Utah Women’s Health Review – Guidelines for Authors

About the journal

The Utah Women’s Health Review publishes original research articles, data snapshots and commentaries linked to the 7 Domains of Health (physical, emotional intellectual, social, environmental, financial, and spiritual health). This journal is primarily interested in research around Utah Women’s Health, but also encourages researchers working from Utah in areas of women’s health, as broadly defined in the 7 Domains. All manuscripts will be peer-reviewed.

This journal only publishes manuscripts in English.

  1. Author details. All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the cover page of the manuscript. Where available, please also include ORCiDs. One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address displayed in the online article. Authors’ affiliations are the affiliations where the research was conducted. Please note that no changes to affiliation can be made after your paper is accepted. Authorship should follow the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and Authorship criteria including:
  2. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  3. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  4. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  5. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
  6. Funding details. Please supply all details required by your funding and grant-awarding bodies as follows:
    For single agency grants
    This work was supported by the [Funding Agency] under Grant [number xxxx].
    For multiple agency grants
    This work was supported by the [Funding Agency #1] under Grant [number xxxx]; [Funding Agency #2] under Grant [number xxxx]; and [Funding Agency #3] under Grant [number xxxx].
  7. Disclosure statement. This is to acknowledge any financial interest or benefit that has arisen from the direct applications of your research.

Submitting the Paper (Link to our submission form)

AUTHOR INSTRUCTIONS

Research Articles report the results of original public health research in up to 3500 words in the text (with no more than 250 words for the introduction and 750 words for the discussion), a structured abstract, and up to 4 tables + 4 figu[KS1] res. The text should have Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections as well as a section on Health Implications. The research articles included in the supplement cannot have been published previously; however, data that has been presented elsewhere can be repackaged for the supplement. Previous work should be cited where relevant. Structured abstracts of up to 250 words, should include headings:  Objectives, Methods, Results, Conclusions, and Implications. List 3-6 key words. List which domain, if relevant, this work is most closely associated

Data Snapshots should be no longer than 1500 words in the main text, up to 2 tables & 2 figures.

 Data Snapshots should include the following section: Background (with a clear statement of the Public Health Implications), Data (including how UT is doing, trends over time (w/ figure), how do we compare to the US, How does this topic intersect with the 7 domains of health (if relevant which domain), What is being done and available resources and recommendations (if relevant).  List 3 key words.

Commentaries:

We accept commentaries about any of the 7 Domains of Health relative to a specific population of women, i.e., adolescents, college-age, refugees, immigrants, LGBTQI, elderly, pregnant women, etc.  A commentary is an objective statement that provides an opinion about a topic in women’s health and what a specific field should consider about that topic area.  This manuscript can be structured with the following headers: Problem Statement, Status of the Literature, Call to Action and should be no longer than 750 words.  Commentaries are based on the most current information in the scholarly literature, for example, within the last five years.  Please list which domain is most closely associated with the piece and 3 key words.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Abbreviation and acronyms

Abbreviations are acceptable, as long as they are defined (spelled out) at first use.

Document Format

The text should be in a word document, left-aligned (ragged right format), double spaced with a font size of 12 Times New Roman. Pages and lines in pages need to be numbered throughout the text of the manuscript, in order to facilitate the identification by editors and reviewers of the specific places in the manuscript where there is something the author needs to address. To number lines in Word: Page Setup > Line Numbers > Continuous.

References

All references must be formatted according to the AMA Manual of Style. Using a reference manager such as Endnote or Zotero is strongly recommended. Cite references that are retrievable in text, tables, and figures in consecutive order using superscript Arabic numbers. In-text citations that use parentheticals (e.g. (Author, date)) will not be accepted. Use commas to separate multiple citation numbers in text. Corresponding references should be listed in numeric order at the end of the document. Unpublished works and personal communications should be cited parenthetically (and not on the reference list). Superscript numbers are placed outside periods and commas, and inside colons and semicolons.

Example in-text citation:

This is an example of an AMA citation.1

Example for citing a journal article with a DOI:

Author(s). Title of article. Name of Journal. Year;vol(issue):pages. doi:xx.xxxx.

Morrison G, Van Langenberg DR, Gibson SJ, Gibson PR. Chronic pain in inflammatory bowel disease: characteristics and associations of a hospitalbased cohort. Inflamm. Bowel Dis. 2013;19(6):1210-1217. doi: 10.1097/MIB.0b013e318280e729.

Example for citing a journal article without a DOI:

Author(s). Title of article. Name of Journal. Year;vol(issue);pages. URL. Published date. Updated date. Accessed date.

Thomas JL. Helpful or harmful? Potential effects of exercise on select inflammatory conditions. Phys Sportsmed. 2013;41(4):93- 100. https://physsportsmed.org/psm.2013.11.2040. Accessed November 22, 2013.

See Purdue’s Online Writing Lab for further information: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/ama_style/index.html .

Tables, Figures, and Supplemental Files

Tables, Figures and Supplemental Files must be submitted separately as independent files to retain higher quality. Please indicate where each table and figure should be placed within the manuscript.

Statistics in Tables and Text

Beta and other Greek symbols, should only be used in the text when referring to theoretical equations or parameters being estimated, never in reference to the statistical results based on sample data. Use of only one decimal point for proportions and effect measures is preferred. For all regression-related results change all beta symbols (β) to b (for unstandardized regression parameter estimates) or B (for standardized regression parameter estimates). Presentation of the results from logistic regression or other types of models (such as such Poisson, Cox, or negative binomial regressions) should be the exponentiated parameter estimates (e.g., the prevalence ratio, the odds ratio, or the incidence rate ratio) and corresponding 95% confidence interval of the ratio, rather than the parameter estimates themselves. The inclusion of P values is unnecessary in the presence of 95% confidence intervals. When P values are used, the actual observed value rounded to 2 decimal points should be presented. Under no circumstance should the symbol “NS” be used in place of actual P values. The focus of the results should be on the magnitude of the estimates and the variability around those estimates via 95% CIs, rather than significance. There are very rare circumstances where a “one-sided” significance test is appropriate, and this must be justified and presented in the context of the experimental design. Therefore, “two-sided” significance tests are the rule, not the exception.

 Copyrighted Material

 Copyrighted material must be identified, permission for use must be obtained by the author, and an appropriate reference must be cited.

 Images and Photos

 Any submitted image must be of print quality resolution 300 dpi minimum with a 150-line screen. Photos for the cover must be of print quality resolution 300 dpi minimum with a 150-line screen sized 11×17 or larger.

Reporting Guidelines for Research Articles

Responsible reporting of research studies, which includes a complete, transparent, accurate, and timely account of what was done and what was found during a research study, is an integral part of good research and publication practice. Based on criteria set by Obstetrics & Gynecology, we ask authors to use the following guidelines when drafting their manuscripts:

Questions to: Karen Schliep, PhD, MSPH; karen.schliep@utah.edu; phone: 801.587.7271