Purpose: Review articles cover topics relevant to an internist's or cardiologist's daily practice, including developments in diagnosis and treatment, and should be written in a style that is concise and easily understood and with a minimum of technical jargon.
Content: The Journal strives to publish concise articles. Review articles should concentrate on only one or two clinical issues rather than survey an entire topic. For example, an article on prostate cancer might focus on PSA screening; an article on asthma might discuss the efficacy of allergy shots. Issues that may be of less importance to daily practice (eg, pathogenesis, molecular biology) should be covered as briefly as possible.
When discussing results of clinical studies, the absolute risk value and the number needed to treat should be included whenever possible, rather than only the relative risk and hazard ratio. Special attention should be paid to the differential diagnosis, office management of the medical problem, decision guidelines for hospitalization and referral to specialists, and cost issues. We encourage the use of algorithms that help the clinician assess options in diagnosis and treatment.
Format: Review articles should include an abstract of around 100 words plus a list of three or four "key points." The article should be no longer than 3,500 words, not counting references, tables, or figures, with no more than 40 references. Avoid referencing textbooks.
Include relevant reference ranges for laboratory testing results.
Authorship: Every person listed as an author must have contributed substantially to the paper according to the authorship criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. The criteria are as follows:
- Each author listed must have contributed to the conception or design of the paper, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
- Each author listed must have participated in drafting the paper or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
- Each author listed must have given final approval of the version to be published.
- Each author listed must have agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the paper, ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Example of a Review article.