This document provides details on typesetting and layout requirements pertaining to final manuscript submission to Eastern Virginia Medical Journal.

Formatting Requirements

Submit manuscripts as MS Word documents, formatted as follows:

Abstract

Original Research, Brief Reports, Quality Improvement, and Advancements in Medical Education articles typically should include an Abstract (limit, 250 words). Abstracts may be appropriate for other article types, such as some Special Articles.

List at least 3 MeSH keywords separated by commas after the Abstract.

Body

Carefully follow the guidelines in the current AMA Manual of Style.

Most submissions (Original Research, Brief Reports, Quality Improvement, and Advancements in Medical Education articles) will follow an IMRAD (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion) format for the body, but other formats may be suitable, depending on the nature of the report.

Acknowledgements, prior presentations or preprints, and conflict of interest statement(s) should be included at the end of the main body of the manuscript. Identify relevant conflicts of interest for each author (if none, please so indicate) and funding sources (if none, please so indicate).

References

References should be numbered consecutively in the order of appearance in the manuscript, using AMA citation style. Arabic superscript numerals should be placed in the text to identify the corresponding reference in the list. The use of endnote or footnote function of Word processing to generate a list of references is prohibited. EVMJ requires digital object identifier (DOI) numbers to be included in all journal references. In cases when a DOI is not available, please include an online location (uniform resource locator, URL), if available.

All journal titles should be abbreviated using accepted Index Medicus style.

If more than six authors, list the first three, then use “et al.” for the remainder. Below are examples of the correct format for references:

• Journals: Parks-Savage A, King J, Newton H, et al. How to write for the emergency medicine literature. J Emerg Med Acad 2024; 25(2): 89-92.doi: 10.0819/JEMAv25i254618.
• Book Chapter: Bono M, Knapp B, Graffeo C. Teaching emergency medicine to fourth year medical students. In: Schwartz GR, Barkin RM, eds. Textbook of Emergency Medicine. 4th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lea and Febiger; 2024: 215-220.
• Book: Hesselbacher SE. Current Practices in Sleep Medicine. 3rd ed. St Louis, MO: Saunders; 2023.
• Internet/On-Line: United States Consumer Product Safety Commission. Recall of Self-Balancing Scooters/Hoverboards. Accessed March 21, 2024. http://www.cpsc.gov/en/recalls/2016/hoverboard-11c-recalls-self-balancing-scooters-hoverboards.

Tables

Tables, if any, should follow the References section of the manuscript. Each table should be numbered sequentially, referenced in the manuscript text, and include a descriptive title (above) and legend (below). Data presented in the tables should provide information above and beyond that found in the text and should not simply restate the same information. All abbreviations used in the table should be expanded in the legend. For additional information, see the AMA Manual of Style, 4.0 Tables, Figures, and Multimedia, in the 11th edition.

Figures

Artwork or figures should be submitted as standalone files (1 per image), saved at a resolution of at least 600 dpi; JPEG format is preferred though other image formats (TIFF, PDF, EPS) may be acceptable. The title, description, and legend should be included in the manuscript file after the Tables section. Each figure should be numbered sequentially (multiple parts to the same figure should be identified by lower case letters in alphabetical order) and referenced in the manuscript text. Figures (including the title and description) should stand alone; e.g., a reader should not have to reference the text to understand the information presented in the figure. Inappropriate manipulation of digital images may constitute fraud; see 5.4.3 Inappropriate Manipulation of Digital Images (AMA Manual of Style, 11th edition).

Please note that a Title Page should no longer be uploaded with submissions to EVMJ; however, authors may wish to keep a title page for their own records.