Date: January 24, 2010
A new call for papers with request for topics to be chosen over the next 2-4 weeks.
Below is a list of topics for which we are seeking experienced authors. Please have any interested author contact our D.C. editorial office at
afpjournal@georgetown.edu.
We will be making assignments over the next 2-4 weeks. We prefer that experienced clinicians skilled in critically evaluating the evidence and experienced with the medical publishing process serve as first and corresponding author, to help ensure the quality of the content that goes out to our nearly 190,000 readers. Also, there should be no potential conflicts of interest with the subject matter of the article.
AFP Call for Papers—Available Topics, January 2010:
Acne: evaluation and treatment: requires high quality photos
Asthma--acute asthma attack management
Brain injury—mild/moderate traumatic brain injury: evaluating and managing long term effects
Breast—evaluation and management of common problems (mass, pain, discharge)
Burns—outpatient management of 1st degree/2nd degree burns. High quality photos desired.
Caregiver care—evaluating caregiver stress, assisting with support.
Carpal tunnel syndrome: evaluation and treatment options
Depression: diagnosis, initial evaluation, including suicide evaluation (not treatment).
Diagnostic imaging radiation—risks, principles of judicious imaging.
Dysphagia—evaluation, differential diagnosis (not treatment)
Dysuria—evaluation, differential diagnosis (not treatment).
Foot pain--OTC remedies for common foot disorders (toe pads, inserts, orthotics, with photos). Gastroenteritis in children (outpatient focus: vomiting & diarrhea, dehydration, oral rehydration).
Genital ulcers: evaluation, differential diagnosis, treatment. High quality photos desired.
Headache--tension-type headache: diagnosis and treatment
Hearing loss: evaluation, differential diagnosis, treatment principles
Heart failure: evaluation and treatment
Heart murmurs in children (newborns and older children): evaluation, when to refer.
HIV: anti-retroviral medication adverse effects: recognition and management
House calls/home visits: how to maximize their effectiveness
Joint pain—polyarticular joint pain-- evaluation, differential diagnosis (not treatment).
Knee pain-- evaluation, differential diagnosis (not treatment).
Lymphadenopathy-- evaluation, differential diagnosis (not treatment).
Mononucleosis /EBV infection: diagnosis and treatment
Newborn exam: basic elements, common problems to look for. Good for videos of techniques.
Obesity: surgery for morbid obesity: options, relative merits.
Osteoarthritis: evaluation and treatment
Pregnancy: OTC meds in pregnancy: what’s safe to use for common problems?
Prostate cancer: evaluation and treatment options (not screening)
Pruritus-- evaluation, differential diagnosis (not treatment).
Skin/shave biopsy—how to, procedure article; requires high quality photos of techniques
Spiritual assessment—how to incorporate spiritual issues into patient care
Tinnitus: evaluation, differential diagnosis (not treatment)
Tremor: evaluation, differential diagnosis (not treatment).
Urticaria and angioedema – evaluation, differential diagnosis, treatment; requires photos.
Vaginitis: evaluation, differential diagnosis, treatment
Weight loss--unintended weight loss: evaluation, differential diagnosis (not treatment).
New guidelines:1. A checklist of key sources of high quality evidence. Previously, we recommended that authors consult several preferred sources of high quality evidence when preparing their paper:
http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/publications/journals/afp/afpauthors.html#Parsys89685We will now ask that authors report which sources they used for a new section on Literature Review & Data Sources. This process mirrors that of the Family Physicians Inquiries Network, which asks authors to indicate which approved sources they used when writing an FPIN Clinical Inquiry. We feel that this step helps ensure that the highest quality evidence is used when providing clinical recommendations on diagnosis and treatment.
2. New guidelines on authorship. Previously we recommended that authors be experienced clinicians who could demonstrate expertise on their area of interest or article topic. We also required that resident physicians, if involved with the manuscript, work with an experienced attending physician who should generally serve as first and corresponding author.
We will now give preference to first/corresponding authors who are experienced in publishing an article in a peer reviewed journal or clinical textbook, and experienced in an evidence based approach to writing. Authors can meet the former stipulation by having previously served as an author or co-author. The latter stipulation includes such measures as 1) preferentially consulting the primary literature, rather than other review articles or textbooks, when crafting a review; 2) consulting sources of pre-assessed, high-quality evidence, such as those from the AAFP EB CME source list:
http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/cme/cmea/ebcme/ebcmesources.html; 3) weighing the strength of evidence when making clinical recommendations, based on a comprehensive search of the relevant literature, ideally using evidence that has been graded for validity and applicability to family medicine. We feel that these steps help ensure that our readers are presented with authoritative, high-quality reviews, and that authors have an excellent chance of having their article successfully pass the peer review process and ultimately be accepted for publication. We also feel that junior authors will best learn the key steps of writing scholarly reviews if they first gain experience as co-authors.
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2008/0501/p1226.html
