Editorial Policies

Focus and Scope

The Irish Journal of Paramedicine (IJP) will publish manuscripts from the general prehospital setting that are of various methodologies and lengths. The journal will publish scientifically sound research covering all areas of prehospital-based research, even if they have low study numbers and have found negative outcomes. The editors will consider articles that may not get published in other journals to promote all types of research outcomes for the good of the greater prehospital care community.

The journal will accept manuscripts covering, but not limited to: clinical practice, prehospital and paramedic education, remote and rural practice, specialised roles, theory and practice of paramedicine, clinical updates, case studies, subject reviews, policy, service delivery, and management. 

One of the main aims of the IJP is to reduce the loss to the research community when studies remain unpublished on the basis of small sample size, limited usefulness, scientific advance or level of interest. The IJP therefore provides a repository for short publications, case series, incremental updates to previous work, results of individual experiments, results of confirmatory and 'negative' results, and similar material that currently lacks a suitable repository.

The IJP is run on a not-for-profit basis, with editorial staff operating on a voluntary basis without monetary reimbursement.

 

Section Policies

Editorial

Editorials may be written by one of the editors of IJP or the editors may invite someone to write an editorial.

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Commentary

Engagement with a current or topical issue in the field of paramedicine. May also be an observation on practice, clinical development or policy. Peer-reviewed as required. Recommended word count 1,000 words.

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Original Research

Any study type reporting original study data. Research articles should add something new to the existing literature. Suggested word count is 2,500-3,500 words, excluding tables, abstract and references. No limit on number of figures/tables, but suggested limit is 6. Limit of 50 references. Abstract word limit of 300 words.

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Literature Review

Suggested word count 2,500-3,000 words excluding abstract, references and tables. Liit of 100 references. Systematic reviews recommended word count 3,500-5,000 words excluding tables, abstract and references. Limit of 100 references. All review papers should include a supplementary file outlining search strategies in detail. Abstract word limit of 300 words.

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Brief Report

Brief reports are similar to original research in that they follow the same rigor, format and guidelines, but are designed for small-scale research. These may include preliminary studies that utilize a simple research design or a small sample size and that have produced limited pilot data and initial findings that indicate need for further investigation.  Brief reports are much shorter than manuscripts associated with a more advanced, larger-scale research project.  They are not meant to be used for a short version of an article about research that would otherwise qualify for a full original research manuscript or for publishing material on research that lacks significance, is not rigorous or, if expanded, would not qualify for a full article or for research.

Suggested word limit 1,500 words. Maximum 15 references. Abstract word limit of 300 words.

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Professional

Reviews and discussions of professional topics such as education, ethical issues, advocacy, patient safety, practice development and role enhancement. Subject to peer-review as required. Recommended word limit up to 2,000 words. Abstract word limit of 300 words.

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Clinical

Reviews and discussions of clinical topics such as treatment guidelines, pharmacology, equipment, and clinical developments. Subject to peer-review as required. Recommended word limit up to 2,000 words. Abstract word limit of 300 words.

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Case Report

This covers interesting and unusual cases that will enlighten the readership about the case. The suggested word limit is 1,000 words.

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Abstracts

Conference abstracts from selected conferences and seminars will be published to promote research activities. Abstracts are peer-reviewed externally by conference review panel. 

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Letter to the Editor

Recommended word count up to 800 words.

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Reply to Letter

Recommended word count up to 500 words.

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Correction

This covers revised articles due to inadvertant errors published in the original article

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Irish College of Paramedics News

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Peer Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to the IJP undergo double-blind, external peer review, unless they are out of scope for the Journal or were submitted to a section that does not require peer-review.

A manuscript submitted to the IJP for possible publication must be submitted to IJP alone (i.e., must not be submitted to another journal at the same time) and must not have been published, submitted or accepted for publication elsewhere.

When a manuscript is submitted, it is expected that one author will be named corresponding author and all correspondence or communication about the manuscript will be with this individual. Manuscripts submitted to the Journal will be acknowledged as received.

Upon submission, the Editor in Chief will review the manuscript and determine its suitability for the journal and the adherence to the Journal guidelines. If either of these criteria are not met, the manuscript will be return to the corresponding author with a note of explanation within a week.

All manuscripts submitted for peer-review are reviewed by at least two suitably qualitied experts selected by the Editor in Chief. Reviewers are asked to identify any conflicts or competing interests prior to accepting the invitation to review a manuscript.

We give priority to articles that will help paramedics to make better decisions in relation to clinical care, professional issues, education, service delivery, policy development or research. 

We aim to reach a first decision on all manuscripts within four weeks of submission. We may screen a research article initially by reading only the structured abstract, so abstracts should be as complete, accurate, and clear as possible—but not unnecessarily long—and must be approved by all authors.

For original research articles one editor will usually take each article through from start to finish. If your article is potentially suitable for publication, that editor will approve it, and he or she will send your article to a minimum of two to three peer reviewers, one of whom may be a member of the editorial board. Articles are subject to double-blind peer-review.

Articles reporting original research, literature reviews or cases studies undertaken by members of the IJP editorial team or editorial board are subject to independent, double-blind peer-review by at least one external peer reviewer.

Reviewer comments are returned to the Editor in Chief who makes the final publication decisions based on these reviews. The review process is a confidential communication between the reviewers and the Editor in Chief, and subsequently between the Editor in Chief and the corresponding author. Reviewers are instructed not to discuss any manuscript they receive for review from the Editor in Chief with anyone not involved directly in the review of the specific manuscript.

We aim to reach a final decision on publication within 10 to 12 weeks of submission for all articles. If we make an offer of publication subject to revision we usually ask authors to return their articles to us within the subsequent 30-day period.

Once publication layout has been completed, page proofs will be sent to the corresponding author for review. The corresponding author is expected to return corrected proofs within three days. It may not be possible to incorporate changes if the designated time period is exceeded.

The entire process of submission to final decision, and the sending and receiving proofs, is completed online.

 

Publication Frequency

Content will be published on an article-based publishing model. Once an article has progressed through the review process and has been accepted for publication, it will be published immediately online in abstract form only, followed by a final PDF, and then the article will be assigned to one of two issues for archiving purposes. There will be 2 issues published per year

  • June (1)
  • December (2)

Additional supplementary issues will be published on an as needed basis - e.g. conference abstracts, special focus issues.

This publishing model reduces the pressure on reviewers, authors and the editorial team as it removes publication deadlines. It also means that authors can potentially see their article published in full and open-access within 10-12 weeks of submission and revision (timelines will vary per article and workload).

 

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative definition of open access. We are driven by a desire to improve the care we offer our patients, and operate without financial aim or incentive. The IJP supports the National Principles for Open Access Policy Statement.

  • Authors may archive their submitted article in an open access repository. We will consider publishing material where a pre-print or working paper has been previously made available online.
  • Authors may archive their accepted article in an open access repository, with changes and modifications due to peer-review comments integrated into the text.
  • Authors may archive the final published article (publisher PDF) in an open access repository, university repository, personal website or elsewhere. A citation to the published article must be included.
  • All articles are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
  • If authors are subject to a pre-existing mandate from their institution, funder or government to make their article open access, the authors are automatically exempt from any restrictions in IJP policies which would otherwise prohibit their publication.

 

 

Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. More...

The journal also submits a copy of all articles published to Lenus, the Irish health repository, and eDepositIreland. These steps ensure permanent archived, open-access copies of all articles are freely available. More...

 

Publishing a supplement with IJP

The IJP publishes supplements in addition to the regular issues of the journal. Supplements may be based on: proceedings of a meeting or conferences, a collection of manuscripts related to a specific topic, a student research event etc.

Supplements are published with the support of various entities including non-profit organisations, government agencies, and universities. We do not publish supplements with the support of pharmaceutical companies, or medical device manufacturers to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. As with all articles published in the IJP, supplements articles are peer-reviewed, indexed and archived.

Benefits of publishing a supplement with IJP

  • Cost effective
  • Promote the scientific status of the organisation
  • Reach a wider audience to show case the work/achievements of your organisation
  • High visibility through indexation to library services and circulation to subscribers and online visibility on website
  • Rapid publication, with fast turn-around time from submission to publication

Instructions for supplements

Articles consider for publication as supplements will follow standard guidelines for authors. The supplement sponsor will declare all competing interests. The IJP editors have the right to veto an article in the supplement if they feel that it violates the journal’s editorial policy, is unbiased or has any potential or actual conflicts of interest.

Publishing a supplement with IJP

Some information the supplement sponsor should have before contacting the journal include: 

  • A theme, title, and scope of the supplement
  • The target audience for the call for paper: who will be eligible to submit manuscripts for the supplement?
  • An estimate of the number of manuscripts to be included in the supplement which should not be less than 5.
  • A timeline and estimated publication date of the supplement
  • The name of 2 to 3 guest editors for the supplement, one of which will be the primary guest editor and will communicate with IJP editorial team
  • A sample call for papers for the supplement (if required) that will be circulated to the target audience and posted on the IJP website.

For more, contact the editor at editor@irishparamedicine.com

 

Indexing

The Irish Journal of Paramedicine (eISSN 2009-938X) is listed, indexed and/or abstracted with the following resources:

  • Google Scholar
  • DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)
  • BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine)
  • CORE 
  • ScienceOpen
  • Lenus
  • eDepositIreland
  • Health in Forum
  • Index Copernicus
  • OAJI
  • OAIster
  • JournalTOCs
  • SafetyLit.org 
  • Semantic Scholar
  • Ulrich's Periodicals Directory/ulrichsweb 

Library catalogues: