The Turkish Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care (TJFMPC) publishes online 4 times a year. The peer-reviewed journal’s chief objective is to provide high-quality continuing medical education for family physicians and other primary care physicians.

Editorial policy

Manuscripts from authors with new knowledge to contribute to understanding and improving health and primary care are welcome. We consider contributions in a number of categories. Detailed guidance is given below for original articles. Much of this (for instance, length of title, and styles of references) applies to all types of contribution and further guidance is given under each heading.

Original research articles

The title page should carry the following information:

The title of the article: Concise titles are easier to read than long ones. Titles that are too short may, however, lack important information, such as study design (which is particularly important in identifying randomized controlled trials). Authors should include all information in the title that will make electronic retrieval of the article both sensitive and specific. The title should not exceed 12 words. 

Authors’ names, highest academic degree and institutional affiliations: Some journals publish each author’s highest academic degree(s), while others do not. Authors must fulfill the standard authorship requirements.  Manuscripts submitted for publication must be accompanied by an Author Statements Form signed by all authors. This form includes an authorship statement, a financial disclosure statement, a copyright transfer statement. The signed form should be faxed to +90-322-338 65 72.

Corresponding author: The name, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the author responsible for correspondence about the manuscript. The corresponding author should indicate clearly whether his or her e-mail address is to be published.

The name and address of the author to who requests for reprints should be addressed or a statement that reprints will not be available from the authors.

Source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs should be mentioned in the Author Statements Form.

A short running head, usually of no more than 40 characters (count letters and spaces)

Word count for the abstract and for the text (excluding abstract, acknowledgments, tables, figures, figure legends, and references)

The number of figures and tables

Abstract

All articles should have a structured abstract of no more than 250 words. This should be set out with the following headings: Background, Aim, Design of study, Setting, Methods, Results, and Conclusion.

Keywords

Up to six keywords may be included, which should be MeSH headings as used in Index Medicus.

Main text

Articles should follow the traditional format of introduction, methods, results and discussion. The text can be up to 2500 words in length, excluding tables and figures. Generic names of drugs should be used wherever possible. We strongly discourage the use of non-standard abbreviations for medical terms, except where it would otherwise render the text unwieldy.

The introduction should be a succinct and up-to-date review of the key articles that have informed the intellectual background to the study. It does not need to be a systematic review, but it should avoid obviously selective quotation of the literature.

The method section should include a description of setting, patients, sampling, intervention, the time that the study took place, instruments used to measure outcomes, and the statistical tests applied (and software used for analysis).

The results section should contain all the required information to assess the validity of the conclusions. For quantitative studies, the section should include details of the response rates and numbers lost to follow-up.

Discussion

The subheadings are:

• Summary of main findings;
• Strengths and the limitations of this study;
• Comparison with existing literature;
• Implications for future research or clinical practice.

Up to six tables or figures are permitted in an article. Pie charts are strongly discouraged. All figures and tables must have a caption.

Tables

For all tables that are borrowed or adapted from other sources, include photocopies of the tables as they appeared in the original source, making sure that complete reference data are included for the original source.

Tables should be interpretable without reference to the text. Each table should have a title and be numbered sequentially with Arabic numerals. Put each table with double-line spacing on a separate page. Use the “Tables” function of your word processor to create the table rather than just using “spaces” and “tabs”.

Figures

The term "figures" refers to illustrations, photographs, radiographs, scans, sonograms, diagrams, graphs, flow charts, algorithms, etc. Authors should transfer copyright ownership of original figures to the TJFM. For all figures that are borrowed or adapted from other sources, include photocopies of the figures as they appeared in the original source, making sure that complete reference data for the original source are included. Clearly identify figures that have not been previously published and are supplied by a person other than the author and include complete contact information for the owner of the material. TJFM will seek permission from the copyright owner to publish the material in print and other formats.
Each figure should be submitted as a separate digital file and numbered sequentially as it appears in the text. Diagnostic images (e.g., ECGs, sonograms, and radiographs), artwork, line drawings, and nondigital photographs should be scanned at a resolution of at least 600 DPI before submission and saved as TIFF files. Only the following file formats are acceptable; others will be returned to the author for reformatting and resubmission:

Image resolution is typically measured in pixels per inch, or ppi (some use the term dots per inch, or dpi). The image’s resolution and its dimensions determine the overall file size of the image, as well as the quality of the output. Images with a resolution of 72 ppi (28.35 pixels per cm) are adequate. For color and grayscale images of 3 to 5 inches, we recommend a resolution of 300 ppi (118.11 pixels per cm). Line drawings in black and white require a higher resolution of 600 ppi (236.22 pixels per cm). An image generated by a digital camera as a 72 ppi JPEG file may still be acceptable if it measures at least 14 inches wide or high.
At the end of the text and before the references we ask authors to report:

• Funding body with reference number where appropriate;
• Body giving ethics approval with reference number where appropriate;
• Competing interests;

Acknowledgements 
Authors should include acknowledgements of all those who have helped with and contributed to the study (including the patients) in the preparation or review of the manuscript who are not authors of the paper. Individuals should only be acknowledged with their express permission.

References are presented in Vancouver style, with standard Index Medicus abbreviations for journal titles. Authors should try to limit the number of references to no more than 25.

Please number references in the text in the order of citation. Use double-line spacing in your reference list; arrange references numerically, not alphabetically. List the first six authors followed by “et al.”; if there are fewer than six authors, list them all.
Note the following examples of reference style:

Standard Journal Article

Weiss BD. Nonpharmacologic treatment of urinary incontinence. Am Fam Physician 1991;44:579-86.

Gold D, Bowden R, Sixbey J, Riggs R, Katon WJ, Ashley R, et al. Chronic fatigue. A prospective clinical and virologic study. JAMA 1990;264:48-53.

Chapter in a Book

Murray JL. Care of the elderly. In: Taylor RB, ed. Family medicine: principles and practice. 3d ed. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1988:521-32.

Web Site

Clinical evidence on tinnitus. BMJ Publishing Group. Accessed November 12, 2003, at http://www.clinicalevidence.com.

Emphasize recent references (past 10 years); in general, avoid letters to the editor, editorials, and references that are older than 10 years or of historic interest only.

Do not cite abstracts, unpublished observations, manuscripts in preparation or submitted for publication, or personal communications.

Specific guidance for original articles

Authors submitting randomised controlled trials (RCTs) should follow the revised CONSORT guidelines, including a completed CONSORT checklist and flowchart of participants in the trial. The checklist can be downloaded from http://www.consort-statement.org/. Guidance can also be found at http://jama.ama-assn.org/ifora_current.dtl#SEC14 or JAMA 2004; 291: 125.

Papers describing qualitative research should conform to the guidance set out in: Murphy E, Dingwall R, Greatbatch D, et al. Qualitative research methods in health technology assessment: a review of the literature.Health Technology Assessment 1998; 2(16): 1-13.

Authors submitting studies concerning diagnostic tests should follow the STARD guidelines, which are available at http://www.consort-statement.org/stardstatement.htm.

Brief reports

The guidance is the same as for original articles with the following exceptions:

• The abstract need not be structured;
• Authors should limit themselves to no more than six references and two figures or tables;
• The word limit for the abstract is 80 words and for the main text it is 800 words.

Systematic reviews

These are approximately 4000 words in length. We welcome systematic reviews on areas of interest and importance to primary care workers. They should be written in a style suitable for the Journal but should aspire to the quality standards set by the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Authors may find it helpful to consult the instructions for systematic reviews given on the Cochrane Collaboration website http://www.cochrane.org. Systematic reviews should conform to the QUORUM statement and this can be downloaded from http://www.consort-statement.org/QUOROM.pdf. 

Reviews should include a non-structured abstract.

Case reports

They should describe a patient or patients with common diagnoses where the presentation or management to interest the readers. The format should be a brief description of the problem accompanied by a discussion informed by published literature, citing up to six references. Where possible, the text should follow the evidence-based medicine format (Sackett DL, Richardson WS, Rosenberg W, Haynes RB. Evidence-based medicine. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingston, 1997), including a statement of the question being asked, the search strategy used, and the conclusions drawn from the papers identified. They should be approximately 800 words in length, excluding references, and may include photos. It is essential to obtain permission from any patients whose story is to be used and to maintain patient confidentiality. A signed statement of informed consent to publish, patient descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees is required. Such persons should be offered the opportunity to see the manuscript before its submission. Download the Patient Permission form.

Editorials

These are statements of informed opinion. Editorials should be up to 1200 words in length and have no more than 12 references.

Letters

Letters can be used to respond to published articles, report original research or raise any other matter of interest. The best letters are brief, lively, and provocative. They should be no longer than 400 words.

Submitting the Manuscript

Please send the manuscript via e-mail to   tjfmpc@cu.edu.tr