Quality in Primary Care Open Access

Author Guidelines

Quality in Primary Care (formerly the Journal of Clinical Excellence) is an international peer reviewed journal for those involved in research, teaching or practice in the fields of quality improvement, clinical governance or clinical audit related to primary and prehospital care as well as organisational development and education connected to these areas of interest. We particularly welcome high-quality original research that advances knowledge on these topics generalisable to other settings and countries. In addition to traditional research papers we welcome less formal contributions, including short reports, which would make the journal more accessible. We also welcome contributions from other disciplines related to medicine, including nursing, practice management, professions allied to medicine and social science.

Submit manuscript at Online Submission System or send as an e-mail attachment to the Editorial Office at manuscripts@primescholars.com

Article Processing Charges (APC):
Quality in Primary Care of the Prime Scholars Publishing Group is an Open Access publisher. However, a fee waiver may be possible in some circumstances. The basic article processing fee or manuscript handling cost is as per the price mentioned above on the other hand it may vary based on the extensive editing, colored effects, complex equations, extra elongation of no. of pages of the article, etc. Please contact the editors for further information.

Average Article prorcessing time (APT) is 55 days

Fast Editorial Execution and Review Process (FEE-Review Process):

Quality in Primary Care is participating in the Fast Editorial Execution and Review Process (FEE-Review Process) with an additional prepayment of $99 apart from the regular article processing fee. Fast Editorial Execution and Review Process is a special service for the article that enables it to get a faster response in the pre-review stage from the handling editor as well as a review from the reviewer. An author can get a faster response of pre-review maximum in 3 days since submission, and a review process by the reviewer maximum in 5 days, followed by revision/publication in 2 days. If the article gets notified for revision by the handling editor, then it will take another 5 days for external review by the previous reviewer or alternative reviewer.

Acceptance of manuscripts is driven entirely by handling editorial team considerations and independent peer-review, ensuring the highest standards are maintained no matter the route to regular peer-reviewed publication or a fast editorial review process. The handling editor and the article contributor are responsible for adhering to scientific standards. The article FEE-Review process of $99 will not be refunded even if the article is rejected or withdrawn for publication.

The corresponding author or institution/organization is responsible for making the manuscript FEE-Review Process payment. The additional FEE-Review Process payment covers the fast review processing and quick editorial decisions, and regular article publication covers the preparation in various formats for online publication, securing full-text inclusion in a number of permanent archives like HTML, XML, and PDF, and feeding to different indexing agencies.

Withdrawal Policy
Quality in Primary Care is committed to maintaining the publication ethics while providing high-quality publications. We expect our authors/users to comply with best practices in publication ethics as well as in the quality of their articles. Manuscript withdrawal is a common procedure in publication for various genuine reasons however recently it’s being misused by the author for unethical withdrawal. Many such instances exist where author send unethical withdraw request which results in wastage of precious resources, including editors, reviewers, and the editorial staff. To cope with such situation, QPC develops withdrawal policy for all stages of manuscript submission & publication separately as follows.

Withdrawal Type Withdrawal Charges (Inclusive of Taxes)

Pre-Publication 30 % of APC
(During Peer-review & Editing process)
Manuscript withdrawal (After Acceptance) 50 % of APC
Post-Publication withdrawal (After Published) 100 % of APC (exemption if paid earlier)

Journal Membership services

Why Membership?
Full Support Journal Membership Packages and Offers have been introduced with an aim to help our eminent researchers, authors to assist them for their valuable contribution to our journal.

With the best resources as well as services, we have tried our best to assist authors from different geographical regions, having different financial obligations.
Package Articles Euro Validity Certificate Reprints Assistance
Silver 3 4500 9 months Yes 10
Gold 5 7000 1 year Yes 30
Platinum 7 9700 1 year Yes 50

Article
The above packages include different offers and complimentary services provided by our journal. These services can also be availed individually on discounted price.

Kindly reach us at manuscripts@primescholars.com for more information. We'd be happy to reply to your queries.
Submission of an Article

Editorials: These are usually written in-house or commissioned but other submissions are encouraged. Please contact the editor in the first instance to discuss a particular topic.

Research papers: High quality academic articles relating to quality in primary care are welcomed. Clinical governance in action: Examples of innovative projects in primary care and interface settings. The aim of this section is to encourage sharing of good practice and solutions to common quality improvement problems.

Short reports/quality improvement and audit: This is a new section designed to promote rapid publication of significant quality improvement projects, ideas or innovations. Please submit articles up to 1000 words.

Quality assurance, appraisal, education and teamwork: This is a new section will include articles on various issues of organization and leadership which can impact directly or indirectly on quality improvement.

Patient safety: Articles describing studies highlighting problems or solutions related to the issue of patient safety.

Patient perspective: This section of the journal is devoted to contributions relating to patient and public involvement in the health service, particular related to quality improvement. Lay people usually write articles in this section which is edited in conjunction with Patricia Wilkie, our lay representative on the editorial board. Articles are also welcome from healthcare professionals describing important developments in public involvement policy and practice.

Debate: This section intends to promote discussion of unresolved or controversial areas in quality improvement. The aim is to promote new thinking and stimulate debate.

International exchange: We welcome descriptions of quality projects from all countries in the world, particularly those that describe the organisation of quality systems, reports of projects with transferable learning, engagement of clinicians, setting of national and international standards, patient involvement and management of underperformance. Papers that compare and contrast different approaches to quality and critically appraise health service policy on quality will be encouraged.

Principles of quality improvement: Articles reviewing current knowledge and advances in the principles and science and practice of quality improvement.

Knowledgeshare: Please submit reviews of health-related websites and information sources for quality that have particularly impressed you.

Primary care quality digest: The aim of this new section is to bring to your attention recently published guidelines, reviews and papers related to issues of quality in primary care. We would welcome contributions from other organisations of family medicine that report their activities, anywhere in the world, particularly European countries.

Letters: Letters to the editor up to 500 words are always welcome. They can be emailed and can relate to articles published in the journal or can be on any issue relating to quality facilitating communication between clinical governance leads and community and primary care trusts and allowing important issues to be discussed.

Book reviews: If you are interested in doing book reviews for QPC, then please contact the editor.

Courses and conferences: Please inform us of any forthcoming courses and conferences. We will try and include these in future issues (space cannot always be guaranteed).

General
All material submitted for publication will be subject to external peer review. Papers are assumed to be submitted exclusively to the journal. Papers that are outside the remit of the journal, that do not comply with the guidance here or are judged to be unsuitable by the editor will be rejected without peer review. Reviewers advise on the originality and scientific merit of the paper and the editor, with advice from the editorial board, will decide on publication.

The turnaround time for papers will be up to eight weeks from submission to decision and up to 12 weeks from decision to publication with a fast-track process also available. This process will be audited.

The editor reserves the right to make minor adjustments and, if necessary, to shorten the article without changing the meaning.

All manuscripts should be typed in double-line spacing on one side only of A4 paper, with a margin of 3cm all round and a pages numbered consecutively.

The first page of the paper should contain the title, author(s), name(s) and an address for correspondence. Each author should indicate his/her professional discipline, current appointment and qualifications. The address of the corresponding author will be printed with the paper (if published) unless you request that it is omitted.

When first using abbreviations in the text, the term the author wishes to abbreviate should be spelt out in full with its abbreviation in brackets. Thereafter the abbreviation in capital letters and unpunctuated should be used.

QPC supports the code of conduct for editors of biomedical journals drawn up by the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE).

Ethical issues

• QPC upholds the ethical principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
• Authors are referred to the need to conform to the Declaration of Helsinki and to provide confirmation that the study has been approved by a named Research Ethics Committee.
• Authors are also asked to declare that the paper has not been submitted elsewhere for publication and that duplicate publication has been avoided.
• The following declarations should be made at the end of the article before the references: ‘ethical approval(s)’, ‘acknowledgements’, ‘source of funding’ for the study, and any ‘conflict of interest’. This includes ownership of shares, consultancy, speaker's honoraria or research grants from commercial companies or professional or governmental organisations with an interest in the topic of the paper. If in doubt, disclose.
• Authors are also asked to declare, where relevant, that patient consent has been obtained and that all reasonable steps have been taken to maintain patient confidentiality.
• Once submitted authors are assured that the material under consideration will be kept confidential.
• Misconduct is investigated and acted on according to COPE guidance.

Length and structure of articles

• Articles should normally be up to 3000 words excluding (usually up to 30) references. Short reports should be up to 1000 words. However, when authors are invited to submit a specific article, the editorial staff will specify the proposed length.
• Subheadings are encouraged, when suitable, to break up the text as well as to improve readability.
• A structured abstract up to 300 words to include background, aim(s), methods (include design, setting, subject and main outcome measures as appropriate), results and conclusion should be included.
• The abstract should be followed by up to five keywords recognized by Index Medicus.
• Authors should also include a box headed ‘How this fits in with quality in primary care’ with text under the following subheadings summarizing the article: What do we know? What does this paper add?

Tables, figures and illustrations

• As far as possible articles should be suitably illustrated but not contain more than five tables.
• Tables should not duplicate but rather supplement information given in the text. They should be typed on a separate sheet and have a caption. Do not use vertical rules in tables.
• Tables should only be used when data cannot be expressed clearly in any other form. Figures should not duplicate information provided in the text.
• Illustrations may be line drawings or black-and-white photographs of good quality, preferably with a gloss finish. Illustrations will not be returned after publication unless specifically requested. All illustrations are submitted at the owner’s risk, the publisher accepts no liability for loss or damage while in possession of the material.

References

• The style of referencing used is the Vancouver system (World association of mrdical editors). References should be numbered in the text and listed consecutively at the end of the article in the order that they appear in the text. They should be assigned superscript numbers, outside any punctuation.
• The list of references should include: names and initials of all authors (unless there are more than six, in which case the first three should be mentioned followed by et al.). The format of references is as follows:

Example 1: Journal article Rao, M, Clarke A, Sanderson C and Hammersley R. Patient’s own assessments of quality care compared with objective based measures of technical quality of care. Cross sectional study. British Medical Journal 2006: 333:19 – 22.

Example 2: Author of whole book or other publication Coulter A. The Autonomous Patient. Ending paternalism in medical care. London : The Stationery Office, 2002.

Example 3: Chapter in a book Marshall EJ and Bhugra D. Services for the mentally ill homeless. In: Bhugra D (ed). Homelessness and Mental Health. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 99 – 109.

• Information taken from unpublished papers, personal communications and observations should only be included in the text and not referred to as a formal reference.
• Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their references.

Proofs
Proofs will be sent to the author submitting the paper and must be returned promptly. This will allow correction of printers’ and similar errors. Major changes will not be entertained and authors may be charged for excessive amendments at this stage.