Authors & Reviewers

Guidance for Authors

Aims of the Journal

the physician is an open access, academic journal for healthcare professionals in the UK, India and across the globe. It invites manuscripts on a wide range of subjects relevant to the multiprofessional healthcare sector. The editorial board is appointed from an international panel of experts from across the spectrum of health. 
The journal has an open post-publication peer review policy. All reviewer comments and updated versions with authors comments will be published. 

Scope of Submissions

The Physician will accept submissions from across the healthcare spectrum but is particularly interested in issues that impact on health of migrants, international medical/ nursing graduates, diaspora studies, differential outcomes in patients and professionals based on ethnicity or other protected characteristics. The editorial board welcomes submissions from new or emerging researchers and early career clinicians. 

Indexing & Frequency

The Physician is published since 2012 in print previously in line with BAPIO national conferences, including conference abstracts. Since Jan'20, it is published electronically and regular print editions will be published quarterly in 2020-21 and bi-monthly from 2021. It is a member of Crossref and all published articles will be allocated DOI and cited in Google Scholar. It will be submitted for indexing in PUBMED in 2022, once accepted all archived content will be available there retrospectively. 

Zero Article Processing Charges

In 2020-2021, the journal offers to fully subsidise article processing charges for all submissions.  
The journal is currently in negotiation with international scientific repositories for hosting its collection and once this is established, published articles will be available globally with due prominence and encourage collaboration with scientific communities worldwide. In subsequent years, article processing charges will continue to be fully subsidised for BAPIO members and associates. 
BAPIO Membership
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
Open Access
This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

Copyright
Like other open access journals, authors must own and retain copyright of their entire work through a Creative Commons attribution license that clearly states how readers can copy, distribute, and use their attributed research, free of charge. All of which helps make articles available to the widest audience, and contributes to the furthering of research and collaboration across the globe. 

Structuring your manuscript
Research papers/ Reviews/ Editorials/ Opinion pieces/ QI/ Audit reports
Manuscripts generally follow a standard structure which allows readers to easily find the information they are looking for. Here is the standard structure and what to include in each section.
Each manuscript should have the following sections
Title
Authors (full names, post nomials, institutional affiliations, email address and ORCID ID)
Key words
Abstract/ Summary (usually within 250 words)

Main text should include (word count maximum 2500 not including references, tables or figures)
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion and Conclusions
References (maximum of 30 references in Vancouver style)

Figures and Tables (should be submitted as separate documents with a minimum of 600dpi and clearly marked in the body of the text)
Submission of manuscript should be in Microsoft word or rich text format. The document should be named 'Surname of first author_ keyword_date of submission_version number.docx or .rtf. Manuscripts should be submitted either online (submit manuscript button) or by email to editor.thephysician@bapio.co.uk 

Letters to the Editor/ Case Reports should be limited to 1500 words and 10 references only. 
Submitted via email as Microsoft word or rich text format to editor.thephysician@bapio.co.uk

Conflict of Interest/ Contribution
Authors should declare any conflict of interest and contribution towards the piece of work presented for publication. 
The corresponding author should declare that this is original work and not submitted/ accepted/ being considered by another journal/ publisher at the current time. 

Peer review
The editors will review the submission and decide on pre-print publication. Once this has been decided (maximum 2 weeks) the pre-print edition will be published. A DOI will be allocated and this version visible in Crossref and Google scholar. 
The authors may suggest up to 3 suitable peer reviewers for their submission. The suggested peer reviewers must not be related either personally or institutionally with any of the authors. The editorial team will request a section editor and 1-2 independent reviewers with subject expertise to provide a comprehensive review within 4 weeks. Reviewer comments will be published online and authors will be invited to respond and update the manuscript in light of the reviewer comments. An updated / final print edition will be published alongside. 
Peer reviewers are required to rate the article as follows
  • Accept with no corrections
  • Accept with minor corrections
  • Accept only after major corrections/ updating
  • Reject
The editors reserve the right to make the final determination of the decision to publish. Any reasoning for such determination will be published alongside the manuscript. 
Plagiarism
The Physician will be using the Crossref 'Similarity Check' service to conduct a plagiarism check on all submissions as part of its commitment to the highest publication standards. If plagiarism is identified, the COPE guidelines on plagiarism will be followed.

Appeals and complaints

If you wish to ask the Editor or Editorial Board to reconsider a rejection, you should, in the first instance, contact the Editor through the instructions on the journal website. In practice, this means that decisions on appeals often take several weeks. Only one appeal is permitted for each manuscript. Final decisions on appeals will be made by the Editorial Board Member handling the paper or the Editor.

In general, an appeal against a rejection decision on a manuscript will only be considered if:

the authors can demonstrate that an error that determined the final decision has been made - by a referee or the Editors - during review

or
if important additional data can be provided

or
if a convincing case of bias in the process can be demonstrated
Authors who wish to appeal an editorial decision should submit a formal letter of appeal to the journal by contacting the journal editorial office. Include the manuscript tracking number in the email subject line and the appeal letter. 

If appeals are successful, then authors will be given instructions on how to proceed. If an appeal merits further consideration, the Editor may send the authors' response and the revised paper out for further peer review.


Peer Reviewer Form

The Physician follows a transparent post-publication peer review process. Peer review is an important role and responsibility. A robust process to ensure that the publications confirm to the highest standards of scientific rigour and evidence remaining free of bias. 
Please complete the online peer review form. 
Peer Review Online Form
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