Author Guidelines

The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety is a peer-reviewed journal that serves as a forum for practical approaches to improving quality and safety in health care. Specific interest areas include

• Performance improvement
• Organizational change and learning
• Leadership
• Methods, tools, and strategies
• Performance measures
• Evidence-based medicine
• Timeliness and efficiency
• Emergency management
• Health professions education
• Information technology
• Patient and family involvement
• Human factors engineering
• Root cause analysis
• Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
• Reporting systems
• Teamwork and communication
• Continuity of care

Overall content. Published monthly, The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety is dedicated to providing health care providers and quality and safety professionals with the information they need to promote the quality and safety of health care. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety invites original manuscripts on the development, adaptation, and/or implementation of innovative thinking, strategies, and practices in improving quality and safety in health care. The descriptive ("this is what we did") and prescriptive ("this is how to do it") information is intended to help readers adapt activities to improve quality and safety to their own organizations. Case studies, program or project reports, reports of new methodologies or new applications of methodologies, research studies, and commentaries on issues and practices are all considered. No statement in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety should be construed as an official position of The Joint Commission or Joint Commission Resources unless otherwise stated. In particular, there has been no official review with regard to matters of standards compliance.

Submission Guidelines
Feature articles. Feature articles should not exceed 4,000 words, not including illustrations and references. Articles should consist of background, rationale, methods or implementation, results, and discussion, but this will depend on the nature of the article. When possible, articles should contain case studies or problems and practical solutions.

Departments. Manuscripts are invited for the following:

• Letters: Letters can pertain to an article or department published in the Journal or to any issue, topic, or project in quality and safety in health care.
• Field Notes (limit, 1,000 words): Field Notes provides a forum for brief papers on works in progress.
• Tool Tutorial: Tool Tutorial describes new tools or new uses for current tools that can be used in any quality or safety activity.
• Case Study in Brief (limit, 2,000 words): Case Study in Brief provides pragmatic, hands-on examples of how organizations address quality and safety issues and problems.
• National Patient Safety Goals: National Patient Safety Goals provides innovative ideas for achieving the requirements associated with the goals as implemented in health care settings.
• Forum: Commentaries on issues and practices of typical interest.
• Frontline Tips: Quality and safety tips from practitioners “in the trenches.”

Please contact the editor for further guidance.

Submission Process
An electronic version (Microsoft Word or ASCII format), preferably as an e-mail attachment, is required. By a jointly signed cover letter or by e-mail correspondence, all authors should confirm that the manuscript represents original work that has not been published or is not being considered for publication elsewhere and that they have all contributed to, and approve of, the manuscript. Copies of any closely related manuscripts, whether published or in development, should be submitted along with the manuscript that is to be considered by the Journal. On manuscript submission, authors are required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest or provide a declaration of no conflicts of interest.

Preparation of Manuscript
Manuscripts should be double-spaced with 1-inch margins at top, bottom, and sides, and in 12-point type. The order of items in the manuscript is the title page, acknowledgments, abstract, text, references, legends, tables, and figures. All pages should be numbered.

Title Page: Include the title of the article, lead author's address and contact information, authors’ (no more than 10) names and titles, affiliations, and, if different, the affiliation when the article was written. Grant support that requires acknowledgement must be mentioned on the title page. Any commercial associations that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article must also be disclosed.

Acknowledgments: Obtain permission to reprint or adapt any illustrations of tables published previously; a copy of the original signed letter granting such approval must accompany the manuscript. All material reprinted or adapted from previously published literature must be accompanied by the name of the original author, title of the article, title of the journal or book in which it appears, date of publication, and publisher’s city and name.

Abstract: Provide a structured abstract of 250 or fewer words.

Text: Use only standard abbreviations and acronyms; spell out at first use and use short version thereafter. Use generic names for drugs whenever possible. If using brand names, put in parenthesis after first citing generic names.

References: Number references consecutively as they are cited. Sample references:

1. Makary M.A., et al.: Operating room debriefings. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf 32:407-410, Jul. 2006.
2. Burke J.P.: Infection control: A problem for patient safety. N Engl J Med 348:651-656, Feb. 13, 2003.
3. Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations: Introduction to the National Patient Safety Goals. http://www.jcaho.org/accredited+organizations/patient+safety/05+npsg/ (last accessed May 3, 2005).

Authors are responsible for accuracy.

For more information, contact the Executive Editor.

Tables and Figures: Cite tables and figures (for example, Table 1, Figure 1) consecutively in the text. All tables and figures should have titles and be easily understood. Figures should also have short legends that comment on the information in the figure.

Editorial Process
Authors are notified on receipt of a manuscript and again upon the editorial decision regarding publication.

Manuscript review: Manuscripts deemed suitable for publication are sent to Editorial Advisory Board members and/or other reviewers. Notification of the editorial decision is usually provided within to eight weeks from receipt of manuscript. Publication of solicited manuscripts is not guaranteed. In most cases, manuscripts are accepted conditionally, pending an author’s revision of the material.

Copyright: When a manuscript is accepted for publication, the author(s) is required to sign an assignment of copyright ownership to Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.

Author Approval: Authors are responsible for all statements in articles, including changes made by editors. The liaison author must be available for consultation with an editor of The Journal to answer questions during the editorial process and to approve edited copy. Authors receive edited typescript (not galley proofs) for final approval. Changes cannot be made to the copy after the edited version has been approved.

Other Departments
Please direct all inquiries, manuscripts, and related correspondence to

Steven Berman, Executive Editor
Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety
Joint Commission Resources
One Renaissance Blvd.
Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois 60181
Phone: (630) 792-5453
Fax: (630) 792-4453
sberman@jcrinc.com