The Welsh Paediatric Journal (WPJ) / Cylchrawn Pediatrig Cymru (CPC) / is the publication of the Welsh Paediatric Society.  The journal is published bi-annually; in the Spring and in the Autumn, and is distributed to members and honorary fellows of the society, postgraduate libraries throughout Wales, Libraries of Departments of Child Health in British Medical Schools, and in the British Library.  It is also available on the WPS website at www.welshpaediatrics.org.uk.

 

The WPJ publishes original articles, clinical and research reviews, short reports, audits, editorials, education and training matters, reports from officers of the society, letters to the editor and proceedings of the bi-annual scientific meetings of the Welsh Paediatric Society.  Topics of interest include all subjects that relate to clinical practice and research and education in paediatrics and child health. Articles are welcome from colleagues working with and for children in all areas of healthcare.  Although the journal’s main mission is to provide a forum for the publication of articles from within Wales, to offer a shop window of all that is good in paediatrics and child health in Wales, we welcome also articles from a widespread authorship outside Wales.  It also provides opportunities for paediatricians in training (and also medical students) to have original work, case reports and audit articles published to help them develop their curriculum vitae.

 

Article types:

• Original articles. The text** should not usually exceed 3000 words, the number of tables, figures or both should normally be no more than 6 and references no more than 30.  An abstract is required: no more than 250 words

 

• Short reports. Text should not exceed 1500 words.  The number of tables or figures should be no more than two and references no more than 10.  Short reports can also include audit and clinical case reports, but be accompanied by completed patient consent form.  An abstract is required: no more than 250 words

 

• Review articles of the clinical and scientific literature. Text should not exceed 3000 words, tables, figures or both no more than 6, and references should not exceed 30

 

• Ongoing research. Reviews of research in progress highlighting important findings.  Text should not exceed 2000 words with no more than 4 tables and 20 references

 

• Letters to the Editor. Letters discussing a recent article in the WPJ are welcome although original articles that do not refer to the WPJ may also be considered. Letters should not usually exceed 300 words and have no more than 5 references

 

**Text. Word count excludes abstracts, figures, tables, references, and appendices

 

 

Papers that have experimental investigations of human or animal subjects must include a statement that approval of an ethical committee has been obtained.

 

• Conflict of Interest - Please provide details of any conflict of interest or insert ‘None’.

 

• Consent - for Case Reports please provide a copy of signed consent.

 

If you do not have a consent form, please use the WPJ consent form.

 

Manuscripts should be word processed to have margins of 1 inch (25mm).  Electronic copies of the manuscript should be uploaded via the WPS website. Authors must use a common software program (Microsoft Office Version 6 or above preferred). See Correspondence at the end of this document for more information.

  

Manuscripts should be accompanied by a covering letter from the chief author who will be responsible for correspondence regarding the manuscript.  The letter should give any additional information that may be helpful to the editor, such as the type of article the manuscript represents.

 

The contents should be arranged as follows:

Title page. A short title of no more than 40 characters or 10 words should be given, and should not include colons.  If relevant it should indicate whether the paper is a randomised control trial, meta-analysis, audit, observational study etc.  It must include the full names, qualifications and affiliations of the authors.  It must include a full word count – excluding title page, abstract, references, figures and tables.

 

Title should be in Arial 12, bold. Authors should be listed by surname and initials:

Surname S¹, Surname DG², Surname M², Surname AG¹, Surname S¹

Affiliation. Superscript should be at start of address:

¹School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, ²University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff

 

Keywords - if desired only; insert no more than three

 

Abstracts should be no more than 250 words.

The following sub-headings should be used for abstracts in original research:

• Objective

• Design

• Setting

• Patients

• Interventions

• Main outcome measures

• Results. Give numerical data rather than vague statements.  Use confidence intervals rather than p values, and give the numerical data on which any p value is based

• Conclusion. Claims should be supported by data in the abstract

 

Article or Report. The following sub-headings should be used in the article or report: 
 • Keywords (if desired, not mandatory) 
 • Introduction
 • Method
 • Results
 • Conclusion
 • Recommendations (for audit) 
 • Discussion

 

• Tables and Figures should be in the same WORD format as your text and included in the document where required.  Tables should be self-explanatory and the data they contain must not be duplicated in the text or figures.  Letters, numbers and symbols should be clear and of sufficient size to retain legibility when reduced.  A brief but concise legend for each is needed.  Do not abbreviate Figure to fig.  Please submit your figures in colour; tables do not reproduce well in monochrome.

 

• Images and illustrations include electronic photographs, charts and diagrams.  These should be (preferably) embedded in the text or if saved in anything other than WORD should be supplied as separate files and mentioned in the text where these would most appropriately appear. NB any colour images will be printed in colour. Titles and detailed explanations should be confined to legends and not included in illustrations. Each figure should be identified clearly. Photographs of persons must be amended to make the subject unidentifiable, or be accompanied by written permission from the subject to use the photograph. All illustrations require legends which must be numbered with Arabic numbers corresponding to the illustrations.

 

• Acknowledgements, collaborators - if desired insert details of acknowledgements or collaborators here.

 

• References must be numbered consecutively in the order they are first mentioned in the text.  References should be in superscript after commas and full stops, but before colons and semi-colons, for example, .³ and not³.  Where more than one reference is cited, separate by a comma – for example, ^1,4,21 and where there are sequential numbers use a hyphen, for example, ^12-16.  References should follow the Vancouver style (ie the style of the British Medical Journal) and should appear in the text, tables and legends as Arabic numerals.  Journal title should be in italics and abbreviated in the style of Medline, but if not listed it should be written out in full.  Check journal abbreviations using PubMed.  All authors and all editors up to six should be listed: if more than six list the first three and “et al”.  There should be a space after punctuation until Year, after which there must be no spaces; volume should be in bold.

 

Eg Hutchings HA, Evans A, Barnes P, et al. Residential Moving and Preventable Hospitalizations. Pediatrics 2016;138(1) doi: 10.1542/peds.2015-2836

 

Responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of references rests entirely with the authors.

 

·         Font – use Arial font, in size 10 for plain text

·         Text – use single spacing, and alignment should be justified

·         Headings – please use bold sentence case in size 12 font for title, and use bold sentence case in size 10 for headings and italics in size 10 for sub-headings

·         Punctuation – no full stops in initials, abbreviations or at end of titles.  Insert 2 spaces after full stops, before the next sentence.  Colons not to be used after headings

·         Capitalisation – use capitals only for names and proper nouns.  Do not capitalise names of studies or conditions.  Use capitals for brand names of drugs where used

·         Numerals – Arabic numerals should be used for numbers above nine, for designators (eg case 5, day 2, etc), and for units of measure.  Numbers should be spelled out if below 10, at the beginning and end of sentences, and for fractions below one

·         Bullet points – do not start with capitals; do not use full stops at the end of each point

·         Latin - use italics for all latin terms eg vs, Steptococcus pneumoniae, et al

·         Gender – avoid “he”; use “they”.  Or use “he or she”

·         Nouns and verbs – the data are; none is…  The team has… etc

·         use English spelling, not American: ie foetus and not fetus

·         minimise your use of abbreviations.  Acronyms should be used sparingly and be fully explained when first used.  Glossary of terms, if used, should be at the end of the text and before the references

·         drugs should be referred to by their non-proprietary name where appropriate 

·         raw numbers should be given alongside percentages, and as supporting data for p values

 

All supplied articles will be sent to reviewers and editors in the format in which you supply them. After review, the Editorial Board reserves the right to make minor amendments to a manuscript.  The usual copyright regulations will apply with regard to publications and materials published in this journal, which can only be reproduced or published elsewhere after consent of the Editor has been obtained.  Likewise material or data published elsewhere will be printed only after consent of publication from the previous publishers or authors has been procured.

     It must be recognised that the opinions expressed in the journal are solely the opinions of the authors and neither the Editor nor the Publisher will be able to accept any liability arising from material published.

 

All manuscript correspondence should be addressed to editor Dr Pramodh Vallabhaneni c/o Heather O'Connell, Welsh Paediatric Journal, Department of Child Health, University Hospital of Wales, CARDIFF CF14 4XW

Email correspondence to [email protected] and [email protected]

Telephone enquiries to 07974 182990

 

Website correspondence to www.welshpaediatrics.org.uk, and follow the directions under ‘Journal’. Please also email [email protected] to inform us when you submit an article or correspondence to the Journal online.