Wilderness & Environmental Medicine

Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Wilderness & Environmental Medicine

Last updated 11/13/2023

Please read the guidelines below, then visit the Journal’s submission site [https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/wem] to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. You can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

This Journal endorses the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Sage Publishing disseminates high-quality research and engaged scholarship globally, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in publishing. We encourage submissions from a diverse range of authors from across all countries and backgrounds.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Wilderness & Environmental Medicine will be reviewed.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal if authors opt to publish as a subscription article. WEM has an embargo period of 12 months. Optional open access publishing is offered via the Sage Choice program. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that WEM will consider submissions of papers that have been posted on preprint servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the Journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the Journal's author archiving policy.

If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.

If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal.

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope

1.2 Article types

1.3 Writing your paper

2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

2.2 Authorship

2.3 Acknowledgments

2.4 Funding

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

2.6 Research ethics and patient consent

2.7 Clinical trials

2.8 Reporting guidelines

2.9 Research data

3. Publishing policies

3.1 Publication ethics

3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement

3.3 Open access and author archiving

4. Preparing your manuscript

4.1 Formatting

4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

4.3 Identifiable information

4.4 Supplemental material

4.5 Reference style

4.6 English language editing services

4.7 Manuscript sections

5. Submitting your manuscript

5.1 ORCID

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

5.3 Permissions

5.4 Revisions

6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 Sage Production

6.2 Online First publication

6.3 Access to your published article

6.4 Promoting your article

7. Further information

7.1 Appealing the publication decision

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to WEM, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope:

Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, the official journal of the Wilderness Medical Society, is a peer-reviewed quarterly journal devoted to original scientific and technical contributions furthering research and medical practice related to remote, isolated, austere, or environmentally challenging environments and exposures. The journal is intended for clinicians, researchers, practitioners, and others interested in human health, safety, and performance in conditions often defined by natural extremes and/or limited access to resources. Examples of broad areas of interest include: mountaineering, altitude (ground and air-based), aquatic (immersion, drowning, and diving), thermal stress (heat, cold, and humidity-complicated), trauma, biological hazards (plant, animal, and infectious agents), military medicine, global health (travel, disaster, and climate change), search and rescue (standard and emerging technologies), unusual environmental stressors (natural and manufactured), and community leadership (education, standards, and best practice).

PERTINENT TOPICS

Pertinent topics include, but are not limited to, medical, physiological, pharmacological, and expeditionary considerations of: high altitude and climbing; hypothermia and cold-induced injuries; heat/cold-related disorders; weather-related phenomena and natural environmental disasters; toxinology; drowning and near-drowning; diving and barotrauma; hazardous plants, reptiles, insects, and marine animals; ethnobotany; animal attacks; rugged or austere environments; tropical disease and immunizations; search and rescue; and ethical, legal and research issues.

1.2 Article types

Original Research: Original studies of basic or clinical research in areas relevant to wilderness medicine. Preferred 3500 word maximum (not including abstract, tables, figures, or references).

Brief Reports: Preliminary findings or small sample-sized studies that generate new hypotheses for further research. Reports should follow the guidelines under Preparation of Manuscripts. Preferred 1500-2000 words (not including abstract, tables, figures, and references), with no more than approximately 10 references.

Case Reports: Brief descriptions of unique wilderness medicine problems or situations. Include narrative abstract, introduction, and discussion of implications. Preferred 2000-word maximum (not including abstract, tables, figures, or references).

Wilderness Medicine Clinical Case Discussion: Written in a round table format. The first author should provide initial and ongoing narrative details of the case. After an initial narrative introduction, the dialogue should continue in a question-and-answer style. Questions should function as prompts to provide a brief literature review of the topic relevant to the case. Preferred 2000-word maximum.

Review Articles: Extensive, well-referenced reviews of the literature on a narrow relevant topic. Preferred 4000-word maximum (not including abstract, tables, figures, or references); no more than 100 references. Systematic reviews are preferred over narrative reviews.

Concepts: Descriptions of clinical and non-clinical wilderness medical problems and solutions. Articles may focus on practical "how-to" management techniques and/or new approaches to the planning, management, provision of wilderness medical services, or research. Preferred 3500-word maximum (not including abstract, tables, figures, or references).

Letters to the Editor: Observations, opinions, current topics and/or corrections on topics appearing in WEM, generally not to exceed 1000 words, with a maximum of 10 references, one of which should be to the recent WEM article, if applicable. Original scientific work is usually not considered appropriate for Letters.

Letters in Reply: Replies by authors should not exceed 1000 words of text and 11 references inclusive of the article at issue and the inciting letter.

Editorials: Commentaries on major current issues or controversies with significant implications for wilderness and environmental medicine. Preferred 1500-word maximum, excluding references.

Lessons from History: The history section welcomes manuscripts that delve into past research and clinical aspects of wilderness and environmental medicine that have had a significant impact on the field, have an interesting story, or have importance but have yet to receive recognition. We welcome articles revealing the previously unknown history of this field from countries where language barriers may have prevented the work from being reported to a global audience. Preferred 3000-word maximum, not including figures or references.

Clinical Images: Pictures that teach something about wilderness medicine, as well as tell an engaging story. The focus will be on clinical images, each accompanied by text explaining the photograph and briefly reviewing the diagnosis and treatment of the condition it illustrates. If appropriate for the topic, an image and case report should be presented as a mystery, with the diagnosis and discussion appearing after a page break. 1000-1500 words (not including figures and references), with generally no more than 5 references.

Wilderness Images: High-quality, high-resolution (300 dpi) digital images of wilderness subjects. Include photo title and informative description (<300 words) and the appropriate photographer's credit line. Where relevant, include geographical coordinates of where the image was taken.

Wilderness Essays: Personal essays or anecdotes relating to the wilderness and medicine. Preferred 3000-word maximum.

Book Reviews: Please contact the Editorial Office (abyrne@wms.org) for more information.

WMS Clinical Practice Guidelines: Please contact the Editorial Office (abyrne@wms.org) for more information.

1.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice on how to get published, plus links to further resources.

1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

WEM follows a single-anonymized peer review process.

The manuscript will be referred to acknowledged expert peer reviewers and, if appropriate, an Associate or Section Editor, prior to the Editor's decision regarding publication. Reviewers are advised that they should recuse themselves from review of the submission if a conflict of interest exists. If necessary, the manuscript will be returned to the author(s) for revision(s) prior to a final decision. All attempts are made to obtain prompt reviews and a decision regarding need for revision, acceptance, or rejection.

Author-suggested (recommended) reviewers are rarely used by WEM. In certain circumstances, it may be decided by the Editors to be appropriate. In such cases, it is WEM’s policy to use only one recommended reviewer per paper. If a recommended reviewer is used, they must have an institutional email address. At least one independently sourced reviewer for everyone recommended reviewer will be used.

Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:

• The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors.

• The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper.

• The reviewer has provided a personal (eg, Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).

WEM is committed to delivering high quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such has partnered with Web of Science Reviewer Recognition (formerly Publons). WoS Reviewer Recognition is a third-party service that seeks to track, verify and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for WEM can opt in to WoS Reviewer Recognition in order to claim their reviews or have them automatically verified and added to their reviewer profile. Reviewers claiming credit for their review will be associated with the relevant journal, but the article name, reviewer’s decision and the content of their review is not published on the site. For more information visit the Web of Science Reviewer Recognition website.

The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the Journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the peer review or decision-making process.

2.2 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.

The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

1. Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,

2. Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,

3. Approved the version to be published,

4. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. WEM does not accept crediting dual first authorship or dual corresponding authors. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

Authorship Changes

If the named authors for a manuscript change at any point between submission and acceptance, an Authorship Change Form must be completed and digitally signed by all authors (including any added or removed). An addition of an author is only permitted following feedback raised during peer review. Completed forms can be uploaded at Revision Submission stage or emailed to the Journal Editorial Office contact. All requests will be moderated by the Editor and/or Sage staff.

Important: Changes to the author by-line by adding or deleting authors are NOT permitted following acceptance of a paper.

Corresponding Author

The role of corresponding author as recognized by WEM is as follows. The corresponding author takes primary responsibility for communication with the Journal during the manuscript submission, peer-review, and publication process. The corresponding author ensures that all the Journal’s administrative requirements, such as providing details of authorship, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation, and disclosures of relationships and activities are properly completed and reported. In addition, the Journal recognizes the corresponding author as having full responsibility to sign the Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement (JPA), which includes release of copyright to the Wilderness Medical Society, on behalf of all authors. The corresponding author should be available throughout the submission and peer-review process to respond to editorial queries in a timely way, and should be available after publication to respond to critiques of the work and cooperate with any requests from the journal for data or additional information should questions about the paper arise after publication.

Wilderness & Environmental Medicine publishes CRediT author contribution statements. At submission stage, there will be the ability to list the roles that each author was responsible for. Please refer to the CRediT Gateway page for more information. You should not include an author contribution statement in your manuscript as this will be added at Production stage. This does not replace the Acknowledgements section.

2.3 Acknowledgments

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Per ICMJE recommendations, it is best practice to obtain consent from non-author contributors who you are acknowledging in your paper.

2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input

• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance

• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

2.3.2 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgments section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

2.4 Funding

WEM requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgments page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

It is the policy of WEM to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.

Please ensure that a declaration of conflicting interests statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, simply state “Disclosures: None.” For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here.

2.6 Research ethics and patient consent

Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant ethics committee or institutional review board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.

For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative. Please do not submit the patient’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file.

Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants.

All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The journal has adopted the ARRIVE guidelines.

2.7 Clinical trials

WEM conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.

2.8 Reporting guidelines

The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline. If your research involves animals, you will be asked to confirm that you have carefully read and adhered to the ARRIVE guidelines.

Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.

2.9 Research data

The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.

Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

• Share your research data in a relevant public data repository

• Include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, use the statement to confirm why it cannot be shared.

• Cite this data in your research

Peer reviewers may be asked to peer review the research data prior to publication.

• Peer reviewers may be asked to assess compliance with the research data policy

• Peer reviewers may be asked to assess research data files

If you need to anonymize your research data for peer review, please refer to our Research Data Sharing FAQs for guidance.

3. Publishing policies

3.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.

3.1.1 Plagiarism

WEM and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the Journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

3.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

3.1.3 Artificial Intelligence

Use of Large Language Models and generative AI tools in writing your submission

Sage recognizes the value of large language models (LLMs) (e.g. ChatGPT) and generative AI as productivity tools that can help authors in preparing their article for submission; to generate initial ideas for a structure, for example, or when summarizing, paraphrasing, language polishing etc. However, it is important to note that all language models have limitations and are unable to replicate human creative and critical thinking. Human intervention with these tools is essential to ensure that content presented is accurate and appropriate to the reader. Sage therefore requires authors to be aware of the limitations of language models and to consider these in any use of LLMs in their submissions:

• Objectivity: Previously published content that contains racist, sexist or other biases can be present in LLM-generated text, and minority viewpoints may not be represented. Use of LLMs has the potential to perpetuate these biases because the information is decontextualized and harder to detect.

• Accuracy: LLMs can ‘hallucinate’ i.e. generate false content, especially when used outside of their domain or when dealing with complex or ambiguous topics. They can generate content that is linguistically but not scientifically plausible, they can get facts wrong, and they have been shown to generate citations that don’t exist. Some LLMs are only trained on content published before a particular date and therefore present an incomplete picture.

• Contextual understanding: LLMs cannot apply human understanding to the context of a piece of text, especially when dealing with idiomatic expressions, sarcasm, humor, or metaphorical language. This can lead to errors or misinterpretations in the generated content.

• Training data: LLMs require a large amount of high-quality training data to achieve optimal performance. However, in some domains or languages, such data may not be readily available, limiting the usefulness of the model.

Guidance for authors

Authors are required to:

1. Clearly indicate the use of language models in the manuscript, including which model was used and for what purpose. Please use the methods or acknowledgements section, as appropriate.

2. Verify the accuracy, validity, and appropriateness of the content and any citations generated by language models and correct any errors or inconsistencies.

3. Provide a list of sources used to generate content and citations, including those generated by language models. Double-check citations to ensure they are accurate, and are properly referenced.

4. Be conscious of the potential for plagiarism where the LLM may have reproduced substantial text from other sources. Check the original sources to be sure you are not plagiarizing someone else’s work.

5. Acknowledge the limitations of language models in the manuscript, including the potential for bias, errors, and gaps in knowledge.

6. Please note that AI bots such as ChatGPT should not be listed as an author on your submission.

We will take appropriate corrective action where we identify published articles with undisclosed use of such tools.

3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement

If your article is accepted and published, the author(s) transfers all copyright ownership of the article to the Wilderness Medical Society. In the event that the paper is rejected or withdrawn, the rights revert back to the author. For authors who have funding mandates related to Open Access, or who wish to retain copyright for their own purposes, please review our Open Access options below, or contact us for more information. Before publication, Sage and the Journal requires the corresponding author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement (JPA). The corresponding author is responsible for signing the JPA on behalf of all co-authors. For more information, please visit the Sage Author Gateway.

3.3 Open access and author archiving

WEM offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice program. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

Please read the submission guidelines carefully to prepare your manuscript. Submissions that are incomplete or that do not comply with the guidelines below will be returned to the author for completion before they will be entered into the editorial process.

4.1 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. A LaTex template is available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

Please include the following files with submission:

1. Cover letter to Editor-in-Chief Dr William D. Binder providing corresponding author's information (name, address, telephone number, and email address) and stating the category of article the manuscript represents.

2. The full text with the following items beginning on a new page: (1) title page (title, short title, author names/degrees/affiliations, corresponding author contact information, summary tallies [word count of abstract, word count of manuscript including references, reference count, figure count, table count]), (2) abstract, keywords, (3) main text, (4) acknowledgments (optional), financial/material support statement (required), disclosure statement (required), (5) references, and (6) figure legends. Format manuscript in a Word document in 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with continuous line numbering (that is, numbering that does not restart at 1 on each page).

3. Upload tables and figures as separate individual files.

4. Each author on a submitted manuscript is required to disclose any conflict or potential conflicts of interest, either commercial or professional. These include patent-licensing agreements, stock ownership or other equity interest, consultancies, institutional affiliations, and corporate sponsorship. If there are none, it should be stated as "Disclosures: None."

5. If appropriate, a copy of the permission to reproduce previously published materials from the publisher or owner of the material.

Authors are responsible for assuring they have appropriate ethical approval, consent to use photographs of identifiable individuals, permission for the use of personal communications, permission from the copyright holder for the use of any previously published tables or figures, and approval for acknowledgment from all individuals referred to in the acknowledgment section. Authors are responsible for disclosing at submission whether the results/data/figures any other portions of this work has been previously published in any form (eg, conference proceeding, magazine, newsletter, blog post, etc.).

4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. Colour in print may be considered for certain figures at the discretion of the Editor.

4.4 Supplemental material

This Journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc.) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files.

Please visit these guidelines for video abstracts: https://us.Sagepub.com/en-us/nam/author-guidelines-for-creating-and-publishing-video-abstracts.

Please visit these guidelines for visual abstracts/infographics: https://us.Sagepub.com/en-us/nam/author-guidelines-for-creating-and-publishing-infographics

4.5 Reference style

WEM adheres to the AMA Manual of Style. View the guide here to ensure your manuscript conforms to this style.

If you use EndNote to manage references, the AMA’s output style template is available for downloaded.

4.6 English language editing services

WEM accepts international manuscripts in English with American spelling. Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the Journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

Accepted manuscripts are subject to editorial changes, and the paper becomes the permanent property of WEM and may not be published elsewhere without permission. The Editor reserves the right to edit manuscripts to comply with WEM's format, remove redundancies, and improve clarity without altering the meaning.

4.7 Manuscript sections

Scientific submissions should contain the sections described below.

TITLE PAGE

The title page (page 1) should contain (1) a concise and informative title; (2) an identified short running head (short title) of no more than 40 characters, including spaces; (3) the first name (spelled out), middle initial, and last name of each author with highest academic degree(s) and institutional affiliation (do not include professional designations such as FACMT, FAWM, etc.; these are not published in the journal); (4) contact information for the corresponding author; (5) summary tallies (word count of abstract, word count of the manuscript including references, word count of the manuscript excluding references, reference count, figure count, table count); and (6) details of formal presentation of the word at a scientific meeting (meeting name, date, and location), if applicable.

ABSTRACT

All manuscripts that are reports of original data from scientific investigations (original research and brief report categories) must be submitted with a structured abstract of no more than 250 words with the following headings: Introduction, Methods (include information on design, setting, participants, interventions, and main outcomes measured), Results, and Conclusions.

Case reports, review articles, and concept articles should include a narrative abstract of 250 words or fewer and outline the purpose of the article, major findings, and recommendations. Abstracts for review articles should include the literature search and selection strategy.

Keywords: Immediately following the abstract, include 4-6 keywords or short phrases that will assist indexers in cross-indexing articles. Use terms from the medical subject headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus where relevant. Non-MeSH terms can be included where appropriate. Words in the title of the article should not be included in the keyword list since these will already be captured.

TEXT

Introduction

Briefly develop the rationale for the study, report, or observation. Include only strictly pertinent references, and do not review the subject extensively. Do not include methods, data, or conclusions from the work being reported. Close the section with a clear statement of purpose, preferably as a single sentence.

Methods

Present the methods in a logical sequence, generally following the order in which work was done.

All studies involving human or animal research must indicate approval by an institution's human or animal subject review board (IRB). A statement of ethics approval or determination of exemption that includes the name of the institution(s) providing the oversight is required. Authors must confirm that appropriate consent was obtained from all human subjects or that this requirement was waived by the review committee. This should typically lead the methods section.

Procedures

Describe the selection of the observational or experimental subjects, including controls. Identify the methods, apparatus (manufacturer's name and city, state/province, and country in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Name well established methods; provide references and brief descriptions of methods that have been published but are not well known; and describe in detail new or substantially modified methods. Identify all drugs and chemicals used, including generic names and route(s) of administration. Generic names should lead, with proprietary names following parenthetically, when appropriate.

Statistics

Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty. The journal standard for describing central tendency and variability is mean ± with range. Discuss eligibility of experimental subjects, randomization, methods of blinding, and a threshold for P values to indicate statistically significant differences.

Clinical Trials

A clinical trial is defined as "any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes." As per the Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects and the policy of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, any clinical trial under consideration for publication must be registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (United States) or a WHO approved trial registry. The trial registry number should be included in the methods section of the paper. Trials that have not been registered should provide an explanation, with the understanding that not registering a trial may be sufficient grounds for rejection. For randomized controlled trials, we strongly recommend authors read and follow the guidelines at: www.consort-statement.org.

Results

Present the results in a logical sequence, often mirroring the methods, using tables and illustrations where appropriate. Include numbers of observations and statistical significance of the findings when appropriate. Present any complications or meaningful losses to observations. Do not repeat data found in the tables or illustrations in the text. Report numbers only to meaningful levels of implied precision (ie, representative of the precision of the measurement or measuring tool). For example, all percentages greater than one must be rounded to whole units only. Systeme International units should be used as a default. If non-SI units are to be presented, they should be placed parenthetically after the SI units.

Discussion

Emphasize the new and important aspects of both the study and the conclusions that follow from them. Do not repeat details provided in the introduction or the results sections. Include the implications of the findings, including those for future research. Relate the observations to other relevant studies. Close with a named limitations subsection that describes any meaningful weaknesses of the research, specifically methodological factors that may affect the interpretation, validity, or generalizability of the results and/or potential sources of bias. There should be no attempt to deflect from or downplay limitations, and this subsection should not be combined with others.

Conclusions

The conclusions must reflect the goals for and content of the manuscript and must be consistent with the prioritization and tone of the conclusions found in the abstract. Avoid unqualified statements not well supported by the data. Include recommendations where warranted.

Acknowledgments

(Not required for Letters to the Editor, Lessons from History, Wilderness Images, Clinical Images, or Book Reviews) One or more statements should specify (1) contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, such as noteworthy contribution of assisting colleagues; and (2) technical assistance. Recognition of financial and material support should be placed in the Financial/Material Support Statement described below.

Author Contributions

(Not required for Letters to the Editor, Lessons from History, Wilderness Images, Clinical Images, or Book Reviews; not required for single-author works). WEM is trialing the publication of CRediT author contribution statements. At submission stage, there will be the ability to list the roles that each author was responsible for. Please refer to the CRediT Gateway page for more information. You should not include an author contribution statement in your manuscript as this will be added at Production stage. This does not replace the Acknowledgements section.

Financial/Material Support Statement

(Not required for Letters to the Editor, Lessons from History, Wilderness Images, Clinical Images, or Book Reviews) Authors must disclose any financial and/or material support in the form of grants, equipment, and/or study materials; and to specify the nature of the support. If there is none, it should be stated as "Financial/Material Support: None."

Disclosure Statement

(Not required for Letters to the Editor, Lessons from History, Wilderness Images, Clinical Images, or Book Reviews) Authors are required to disclose any conflict or potential conflicts of interest, either commercial or professional. These include patent-licensing agreements, stock ownership or other equity interest, consultancies, institutional affiliations, and corporate sponsorship. If there are none, it should be stated as "Disclosures: None."

REFERENCES

References must be verified by authors through the original documents. Authors must ensure that references are formatted in full compliance with submission guidelines. Manuscript management systems rarely generate reference lists perfectly and authors should not rely on these as a check of required form. If manuscript management systems are used to generate reference lists the codes must be stripped out prior to submission so that the reference list is configured as plain text. Authors should preserve a copy with the codes list the first 6 and to facilitate revision, but only plain text versions should be submitted.

Only formally published material is unquestionably suitable for inclusion in the reference list. The reference list should not include general web pages (eg, "landing pages") or web-based material that is expected to change dynamically. Content that does not have specific version dates is likely problematic. Content not appropriate for inclusion in the reference list may be appropriate for text citation alone. See specific guidelines below to determine where and how to cite web material and other nontraditional sources.

References are numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Author names should not appear in the text. Identify references in the text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals. References cited only in tables or in legends should be numbered in accordance with a sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or illustration.

FIGURES

Figures should not be included in the manuscript document but uploaded as separate individual documents as directed in the submission system. Include figure legends on a separate page of the manuscript immediately following the references. Supply captions as a separate section of the text; do not attach to the figures. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Cite each figure in the text in consecutive order as Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.

TABLES

Tables should not be included in the manuscript document but uploaded as separate individual documents as directed in the submission system.

Cite each table in the text in consecutive order as Table 1, Table 2, etc. (Note: number even if only one.)

5. Submitting your manuscript

WEM is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit [https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/wem] to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the Journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

5.1 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.

We encourage all authors and co-authors to link their ORCIDs to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. We collect ORCID IDs during the manuscript submission process and your ORCID ID then becomes part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

5.3 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.

5.4 Revisions

After receiving a decision from the Editor-in-Chief and revising the manuscript as instructed, the revision should be submitted with a point-by-point response letter explaining revisions based on editors' and reviewers' comments. The explanations can be brief, often simply an acknowledgment that appropriate changes were made in the manuscript. This letter must be presented in text form, with the original comment followed by the response. Comment bubbles embedded in the revision are not adequate as a response to reviewers. All material changes should be made in the manuscript so future readers can benefit. Submit two versions of the revised manuscript: one version with changes tracked that should appear first, and one "clean" version without changes tracked. Upload revisions to https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/wem

6. On acceptance and publication           

6.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. Please note that if there are any changes to the author list at this stage all authors will be required to complete and sign a form authorising the change.

6.2 Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

6.3 Access to your published article

Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.

7. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the WEM editorial office as follows:

Alicia Byrne, WEM Managing Editor

abyrne@wms.org

Adam Etkin, WMS Director of Publications

adam@wms.org

7.1 Appealing the publication decision

Editors have very broad discretion in determining whether an article is an appropriate fit for their journal. Many manuscripts are declined with a very general statement of the rejection decision. These decisions are not eligible for formal appeal unless the author believes the decision to reject the manuscript was based on an error in the review of the article, in which case the author may appeal the decision by providing the Editor with a detailed written description of the error they believe occurred.

If an author believes the decision regarding their manuscript was affected by a publication ethics breach, the author may contact the publisher with a detailed written description of their concern, and information supporting the concern, at publication_ethics@Sagepub.com