Author Guidelines

The Journal of Student-Run Clinics considers submissions on all topics related to student-run clinics (SRCs) including but not limited to patient care, student education, and practice management. (For additional information, see "About the Journal -> Scope").

Articles in the Journal of Student-Run Clinics are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License: authors retain ownership of their articles' copyrights, but allow anyone to copy, modify, and redistribute the articles without need for the authors' or publisher's permission as long as the original source is properly cited.

The author guidelines outlined below are derived from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.

Overview of the Publishing Process

• Submission
  • Authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in. 
  • Submissions are accepted on a continuous basis as part of a rolling publication cycle. Authors will be contacted by an editor with a determination on whether the manuscript will be set out to review.
  • There is no submission or publication fee.
  • Please upload all parts of the manuscript in an editable form (i.e. .doc)
  • Please submit all of the following as part of a submission packet, as separate document/files:
    • Title page 
    • Cover letter
    • Figures and tables
      • In editable format
      • Please submit with date of submission in the file name (e.g., Figure1_mm-dd-yy)
    • Manuscript manuscript
      • Please include date of submission in file name (e.g., manuscipt/title_mm-dd-yy)
    • A signed mentor approval form if the submitting author is a student
    • An IRB exemption or approval form from your institution
  • Include a non-institutional email (i.e. Gmail) for the primary contact for the manuscript.
• Review
  • Once submitted, a manuscript will be evaluated by at least 1 trained student reviewer and at least 1 faculty expert before an acceptance decision is made; additional review may be conducted at the discretion of the editors. The level of review a submission undergoes is dependent on the article type.
  • The student reviewer(s) will initially screen and assess the submission based on a standard rubric to ensure relevance and readability, as well as general ethical and methodological validity. The screening process is not designed to exclude works based on perceived impact, but rather to select for articles of potential interest to the greater SRC community.
  • If the submission passes the initial screening and is of an article type that requires further assessment, faculty experts will then review the submission and provide additional comments and recommendations.
  • The editorial board will use the reviewer recommendations to guide decision making for publication and the corresponding author will be notified of the acceptance decision via e-mail.
• Revision and Appeal
  • When submitting a revised manuscript, please submit a submission packet with all of the following in separate documents/files:
    • Title page
    • An itemized response to each suggested revision and include any other changes made
    • Figures and tables
      • In editable format
      • Updated or not, please resubmit with date of revision in the file name (e.g., Figure1_mm/dd/yy)
    • Revised manuscript
      • Please include date of revision in file name (e.g., manuscript/title_mm/dd/yy)
      • Please ensure your revised manuscript does not exceed 300 words for the abstract and 2500 words for the main text 
      • Please ensure that all aspects of your revised manuscript are uploaded in editable form
  • If revisions or an appeal are not received by the specified deadline, the manuscript file will be closed. Revisions received after a file has been closed will be considered as a new submission.
  • Authors may appeal a decision or revision suggestion(s) by responding to the editors. The appeal must include explanation rebutting the reason(s) for rejection or revision provided by the reviewers.  This should be submitted within 30 days after the initial decision was communicated. Consideration of the appeal will be based on the re-evaluation of the manuscript with the authors' rebuttal. The decision from the appeal is final.
• Publication
  • Following review and acceptance of the article for publication, the manuscript will be copyedited and released online in the Journal of Student-Run Clinics.

Formatting Guidelines

• Language
  • At this time, the Journal is only able to process submissions in English and no formal translations of published content are available.
• Formatting
  • Double-spaced, Times New Roman, continuous line numbering beginning on each page
• File Type
  • Word document, (e.g., .docx and .doc) for the manuscript and associated files
  • All other documents submitted have no file type requirement 
• Cover Letter
  • Please include a cover letter describing why your research is a good fit for the journal.
  • Keep the cover letter to less than half a page, be brief. 
  • Disclosure of any prior publications or submissions with any overlapping information, including methods, or a statement that there are no prior publications or submissions with any overlapping information. 
  • A statement that the work is not and will not be submitted to any other journal while under consideration by the Journal of Student-Run Clinics
  • A statement of any potential conflict of interest and additional disclosures.
  • A statement that all authors have read and agreed with the work and have contributed in a way that justifies authorship.
  • A statement that all submitted manuscripts, figures, tables, and appendices represent original writing.
• Title
  • The title should be fewer than 200 characters. A sub-title, if desired, should be fewer than 50 characters.
  • The title should be concise, descriptive, and comprehensible to readers of any discipline.
• Title Page
  • The title page should include the manuscript title, running head (50 characters maximum), the names, affiliations, and email addresses of all authors, to whom correspondence should be addressed, along with the corresponding author mailing address and phone number, a tweet, author contributions, acknowledgements, the total number of words in the abstract, the total number of words in the manuscript, and the number of figures and tables. The corresponding author should provide a non-institutional email address.
  • Institutional Affiliation: Each author must list an institution where the research was conducted. In cases where authors have moved to different institutions before the article has been published, they should list the affiliation where the majority of the research was conducted, and the current affiliation and contact details can be listed in a separate section of the paper. Authors are encouraged to include an ORCID ID.
  • Tweet: Please provide a <200-character script for posting on the JSRC Twitter feed should your article be accepted.
• Submission Declaration and Verification
  • The manuscript should not be used under consideration in any other journal at the time of submission.
• Generative Artificial Intelligence Guidelines
  • The authors may choose to use generative artificial intellience (AI) systems to provide initial ideas for the authors to expand on or to consider. However, no portion of the output these systems provide may be copied into the manuscript submission. The authors will need to confirm that their submission and any submitted tables, figures, and appendices represent their original writing. Any references suggested by a generative AI system must be verified by the authors before citing them in the manuscript. Note that the JSRC does not permit generative AI systems to be listed as an author. JSRC reserves the right to change this policy as generative AI technology evolves.
• Abbreviations and Acronyms
  • Abbreviations and acronyms should be clearly defined upon first appearance in the manuscript. Only standard abbreviations are to be used.
• Abstract
  • The abstract should be fewer than 300 words and should avoid unexplained abbreviations.
  • In general, the abstract should briefly describe the problem or topic being addressed, a summary of methods, pertinent results, and the authors' conclusions.
  • Original studies, literature reviews, and meta-analyses require structured abstracts outlining the Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Background should establish context and purpose for the study. Methods should include at minimum the selection of participants, settings, measurements, analytical methods. Results should include main findings with statistical and clinical significance, if relevant. Conclusions should mention main inferences and highlight new and important aspects of the study as well as important limitations.
  • Abstracts for descriptive reports and perspective articles should outline the Background to establish the context and purpose of the content and provide a brief summary of the article content.
• Content
  • Articles of all types have a 2500 word limit (excluding the abstract, references, and appendices).
  • Original studies, literature reviews, and meta-analyses should follow the IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) format. For details on reporting requirements in each section, please refer to the ICMJE Recommendations: Manuscript Sections.
  • Descriptive reports and perspective articles do not have a required format.
• Figures & Tables
  • There is no explicit limit on the number of figures and tables that can be included, though all illustrations should directly enhance understanding of the subject matter.
  • All figures and tables should be titled, captioned, and accompanied by keys/legends if needed.
  • Figures and tables should be submitted as vector or at least 300dpi raster quality. (For example, please do not submit cropped screenshots of tables or charts. If possible, submit original files used to create the images/tables such as .PPTX or .DOCX).
•  References
  • References should be formatted in accordance with the U.S. National Library of Medicine's Citing Medicine, 2nd edition style guide. The ICMJE Recommendations: Sample References webpage also has examples of reference formats.
  • For in-text citations, use Arabic numeral superscripts: for example.¹ Another example.^2-5  
  • Each reference should include a doi or URL.

Sections Guidelines

• Articles of all types have a 2500 word limit (excluding the abstract, references, and appendices).
• Original studies, literature reviews, and meta-analyses should follow the IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) format. For details on reporting requirements in each section, please refer to the ICMJE Recommendations: Manuscript Sections.
• Descriptive reports and perspective articles do not have a required format.