JOURNAL OF CHILD HEALTH CARE
NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS
All submissions should be made online at the CHC SAGETRACK website
Access CHC SAGETRACK
Please log onto the website. If you are a new user, you will first need to create an account. This is a three-step system that takes a matter of minutes to set up. Log-in information is sent via email immediately upon completion. Full instructions for uploading the manuscript are provided on the website. If you have already created an account but have forgotten your details type your email address in the 'Password Help' to receive an emailed reminder.
Submissions should be made via the Author Center and the 'Click here to Submit a New Manuscript' option. For questions and a user guide, please use the 'Get Help Now' button at the top right of every screen. Further help is available through ScholarOne's® Manuscript CentralTM customer support at +1 434-817-2040 x 167. If you would like to discuss your paper prior to submission, please contact the Editor, Bernie Carter, at the following email address: bcarter@uclan.ac.uk
Please ensure that your Microsoft Word or RTF document does NOT include a title page, an abstract, or page numbers; the JCHC SAGETRACK system will generate them for you, and then convert your manuscript to PDF for peer review. Furthermore, it is imperative that authors remove from their submissions any information that will identify them or their affiliations to reviewers. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revisions, will be by email.
Revisions
Authors submitting revised manuscripts should follow the instructions above to submit through the SAGETRACK system. However, if the first versions were submitted prior to SAGETRACK, the system will not know automatically about the previous version. In such cases, authors should check the 'Has this manuscript been submitted previously?' box and give the previous manuscript number in the space below. (If the previous version was submitted through the SAGETRACK system, following the instructions to submit a revised manuscript will automatically associate your revised version with the original submission) Authors of all revised submissions should when prompted provide information explaining the changes in your manuscript. As this will be provided to reviewers it is important that authors do not identify themselves in these responses.
Peer Review Policy
Journal of Child Health Care operates a strictly blinded peer review process in which the reviewer’s name is withheld from the author and, the author’s name from the reviewer. The reviewer may at their own discretion opt to reveal their name to the author in their review but our standard policy practice is for both identities to remain concealed.
Peer Review Process: Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two referees. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, and an editorial decision is generally reached within (eg) 4-6 weeks of submission
Decisions on manuscripts will be taken as rapidly as possible. Authors should expect to have reviewer’s comments within approximately (eg) 6 weeks. In general, Editors will seek advice from two or more expert reviewers about the scientific content and presentation of submitted articles.
All manuscripts are reviewed initially by the Editors and only those papers that meet the scientific and editorial standards of the journal, and fit within the aims and scope of the journal, will be sent for outside review.
General guidelines
1. Each paper submitted, if considered suitable by the Editor, will be refereed by at least two anonymous referees. The editor may recommend revision and re-submission.
2. Length of papers. Manuscripts should ideally be between 3000 and 3500 words long. Abstracts should be between 100 and 150 words.
3. In order to protect the identity of children, families and staff, authors should use pseudonyms and remove any information leading to identification of any of the individuals described in the study.
4. Quotations. Lengthy quotations (over 40 words) should be displayed and indented in the text.
5. American or UK spellings may be used. Dates should be in the form `9 May 2006'. Delete points from 'USA' and other such abbreviations.
6. Tables. Each table needs a short descriptive title above it. Column headings should clearly define the data presented. If necessary, suitably identified footnotes should be included below. Take care to include all the units of measurement. The table needs to be cited in the text.
7. Figures. Line drawings should be presented as EPS files (all fonts embedded) or TIFF files. Resolution should be 800dpi, and only black-and-white figures are published.
8. References in the text should be presented in the Harvard system, namely the author's name and year of publication in brackets, together with the page numbers. For example `As Booth (1994, pp. 22-23) has observed …', or, in a more general reference: `Booth (1994) appears to be saying...'.
9. Reference list. The references should be listed alphabetically in full at the end of the paper, typed double spaced for ease of editing, in the following style:
Benton DC (1990) Reviewing the literature. In: Cormac DFS (ed.) The Research Process in Nursing. Oxford: Blackwell, 174-194.
Mayall B (1996) Children, Health and Social Order. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Walker S (1999) Child mental health: Promoting prevention. Journal of Child Health Care 3(4): 12-16.
In multi-authored articles, the names of all authors should be given in the reference list. In the text, if there are more than two names, please give the first name and et al..
10. Language and terminology. Jargon or unnecessary technical language should be avoided, as should the use of abbreviations (such as coded names for conditions). Language that might be deemed sexist or racist should be avoided.
11. Abbreviations. As far as possible, please avoid the use of initials, except for terms in common use. Please provide a list, in alphabetical order, of abbreviations used, and spell them out (with the abbreviations in brackets) the first time they are mentioned in the text.
13. The corresponding author will be sent proofs for checking and correction. He or she will be given controlled access to a PDF of their article and a complimentary copy (per author) of the issue after publication.
Books for review should be sent to the attention of Joan Simons, Book Reviews Editor, Thames Valley University, Wellington Street, Slough, SL1 1YG, UK. Email: Joan.Simons@tvu.ac.uk
English Language Editing Services: Please click here for information on professional English language editing services recommended by SAGE.
If you wish your article to be freely available online immediately upon publication (as some funding bodies now require), you can opt for it to be included in SAGE Open subject to payment of a publication fee. Manuscript submission and refereeing procedure is unchanged. On acceptance of your article, you will be asked to let SAGE know directly if you are choosing SAGE Open. For further information, please
visit http://www.uk.sagepub.com/sageopen.sp
