Manuscript Submission Checklist

As per the announcement made by the journal’s owner, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), CMAJ Open will no longer be accepting submissions. Read more…

All Manuscripts

All submissions should conform to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' (ICMJE) Uniform Requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals.

For details on how to format your abstract and manuscript for submission, see "Preparing your manuscript for submission."

CMAJ Open has additional requirements for the articles it publishes. These include:

checked checkbox icon Cover letter (to provide context for your study and why it should be published in CMAJ Open)

checked checkbox icon Title and title page. The title should include the study type.

checked checkbox icon Names, addresses and up to two affiliations for each author, and an email address for the corresponding author.

checked checkbox icon Up to two degrees for each author. If an author has more than one degree, please include the highest academic and highest clinical degree obtained. We do not publish fellowships.

checked checkbox icon A contributor's statement showing how each of the people listed as an author fulfills the ICMJE's criteria for authorship. An author is someone who:

  • Contributed substantially to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, AND

  • Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content, AND

  • Gave final approval of the version to be published, AND

  • Agreed to act as guarantor of the work (ensuring that questions related to any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved).

checked checkbox icon References formatted in the Vancouver style.

checked checkbox icon Editable figure files (ideally, charts should be editable Excel or PowerPoint files; forest plots should be editable Excel, emf, wmf or PDF files).

checked checkbox icon A completed checklist for the appropriate reporting guideline, if applicable. This should be uploaded as a file with your submission and designated as "Reporting Guideline Checklist." See below for required reporting guidelines.

checked checkbox icon Data-sharing statement (to indicate whether your data are available for use by other researchers and how to access the data)

checked checkbox icon Study registration (mandatory for clinical trials; recommended for other studies)

checked checkbox icon Funding statement (whether or not the study has received funding)

Revised Manuscripts

In addition to the requirements for all manuscripts (described above), authors submitting revised manuscripts should also include:

checked checkbox icon A clean version of your manuscript and one with tracked changes. Please delete older files from your submission.

checked checkbox icon An author response letter outlining your response to every editor and reviewer comment, indicating the page number in the manuscript where the comment has been addressed.

checked checkbox icon Required forms (also available in the Instructions and Forms box on the CMAJ Open manuscript submission site)

  • Signed copyright forms (authors retain copyright for noncommercial use).

  • Signed declarations of competing interests (ICMJE) for each author who has declared a competing interest.

  • Signed permission forms from all people who have provide information cited as being from a personal communication.

  • Permission from each person named in the acknowledgement section (using the CMAJ Open form or forwarded emails in which each person agrees to be thanked in your work)

checked checkbox icon Permission to reproduce previously published material

  • If your article contains previously published material (table, figure, appendix, box) or modified material, you must obtain permission from the publisher and/or copyright or licence holder. CMAJ Open requires permissions to include commercial use, in perpetuity, and both online and print publication.

Transfers from CMAJ

In addition to the general requirements for all manuscripts submitted to CMAJ Open, authors who agree to transfer of their paper from CMAJ should include:

checked checkbox icon Manuscript revised to address any editor and reviewer comments in the CMAJ decision letter.

Required Reporting Guidelines

CMAJ Open requires compliance with the following reporting guidelines. A completed version of the appropriate checklist should be uploaded as a file with your submission and designated as "Reporting Guideline Checklist." View the EQUATOR Network guidelines.

Required reporting guidelines:

  • CHEERS: Health economic evaluations

  • CHERRIES: Web-based surveys

  • CONSORT: Randomized controlled trials (please use appropriate extension)

  • COREQ: Qualitative research

  • GRIPP2: Patient-oriented studies (plus appropriate checklist for study type)

  • MOOSE: Meta-analyses of observational studies

  • PRISMA: Systematic reviews

  • PRISMA-P: Protocols of systematic reviews and meta-analyses

  • PRISMA-ScR: Scoping reviews

  • RECORD: Studies using routinely collected observational data (please use appropriate extension)

  • REPRISE: Studies describing priority setting of health research

  • SPIRIT: Protocols of randomized controlled trials

  • SQUIRE 2.0: Quality improvement studies

  • STARD: Diagnostic accuracy studies

  • STROBE: Observational studies in epidemiology (please use appropriate checklist)

For the checklists and more information on these and other reporting guidelines, see  Equator Network.

Questions?

CMAJ Open
1410 Blair Towers Place
Suite 500
Ottawa ON K1J 9B9
Tel 866-971-9171

Email: [email protected]