Please submit your manuscript online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/medicaleducation. Full instructions and support are available on the site. You will need to have a user ID and password, and these can be created on the first visit.

In the first instance, please contact Scholar One, which operates the site on our behalf. If you do not have reliable access to the internet and are unable to upload your manuscript electronically, please contact the editorial office for advice.

You will need to supply:

(1) your MAIN MANUSCRIPT, which should be free of any details which might identify you as the author. This may include details of where the study was based.

(2) A separate IDENTIFYING DOCUMENT, giving your full contact details and information about each author.

Both of these documents should be uploaded electronically using Manuscript Central. You will also need to send to the Editorial Office a hard copy of our COPYRIGHT ASSIGNMENT FORM, signed by all the authors. Faxing the copyright assignment form enables us to process the manuscript slightly more quickly in the early stages, but doing this is not a requirement as long as you have mailed the form to us. Templates for the copyright assignment form and the identifying document are available on http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/medicaleducation.

Please check that you are using the correct telephone number: If you are dialling from within the UK: 01752 764413 For international calls, check the country code, then dial: +44 1752 764413 If you continue to have problems, please contact the editorial office - med@mededuc.com

Yes; but please make sure that we receive the original signatures of every author.

If substantive changes were made to the manuscript then, yes, please, we do need to have a second set of signatures on the copyright assignment form. This is because one of the ICMJE criteria for authorship (see the full document at http://www.icmje.org/) is that ALL authors must have approved the final version of the manuscript.

We do occasionally publish manuscripts which exceed our 3,000 word limit for research papers. Some of these will be commissioned papers where the extended word limit has already been negotiated. Non commissioned discussion papers, review articles and reports of qualitative research are occasionally submitted which exceed the word limit.

We strongly advise authors to consider carefully before submitting a paper that exceeds the word limit, since overlong manuscripts may be returned for shortening. If you decide to submit a paper that exceeds the word limit, it is essential that you explain in your covering letter to the editor why you felt it was necessary.

All submitted manuscripts are read initially by an editor. One or more associate editors may also be involved in early decision making. Papers with insufficient priority for publication are rejected at this stage sometimes with advice about resubmission in a different category. Around 45% of manuscripts will be rejected at this stage. Other manuscripts are sent to one or more experts in the field for peer review. We usually ask three reviewers to give their opinions, but sometimes we are able to make decisions based on a single review and on other occasions we may have to seek second opinions if the initial reviews are inconclusive. The review process is usually double-blinded so that authors and reviewers identities are not disclosed to either party.

You may question decisions; please email the editorial office at med@mededuc.com. The Editor in Chief always replies to authors who query on appeal decisions concerning publication of their manuscripts. Each case is considered individually and, where appropriate, the Editor in Chief discusses the case with the Deputy Editor concerned before replying. Authors should remember that the Editor in Chief bears many factors in mind when deciding a paper s priority for publication. These include such matters as the editorial direction of the journal, the relevance of the paper to the readership and its importance to an international audience. Referees advise on the paper s originality, academic rigour and educational importance, but it is not their role to make summative judgements on publication matters. The Editor in Chief is not only at liberty but has a duty to put the interests of the journal s readership and the academic community at large before those of any individual author. On these matters, therefore, the Editor in Chief s decision is usually final.

Authors who wish to appeal a decision should send a clearly worded letter to the Editor in Chief explaining why they believe that the journal should continue to consider their paper. It is not enough simply to say that the reviews were positive. A case needs to be made for the academic significance of the paper, or information given about why negative reviews should have been treated with more caution. Suggestions may be made about how the authors plan to improve their paper. Where authors are able to make a good case, the Editor in Chief will be happy to seek further review of the paper.

Authors who feel that their manuscript was handled unethically or inappropriately should contact the Editor in Chief in the first instance. Serious cases may be referred to the Chair of the Quality and Standards Advisory Group.

We aim to give initial decisions in around 12 weeks. The process may take slightly longer in cases where we send manuscripts out to reviewers; those that are not sent out for external review will receive decisions more quickly.

Really Good Stuff: new ideas in medical education is a peer-reviewed collection of structured 500-word reports, published twice a year in May and November. Many of these are descriptions of new ideas in curriculum design, teaching practice, assessment or evaluation and some describe attempts at programme or curriculum change. Guidelines for authors of Really Good Stuff reports are available on our website http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/medicaleducation.

In 2005 we received nearly 900 manuscripts.

Medical Education s acceptance rate for unsolicited manuscripts is around 20% .

The journal impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year. The impact factor will help you evaluate a journal s relative importance, especially when you compare it to others in the same field. Impact factor is calculated by dividing the number of current citations to articles published in the two previous years by the total number of articles published in the two previous years.

In 2005 Medical Education s impact factor was 2.232

A manuscript accepted today will be published between six and ten months from now. However, the exact publication date varies because Medical Education publishes special issues and themed sections which may require us to move manuscripts between issues.

You should receive proofs electronically around six weeks before your paper is published. Unfortunately we can t give exact dates as this depends on our print schedules, which are constantly updated, but if you contact the editorial office around four months after your paper has been accepted, we will be happy to give you an indication. Once you have your proofs, please make sure you return any corrections promptly. It is important that you keep us informed of any changes to your email address during this period; we don t send hard copy proofs.

Please bear in mind that we ask a wide variety of people to review; you may have been asked because we are looking for a more general opinion and have already sought the views of specialists in the field. If you are unsure about reviewing a manuscript, please feel free to contact us. However, we do ask you not to show the manuscript to colleagues or discuss it without contacting us first. The review process should be confidential.

We would encourage you to put your name at the bottom of your comments in the interest of accountable review, but you don t have to do this. If you do sign your review, your name will be revealed to the author(s) of the manuscript and to the other reviewers.

Please contact the office by email as soon as you become aware of this. Anything you tell us will be received in the strictest confidence. We have published guidelines explaining how we deal with these matters in Medical Education, vol 38 Issue 1 (January 2004) pp 96-113. .

A fully searchable electronic archive is available at: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/

E-mail to med@mededuc.com is likely to be the most efficient way of contacting us.
Alternatively, you can write, telephone or fax to:
The Editorial Office
Medical Education
ITTC South Building
Tamar Science Park
Davy Road
Plymouth PL6 8BX, UK
Telephone: +44 1752 764412