, they should be included in the manuscript file.

If a figure was created by an outside illustrator, CMEJ reserves the right to modify or redraw it, or request a resubmission of the item to meet our specifications for publication. The author must explicitly acquire all rights to the illustration from the artist in order for us to publish it. Please describe and clearly indicate all modifications, selective digital adjustments, or electronic enhancements in all digital images. It is permissible to send low-resolution images for peer review, although we may ask for high-resolution files at a later stage.

Convention for numerals: Write out the number if it is less than 10 or starts a sentence.  For numbers 10 and higher, use digits.

ADDITIONAL AUTHOR RESOURCES FOR SUBMITTING A MANUSCRIPT

1. Peng, C-YJ, Lee KL, Ingersoll GM. An introduction to logistic regression analysis and reporting.  J Educ Res. 2002; 96(1),3-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220670209598786

2. Zhao R, D’Eon M. Five ways to get a grip on grouped self-assessments of competence for program evaluation. Can Med Ed J 2020Mar.9; 11(4):e90-e96. https://doi.org/10.36834/cmej.69276

3. Meyer HS, Durning SJ, Sklar DP, Maggio LA. Making the first cut: an analysis of academic medicine editors' reasons for not sending manuscripts out for external peer review. Acad Med. 2018 Mar;93(3):464-470. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000001860

4. O’Brien J, Thoma B. Reused Reviews: the CMEJ announces a new policy to recycle peer reviews. Can. Med. Ed. J 2021Apr.12 https://doi.org/10.36834/cmej.72364 

5. Martimianakis MA, D’Eon MF. Coming to terms with the languages we use in medical education: hidden meanings and unintended consequences. Can. Med. Ed. J. 2021Apr.30;12(2):e1-e8. https://doi.org/10.36834/cmej.72505 

REPORTING GUIDELINES
Authors are encouraged to complete the relevant reporting checklist to ensure complete and transparent reporting of their research and upload it with their manuscript submission. Authors may consider reporting guidelines for different types of research studies (eg., CONSORT, TREND, STROBE) available through the EQUATOR Network website, or any of those listed below:

REUSED REVIEWS
To submit a manuscript under the CMEJ Reused Reviews policy, authors must include:

  • A clean version of a manuscript that fits within the scope and focus of the CMEJ and the appropriate section policy which is formatted according to CMEJ Submission Guidelines.
  • A second version of the manuscript as it was submitted to the previous journal. This version should use 1) In revising your manuscript, create a table in a separate document to explain your responses to all comments made by any of the reviewers; 2) please use "Track Changes" within your file to show how you changed the text. 
  • A cover letter/note to the editor(s) expressing a desire for expedited review under the Reused Reviews policy that lists the journal that reviewed and rejected the manuscript and the date that this occurred.
  • A PDF version of the decision letter from the previous journal containing the entire content of the email with peer reviews. Reused Reviews require peer reviews and not only desk rejections (i.e. submissions must have gone through the full peer review process with another journal).

REVIEW
Manuscripts are examined by members of the editorial staff and are sent to outside reviewers at the discretion of the editors. We encourage authors to suggest the names of possible reviewers, but we reserve the right to final selection. Manuscripts should not be masked for review. We require that all reviewers 1) keep the paper confidential; 2) do not make copies of the paper or share its contents with others; and 3) inform the editor of any conflicts or biases that might affect their ability to provide an objective assessment of the paper. All comments received from the reviewers will be passed on to the authors within 4-6 weeks. Regardless of whether or not the submission is accepted for publication, it is essential that appropriate feedback be provided to the contributors. Click here for a sample You Should Try This! review form.

Reviewers are asked only to evaluate the content of the paper. Formatting, spelling, and grammar are the responsibility of the author(s). However, the editors reserve the right to further edit the manuscript after acceptance. Before publication, you will receive a proof, which must be corrected and returned within 48 hours.

Communications about manuscripts will be sent after the review and the editorial decision-making process is complete. We aim to complete this process within 90 days but for potentially acceptable manuscripts that need revisions, the period between the receipt of all reviews and a final editorial decision may be longer. Only the corresponding author will receive a copy of the acknowledgement e-mail and notification of acceptance or revisions required. All correspondence must contain the submission number in the subject line.

REVISIONS
If the editors ask you to make specific changes to your manuscript and return it for further consideration, you are sending a revision. A response to an editorial decision of Major Revisions should be returned within 4 months, and a response to an editorial decision of Minor Revisions should be returned within 2 months. Revised manuscripts should be uploaded on the same page as your original submission. Please let us know if you need more time or if you do not intend to submit a revised manuscript.

A response to an editorial decision of Major Revisions should be returned within 4 months, and a response to a decision of Minor Revisions should be returned within 2 months.

PUBLICATION ETHICS
The Canadian Medical Education Journal is committed to the COPE Code of Conduct and publication malpractice will not be tolerated.  Authors should familiarize themselves with the COPE Code of Conduct.  Complaints may be directed to cmej.editor@usask.ca.

COPYRIGHT
Authors who publish in the Canadian Medical Education Journal maintain the copyright and agree to release their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 Canada Licence. This licence allows anyone to copy and distribute the article for non-commercial purposes provided that appropriate attribution is given. For details of the rights an author grants users of their work, please see the "Copyright Notice". You will be required to agree to the copyright statement upon submission of your manuscript.

CMEJ will not consider any manuscripts that have been published or are being considered, by another journal. Conference proceedings that were not previously published in full or papers rejected by another journal can be submitted. Any previous preliminary work on the same or similar subject by the same authors must be properly referenced in the new paper and permission must be obtained from the original publisher.

DATA SHARING POLICY
The Canadian Medical Education Journal encourages authors to share their data and other artifacts supporting the results in their papers. If authors have archived their data in a public repository, the CMEJ will publish the link. Authors should include a data accessibility statement in the Results section of their manuscript, including a DOI link and the name of the repository they have used. We recognize that not all data should/can be made available. Authors are advised to use their discretion.  

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements.

  • The author has read the Section Policy to determine the correct section for the submission.
  • All co-authors have filled out individual author attestation forms and compiled as a single PDF. Contributors who do not meet all conditions can be included in an acknowledgments section at the end of the article.
  • The corresponding author has included an AI usage and Author attestation statement
  • The submission includes a separate ethics approval/exemption letter. Any submissions reporting data from human subjects should have either approval or exemption from their REB.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines including the CMEJ's active voice policy.
  • Where available, DOIs for the references have been provided.
  • If sharing data, authors should include a data accessibility statement in the Results section of their manuscript, including a DOI link and the name of the repository they have used.

Special Issue: Educational transformations in health professions education

Call for Papers

Across Canada and internationally, health professions education is undergoing profound change in response to shifting health system needs, demographic realities, evolving professional roles, and societal expectations (The Lancet). Faculties and programs are undertaking substantial reforms through competency-based initiatives, comprehensive curriculum redesigns, assessment renewal, distributed or community-engaged learning models, and commitments to equity, anti-racism, cultural safety, Indigenous health, and social accountability.

These developments are often described as educational transformations, yet the field continues to grapple with the meaning, mechanisms, and outcomes of these transformative change (Layered analysis). This Special Issue “Educational transformations in health professions education” invites manuscripts that examine fundamental, systemic changes in the organization, culture, and structure of teaching and learning, rather than descriptions of isolated innovations or stand-alone interventions. We are especially interested in work that explores how transformation unfolds as an ongoing, iterative, reflexive process shaped by social, cultural, political, and institutional contexts.

Scope and topics of interest

We welcome submissions about any health profession and across the training continuum (undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing professional development). Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

  •   Program- and faculty-level transformations,
  •   Curricular practices, teaching and learning approaches, assessment, and feedback transformation,
  •   Process and outcome evaluations,
  •   Clarifications or critiques of the notion of “educational transformation”, and
  •   Governance structures, accreditation requirements, and policy dimensions of transformation

Types of contributions

We encourage methodologically and conceptually diverse submissions, including:

  •   Empirical research (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods),
  •   Theory-informed or conceptual papers,
  •   Methodological papers (e.g., approaches to evaluating complex educational transformations; development and validation of indicators or indices, etc.),
  •   Syntheses (e.g., scoping, realist, or narrative reviews, etc.), and
  •   Scholarly perspectives, reflexive narratives, or case analyses that offer rich, critical insight into attempts to transform health professions education

Although grounded in the Canadian context, the special issue welcomes international submissions that contribute conceptual, theoretical, methodological, or empirical insight. Manuscripts may be submitted in either English or French.

Submission and review process

All manuscripts will undergo the journal’s usual peer-review process and must comply with the journal’s author guidelines regarding length, structure, reporting standards, and ethical considerations.

Original Research

These articles will be a primary mode of communication for the journal and may include the results of original research with interesting and pertinent findings or other forms of high quality scholarship touching on topics of importance to the medical education community.  Submissions to this section are expected to be framed within a clear theoretical lens both in the methodology and the substance of the study.  For example, decisions on which instructional activities were chosen for exploration must be grounded in the education and instructional literature and any findings (expected or especially unexpected) must likewise invoke accepted and relevant theoretical frameworks and explanations. 

Original Research must include a statement concerning ethical review by a third party and consent procedures if the study reports data from human subjects.  Maximum length is 4,500 words and must be submitted with a 250 word structured abstract. 

CMEJ does not use cover letters in its submission process. If you need to share special details or deviations from the author guidelines, please use the "Comments for the Editor" section below.

Scientific Reports

Articles in this section will be papers of interest to medical educators that fall within the focus and scope of the CMEJ (See “About” on our home page https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cmej/about)  and have not previously been published (but might be available on internal web sites that are not available to the general public). Authors wishing to submit to this section may want to inquire of the editors whether their paper fits.

We will accept heading structures that suit the paper and guide the reader. We will not specify a certain style of headings or structure. However, the citation and reference style must be that of the CMEJ (Vancouver style) along with other guidelines of the CMEJ. Authors should read and follow the Submission Guidelines for Authors found under “Submissions” on our home page (https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cmej/about/submissions).

If there is no Executive Summary already part of the paper or report, please provide a 200-word Abstract.

CMEJ does not use cover letters in its submission process. If you need to share special details or deviations from the author guidelines, please use the "Comments for the Editor" section below.

Reviews, Theoretical Papers, and Meta-Analyses

Submissions to this section include any type of review with a structured and reproducible methodology or theoretically driven papers and are limited to 4,500 words. They must include a 250-word abstract.  

While we typically do not publish literature reviews or narrative reviews, exceptions can be made under certain conditions. A narrative review may be considered if it demonstrates a robust rationale for the chosen approach, illustrates exceptional and unique contributions, provides sufficient methodological details to ensure the trustworthiness of the results, and clearly outlines the implications of the findings. 

CMEJ does not use cover letters in its submission process. If you need to share special details or deviations from the author guidelines, please use the "Comments for the Editor" section below.

You Should Try This

You Should Try This features short, succinct structured reports (≤700 words) of new, innovative, or notable (unique?) initiatives that advance educational research or practice within any learning environments. Submissions should clearly describe what was developed, why it matters, and what early evidence suggests about its usefulness. The emphasis is on practical, evidence-informed ideas with potential for adaptation or scaling up across settings.

Manuscripts should outline the core components of the initiative, summarize preliminary evaluation findings, and identify opportunities for refinement or broader implementation. If the work involves human participants or their information, a statement on ethics review and consent procedures is required.

Submissions may include one figure or table and up to fifteen references and must include a ≤100-word Implication Statement explaining the initiative’s relevance and potential value to others.

We encourage authors to structure their manuscript using the following headings: Introduction, Innovation, Outcomes, and Next Steps.

Click here for a sample You Should Try This! review form.

CMEJ does not use cover letters in its submission process. If you need to share special details or deviations from the author guidelines, please use the "Comments for the Editor" section below.

Commentary and Opinions

These submissions are highly relevant and stimulating opinion pieces with strong arguments and no more than 750 words. They do not include any supporting material i.e. graphs, charts, etc. but may have up to five (5) references.

CMEJ does not use cover letters in its submission process. If you need to share special details or deviations from the author guidelines, please use the "Comments for the Editor" section below.

Letters to the Editor

These are meant to be a reaction to a pertinent issue relating to the CMEJ or a recently published article.  They should be no longer than 250 words unless by special arrangement.  They do not include any supporting material i.e. graphs, charts, etc. but may have up to three references.

Blog posts

The CMEJ blog offers a platform for authors to share their medical education experiences and insights with a broad audience. Submissions are accepted through the normal submission process, and while blog posts won't undergo a full peer review, editors will assist authors in refining their posts before they are published online.

Previously published blogs can be accessed at our old blog site: https://words.usask.ca/cmejblog.

Copyright Notice

Submission of an original manuscript to the Canadian Medical Education Journal will be taken to mean that it represents original work not previously published, that it is not being considered elsewhere for publication. If accepted for publication, it will be published online and it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, for commercial purposes, in any language, without the consent of the publisher.

Authors who publish in the Canadian Medical Education Journal agree to release their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 Canada Licence. This licence allows anyone to copy and distribute the article for non-commercial purposes provided that appropriate attribution is given. For details of the rights an author grants users of their work, please see the licence summary and the full licence.

Privacy Statement

I consent to the following use of my data:

The data collected from registered and non-registered users of this journal falls within the scope of the standard functioning of peer-reviewed journals. It includes information that makes communication possible for the editorial process; it is used to informs readers about the authorship and editing of content; it enables collecting aggregated data on readership behaviors, as well as tracking geopolitical and social elements of scholarly communication.

This journal’s editorial team uses this data to guide its work in publishing and improving this journal. Data that will assist in developing this publishing platform may be shared with its developer Public Knowledge Project in an anonymized and aggregated form, with appropriate exceptions such as article metrics. The data will not be sold by this journal or PKP nor will it be used for purposes other than those stated here. The authors published in this journal are responsible for the human subject data that figures in the research reported here.

Those involved in editing this journal seek to be compliant with industry standards for data privacy, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provision for "data subject rights" that include (a) breach notification; (b) right of access; (c) the right to be forgotten; (d) data portability; and (e) privacy by design. The GDPR also allows for the recognition of "the public interest in the availability of the data," which has a particular saliency for those involved in maintaining, with the greatest integrity possible, the public record of scholarly publishing.